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Intro
Checking Links
Test Index
Test Search
Search Forms
Result Pages
Search Result Items
Maintenance & Logs
Choose the Service For You
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Many of the search services require minimal commitment on your part.
All you have to do is go to the service Web site, register with a user
ID or email address and password, then give them the home page URL.
The search service will send their indexing spider to follow links on
your site very quickly, so try to do this during a quiet time.
Once you have signed up, you'll see all the setup and configuration
options in the browser interface. Some are more elaborate than others:
Atomz has a bunch of tabs and subpanes within the tabs, FreeFind has
a nice Wizard interface. Webinator has a fairly elaborate mail-back
access control: you must have an email address on the server to index
that server.
If your server is slow, you are charged by the byte, or you have long
files, choose a service that will do low-stress updating, and only get
the contents of pages if they have changed (for more information, see
"About Search Indexing Robots".)
If you have access to your web site log or monitor window, you can
watch the spider as it follows links throughout your site. Otherwise,
or for additional, choose a service that provides reports on the indexing
process.
Indexing Features
| name |
multiple start pages & sites |
low-stress updating |
index info |
number of pages |
notes |
| Atomz |
yes |
yes |
stored report |
500 free, more paid |
Index log shows every URL, includes error codes. |
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FreeFind
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yes |
no control, fairly slow
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no |
about 3,000 free, various in paid versions |
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| Google |
yes, multiple sites |
no control, fairly slow |
no |
unlimited |
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| siteLevel |
yes |
no |
no |
1,000 free |
Can include/exclude meta tags, headings, alt, link
anchor text, <CODE> and comments. |
| IndexMySite |
yes |
no |
yes, called sitemap |
1,000 pages for free, more paid |
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| MiniSearch |
no |
no |
yes |
unknown |
Excellent indexing report shows pages indexed,
those missed and error codes. |
| MondoSearch |
yes |
no |
live display only, minimal report |
10,000+ (paid) |
Lets you control speed of indexing |
| PicoSearch |
3 for free accounts, more for paid |
yes |
live display or email & stored report |
1,500 free, more paid |
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| NetCreations PinPoint |
yes |
no |
email log |
5,000 free, more paid |
the log can be pretty long, but good detail |
| SiteMiner |
no |
no |
email notice |
10,000+ |
just tells you it's complete |
| Webinator |
no |
no |
email report |
5,000 |
also available as local server search engines which
will index thousands to millions of pages |
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