Site Search Facilities
Setting up a site search seems like a simple procedure, but in fact
there are several stages involved. Thankfully,
the majority of these steps (usually all!)
are carried
out
automatically
if you decide to use a third party service such as the ones listed below.
For a site search to be effective either you or the third party service
will need to:
- Create a site index -
a list of all the pages on your site, plus a list of any keywords.
- Configure the index - to ignore certain areas of your site.
- Customise the search pages - so that they look like they belong
on your site!
- Set up a search form - the HTML form which visitors can use
to search the site index.
- Re-create the site index on a regular basis - so that searches
made on your site always contain up-to-date information.
No in-depth technical
knowledge is needed to use the services listed below,
just basic HTML skills.
- Atomz
A free service which can index PDF files as well
as HTML pages. No advertising banners on search pages. Is customisable
- certain areas of the site can be excluded and an advanced search
option is available. Search terms used by visitors are recorded and
ranked.
You can specify how often you want the re-indexing procedure to take
place. Index is limited to 500 pages.
- FusionBot
This company's free package will index up to 250 pages with a number
of sophisticated options.
- FreeFind
Offers an advanced search, plus automatically
created Site Map and What's New pages. No fixed page limit, search
results
pages contain adverts. Certain areas of the site can be excluded from
being indexed.
- WhatUSeek
Offers customisable searches, re-indexing up
to once a day, a simple sign up process and synonym support. Search
results
pages are advertising supported.
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