Search Utilities

Any web site of any real size (greater than, say, fifty pages) needs to have some kind of search facility. A site map is useful, but a search engine helps even more (in fact, having both is ideal). Visitors just love being able to look through your site for a specific topic or keyword.

There are a number of search services available to allow you to perform this function. All of these are remotely hosted, since, in my opinion, this is really something that is best done off-site. Why? The indexes for searches tends to be very large and uses a lot of resources - and most web hosts will not allow that many resources to be used. Also, the management of the databases can get pretty involved - so much so that it's generally best to leave it to someone else.

Here is a selection of web site or web-wide search utilities. These services are wildly different so check them all out carefully before settling on which one you want.

Whatuseek

An excellent service, providing spidering of up to 1,000 pages for free. Not quite as many options as Atomz, but still quick, efficient and very configurable. Highly recommended.

Everyone.Net

A personalized search engine which allows web searches or searches of just your site. Allows you to change the colors and logo on the results page.

Freefind

Very nice search utility. You get to index your site plus a handy set of other features including site maps, content monitoring (similar to Netmind), customization and a what's new report. Excellent service. The free version gives you 25mb of indexing (the size of your pages), and you can pay for more.

SiteMiner

Siteminer gives you the capability to add a search engine to your site specially for your own site. Note: This is not free, but included as it is a useful service.

Additional Information

• Meta-Tags Be sure and set up your meta-tags properly if you want to be found by some search engines.