Many people spend considerable time designing their Web site but all too often, style takes precedence over usability.  Most of the people visiting your site are there for a specific reason, and they may not feel like looking through the entire site for what they want.  By using the Site Search Engine feature in our software, you can provide your customers with a quick and easy way to navigate your site and find the information they want.  The Site Search Engine works just like the search engines on Google or Excite: the user enters a few key words or descriptors, and the search engine will produce links to each occurrence of the word or phrase.

From the Site Tools menu on your site, select “Search Engine Admin”, and choose the URL you would like to submit.  The first—and most important—step is to assign a weight to the different sections of your Web site.  The weighting will allow the search engine you create to identify the most relevant elements of the page and rank the results accordingly.  When you are assigning a weight, please remember: the lower the number, the higher the relevance.  Listing an element as “1” tells the search engine to look at that portion first and identifies it as the most important area or section.  Once you have finished, click on the “Submit” button, and your site will be indexed for the search engine.

Before customers can use this tool, you will need to add a “Search Form” to a page in your Web site.  In the Site Modifier, choose the page you want the search field added to, and click on the “Add Element” button at the bottom of the page.  Select the “Form” element type, and in the drop-down menu that asks what type of form you want to create, select the “Search Form” option.  After naming the search form and positioning it on the page, your site will be set up with its own built-in search engine.

Before creating a search engine within your site, be sure to fix any broken links or images on the site with the Link Analysis Tool; otherwise, your site will not be indexed properly.  Also, it is important to note that this tool only works on sites that have been activated.  If you have any additional questions or if you need help setting up the search engine, please contact Customer Care.