Allowing visitors to search your site is very important. We are so used to being able to search for what we need that when we come across a website with no search function – particularly a large site – we are likely to find it extremely frustrating. A good search function can be used by your visitors as another method of navigation on your site. Adding search functionality should therefore be a priority.

The easiest solution is a remotely hosted search function. You sign up with a search provider's service, and they index your pages; you can then place a search box on your website by adding some html, and your visitors can use it to find what they're looking for. There are several free and pro services of this kind: FreeFind, siteLevel, Master.com, FusionBot and the Google Custom Search Engine are just a few examples.

The disadvantage of services like these is that they can only index pages that are live on the internet (as opposed to intranet or extranet pages). Also, you are limited to the features provided by the search company, and you may find that the free services are extremely limited, and add advertisements to your results page.

An alternative, rather more complex option is to host the search engine script on your own server. You will need access to CGI or some other programming language on your site. Fluid Dynamics Search Engine is an example of such a product. There is a free version and a paid version.

Finally, you could consider a JavaScript search option. Be aware that not all browsers support JavaScript, although most do nowadays, so this shouldn't cause a problem. All-in-One Site Search uses the three search giants, Google, Yahoo! and MSN, to search the contents of your site.

By Iain Ford

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