« No results » is useful information when it explains what was searched and offers a route back. A blank page or unrelated matches can make someone leave without knowing whether the content is absent or a filter is too strict.
Repeat the search context
Show the query and active filters. Make clear whether there are no matches across the whole site or only inside the selected category. Use a different message for a technical outage: saying « no results » when no search was performed would mislead people.
Suggest actions that can work
Offer simple choices: clear a filter, try a broader term, check spelling or explore a relevant category. Test suggested synonyms against real data. Do not show an unrelated product or article as if it answered the query.
Keep another route through the site
Category browsing, links to relevant popular content or a contact option may help depending on the site. In a shop, distinguish no matching products from matching products that are unavailable. In an editorial library, an absent question may lead to a planning guide rather than an immediate sales pitch.
Learn from editorial gaps
Review recurring no-result queries together. They may reveal missing content, a poorly worded title, an absent synonym or a broken filter. Do not automatically create a page for every query: confirm there is a distinct subject with enough value to cover.
Test edge cases
Try a common typo, ambiguous word, a word from each published language, an empty query and several combined filters. Check browser Back on a phone. The on-site search guide explains the data and journey to prepare.