Continued from page 1
- Put
box on every single page.
- Always try out product with free version.
- Once you've settled on search function you like, get paid version if you can afford it. The paid version looks more professional because it has no advertisements.
- Use advanced template function to make your results pages look identical to your site.
- If search function has synonyms (FreeFind does not appear to have this feature), then take advantage to guide your visitors.
- Read reports each search function produces to find out what people are searching for. Tune your site as appropriate. For example, if you have a site about "asthma" and people are searching for "breathing machines", then be sure and include a page on breathing machines, with appropriate metatags. This is an excellent way to improve your site.
- Each of these search functions has ways to tune results. Over time, as you examine reports, use them to make your visitors searches more accurate.
- While you are tuning for your on-site search, don't forget other search engines. For example, while you are fixing up a page for your own search engine, add appropriate metatags, titles, descriptions and such. After a while, you may find yourself thinking more and more like a search engine, which means you may get a side benefit of making your site more search engine friendly overall.
- Be careful when asking these functions to spider your site, especially if you have a large site. You can use up a lot of your host's resources to no good benefit unless you are careful. It's always wise to spend few seconds to think about what you are doing from your hosts point of view - it can save hassles later on.
- I like to schedule my spidering for once a week. It's often enough to catch changes quickly, but not so often to put a huge burden on my host.
I would also like to point out that you have a lot of control over these search functions. Tuning your site to use one of them well has some major side benefits:
- They all use "description" metatag, so improving your descriptions helps your personal search. It also helps your site get better listings in some major search engines.
- These functions also use "keyword" metatags, which also helps you with some of major search engines.
- Since you can make changes to your site, spider, then test to see result, you get a better idea of how search results look to people. You will almost certainly find (as I did) that search engine does not display what I thought it was displaying for descriptions of pages. Some quick tuning, and my visitors got not only better search results, but better descriptions of pages that were found.
- As you look at reports, you will find people are looking for synonyms a lot, and thus not finding pages that they should. As you improve your keyword metatags to help them out, you will also help out your sites performance in other search engines.
Another good idea as you become more savvy is to put some of search terms from your reports into major search engines to see what comes up. If your site shows up, look at how it is described. Then tune your site accordingly.
So as you can see, adding a search box is easy, inexpensive (or even free), and has many benefits to both you and your visitors. Perhaps you should check it out.
Additional Information
Free stuff Headquarters http://www.internet-tips.net/Freestuff/Freesearch.htm Search Utilities These services allow you to add a search box to your site.
HTML tag reference guide - http://www.internet-tips.net/HTML/META.htm
HTML tag reference guide - http://www.internet-tips.net/HTML/META_name_description.htm
HTML tag reference guide - http://www.internet-tips.net/HTML/META_name_keywords.htm
HTML tag reference guide - http://www.internet-tips.net/HTML/META_name_robots.htm
HTML tag reference guide -
http://www.internet-tips.net/HTML/TITLE.htm<p>Meta-Tags http://www.internet-tips.net/Webmaster/metatags.htm Be sure and set up your meta-tags properly if you want to be found by some search engines.<p>Use ROBOTS.TXT to control search engine indexing http://www.internet-tips.net/Advertising/robots.htm You can use ROBOTS.TXT to keep search engines from indexing parts of your site<p> <br><img src="images/ata.gif"><br>
<p>Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.<br><br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --><!-- google_ad_section_start(weight=ignore) --><td align="top" width="10%"></td><td align="top" width="45%"><h2>Brief web Design Tips</h2><font size="2">Written by Richard Lowe</font><br><br><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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<font size="2"><br>Continued from page 1<br><p>Remember not everyone is from your country - This is called<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar "> world side web, and you must remember that your document will be read by people all over<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134643"> planet (and maybe even from outer space!)<p>- Be sure your dates make sense. For example, 01/02/01 means January 2, 2001 in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134644"> United States but February 1, 2001 in many European countries. I prefer dates in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134645"> format 1 January 2001, although you may also write 2001-01-02 (year, month and day).<p>- If you write a time, be sure and indicate<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134646"> time zone.<p>- Be sure and include your area code on<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134647"> phone number, and specify which country if appropriate.<p>Include height and width on images - This allows<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134648"> browser to "pre-allocate"<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134649"> space for<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134650"> graphic on<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134651"> display, which makes it all look better. In addition, if ALT tags are included with<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134652"> images, then something will display even if<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134653"> image is not.<p>Include ALT tags on all graphics - By including an ALT tag on graphics, you ensure that your page will look good even if your visitors surf with images disabled.<p>Include a contact method - Web sites are created by human beings, and web surfers appreciate knowing they can communicate with someone. Some webmasters like to include a "mailto" link on every page. I prefer using a link to an email form so my email address is not harvested by spam robots. Whatever method you use is fine, as long as visitors have a way of reaching you.<p>Check your pages - Once you've finished a page, be sure and test it. Check each link to be sure it actually goes somewhere. It is also a good idea to check each page in<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134654"> major browsers - Netscape, Internet Explorer and Opera. The pages will not always look<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134655"> same, but you should at least make sure they look decent.<p>Make your pages consistent - Your navigation and layouts should be consistent from page to page. Your visitors will then know what to expect as they surf through your site.<p>Keep your colors sane - A pink background with bright florescent green letters is probably not<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134656"> best way to win friends. Use all of<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134657"> colors you want, but it's best not to make your pages resemble an LSD nightmare.<p>Keep down<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134658"> page size - Remember most surfers are still using dialup connections. Thus, you need to keep your pages small (including graphics). Thirty to fifty kbytes per page is about<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134659"> right size.<p>Don't use ActiveX controls - Personally, I will immediately leave a site which asks me to download an ActiveX control. Why? Because ActiveX depends upon<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134660"> surfer trusting<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134661"> person who created<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134662"> control. How would I know if this thing is safe? I prefer<IMG height=12 src="/the2.jpg" alt="repparttar 134663"> Java security scheme, which is much better defined and safer (in my humble opinion).<p>Don't use popup advertisements - You really want to annoy your visitors? Popup advertisements are a good way to get people really unhappy. It's a good idea to never throw an ad up in front of your visitors - that is, if you want them to come back.<p> <br><img src="images/ata.gif"><br>
<p>Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000 free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge. Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net Weekly newsletter: http://www.internet-tips.net/joinlist.htm Daily Tips: mailto:internet-tips@GetResponse.com <br><br><br></font></td><!-- google_ad_section_end --></tr><tr><td> <a class="mlink" href="Search_Boxes-34644.htm"><</a>Back to Page 1</td></tr></table><script type="text/javascript"><!--
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