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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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Although the remote search service is taking care of the server-side
of things, you still have to keep track of the status, even if it's just
to make sure it's still running, although these services have been fairly
reliable so far. You should also perform test searches, some that you
do every time, others that check new information on your site. And, as
you change the layout and design of your site, make sure that the search
form and results page reflect these changes.
Updating the Index
To keep your search index synchronized with the content on your site,
you'll need to set up some kind of update schedule. If your site changes
rarely, you can just go to the administration page and the service to
re-index the site. However, if your site changes more often, you will
want to set up a scheduled update.
Watching the Searches
Analyzing your search log or report can teach you what your visitors
are looking for -- it's like having a free, automated market research
survey. For example, if you have a movie site and everyone starts searching
for the Blair Witch Project, you know it's hot! With this knowledge,
you can adjust the content of your site to your visitor's interests,
and make sure you have good information so they don't go somewhere else.
The richer the reports and more complete the search logs, the more you
can learn from your search engine.
Maintenance Features
| name |
updating |
reports |
notes |
| Atomz |
on demand, once a week, scheduled in 4
hour slots (knows about time zones). |
count of searches, search words, search
phrase, avg. results, |
reports are emailed |
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FreeFind
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free version: choice of monthly,
every two weeks, day of the week, every day; can set the time (knows
about time zones); will not re-index inactive sites |
searches per day, keywords
and number of searches over time, recent query phrases |
reports are emailed |
| Google |
no obvious |
none |
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| IndexMySite |
on demand, weekly or monthly |
search totals, listing of words and number
of searches, both successful and unsuccessful |
word only, no phrases |
| siteLevel |
once per week, by day and time (lets you
set timezone) |
choices of time period (today, last week,
date to date, etc.) and types: query terms, no results, form counters,
browser platforms. |
top 20 phrases sorted by number of searches |
| MiniSearch |
on demand |
histogram of number of searches, long list
of search words with number of times searched |
words only, no phrases |
| MondoSearch |
schedule with service, up to every day |
search phrases, languages, number of visits,
most frequent users, etc. |
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| PicoSearch |
Free version not automatic, on demand only;
paid version has scheduled updates. |
top 20 terms, number of searches, |
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| NetCreations
PinPoint |
not automatic, must manually trigger |
how many searches were done per day |
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| SiteMiner |
on demand, "as often as you like" |
50 most recent searches, (no way to tell
if they were successful) |
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| Webinator |
automatic, every two weeks, and on demand |
no |
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