Findability Starts Inside Your Site Making your content findable inside your site

Adding Search To Your Site 2

Integrating Search Findability is more than getting people to your site. It also encompasses how people find content once they have arrived.

Three Options for Adding Search 1.Use one of many free search systems that offer advanced feature sets, but display ads in search returns. 2.Purchase a search system that doesn’t display advertising. 3.Build your own simple search to locate content within a database.

Tracking Searched Terms Most of these search systems you can track the terms (words, phrases) your users are searching. So what? – Provides a glimpse of user behavior – Provides feedback on the site’s shortcomings for example…

1.If users constantly search for something you thought was obvious then perhaps the design is not communicating as well as you intended. – You need to make adjustments to the design and continue to observe the search patterns to see if it has been improved.

Tracking Searched Terms 2.By observing search stats you can identify patterns in the terms your audience is searching for. – This data could help you ID what content you could add to your site to best serve your audience’s interests, and – Perhaps build more traffic from the major search engines as well.

Search Tools Building your own search feature from scratch can be challenging as the algorithm to determine relevance and return ranking is complex. There are many search tools you can use on your site for free, or for little cost. BUT, there are some draw backs…

FREE Systems Aren’t Always Free These systems are free because they generate money for the companies that create them by displaying ads on the search results page. The ads aren’t too overpowering or distracting from the site’s design. You might even be able to get some of the revenue generated by the ads.

Google’s Custom Search Engine (CSE) Of course Google offers a brilliant search tool that’s easy to integrate into your site. It harnesses the power of its search algorithm and content index, but can limit search results to just your site, or a series of sites that you define.

Google’s (CSE) It allows you to customize the search results to match your site’s design… – captures some basic data about searches performed on your site, – indexes content within various file types, and – offers money-making opportunities through the display of AdWords test ads. – Lydna.com = see “adding a Google Search Field”

What’s The Catch? You are required by the terms of service to display AdWords ads on the search results page and you must display Google branding in one of the pre-defined styles. This requirement is found with other free search providers also. Let’s look at a one install video to see how easy it is to incorporate into your site.

Demonstration Zoom - FREE /PAID see Search-Engine/ Search-Engine/

Activity: Research Search Tools on the Market Evaluate one of the following search utilities and share your findings with the class. WebSideStory Search (formerly Atomz): Swish-e LiveSearch Google Co-op Google Ajax Search API Zoom Rollyo Open Search browser.htmlhttp:// browser.html

DIY Search Systems Building your own search feature from scratch can be challenging as the algorithm to determine relevance and return ranking is complex. If your site’s content is stored in a database, you can build your own search system using PHP and a MySQL database. To start your CUSTOM search tool add a search box to your site’s page template or pages where your users will need to perform queries. See page 173 of the book to walk you through it step by step.