When empty search results are the real bounce

Property teams often obsess over image weight and listing card design. Those matter, but in several Malaysian search apps we review, the sharper drop sits one step earlier: a filter combination that returns zero homes.

What to count

Track an event when a search yields no cards, not only when a user closes the app. Pair it with the filter payload — district, price band, tenure, furnishing — so you can see whether “Tanjung Tokong + bumi + under RM 600k” is a realistic ask against your inventory.

What not to assume

An empty board is not always a data bug. Sometimes inventory truly cannot meet the filter. The analytics question is whether seekers understand that, or whether a synonym mismatch (old township names, alternate spellings) hides homes that should have appeared.

Practical check

Once a month, list the ten empty-result payloads with the highest session counts. Hand that list to content and product together. If half of them are naming issues, fix synonyms before commissioning new photography.