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But why did FreeFind stand out among
others, and why was it so important to me to wait until they could index password- protected areas? FreeFind offers some features that I couldn't find on other onsite search engines, features that would help me tremendously with my work.
For example:
* FreeFind will automatically create a What's New page, after you've any changes to site. Just think of how much help that will be for me with my training material? Between my two programs (beginning and advanced), I have over 1000 resource pages to update every single month, and I've been creating "What's New" page by hand. Now, it's automatically created for me.
* FreeFind is only onsite search engine that enables your visitors to find page they're looking for, then keeps an eye on it for any changes. Their ChangeDetection (tm) monitoring system lets your users monitor a page for content changes, then notifies them when page is changed. If you set up this engine on your own site, it will build traffic by turning casual, one- time visitors into repeat and loyal visitors who return again and again to look at changes made to page that are of particular interest to them.
* FreeFind will automatically create a Site Map of your site. This Site Map is an alphabetical listing of pages on your site. The Site Map will be even more valuable to you if you have a regular, non-password protected site, because it will give Web search engines a page of links to spider.
* FreeFind will search across several domains. So, if your company has numerous domains, your onsite search engine will cover each of those domains, without having to set up separate engines.
In Conclusion
Look closely at your site. Is it time to add an onsite search engine? Is it time to make sure visitors can find exactly what they're looking for when they land on your site? Are you losing customers who get lost and can't find what they want?
FreeFind (http://www.freefind.com) is an excellent onsite search engine that met my exact needs. However, to be fair, and because this article isn't meant to be an advertisement for FreeFind, here are some other onsite engines that you may want to consider. Look closely at their features, and find one that works best for you.
Other Onsite Search Engines
Atomz: http://www.atomz.com
PicoSearch: http://www.picosearch.com
SiteLevel.com: http://www.sitelevel.com/
FusionBot.com: http://www.fusionbot.com
A listing of numerous onsite search tools: http://www.searchtools.com ools ools.html
Robin Nobles, Director of Training, Academy of Web Specialists, has trained several thousand people in her online search engine marketing (http://www.academywebspecialists.com) training programs. Visit the Academy's training site to learn more (http://www.onlinewebtraining.com). She also teaches 3-day hands-on search engine marketing workshops in locations across the globe with Search Engine Workshops (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com).
