Adding Site Search Function

Any suggestions--or caveats--about adding a site search tool.

[nixon60]

My site that's making me my biggest amount of money is getting really large right now. A site map is a monstrous task that I don't want to tackle at this time, but I am thinking about adding a site search tool--specifically HT Dig. Does anyone have any better suggestions, or--and this is probably a dumb and paranoid question which I'm not above asking--is there anything that the big SE spiders and bots don't like about local site search tools that might cause me problems rankwise? I'd appreciate anyone's feedback.

[jimbeetle]

Hey nixon60,

First, that monstrous task is one you should get to right away, especially for a site that's "getting really large right now."

If you're finding it unwieldy just put yourself in the shoes of a lost visitor or a spider trying to index all the pages. Make it easy for everybody, get a site map in there pronto!

I've used XAV as a site search took for quite awhile now and haven't had any problems with the SEs. Depending on exaclty how your site is set up, dynamic urls, etc., there might be a couple of tweaks you have to make but with a product like HT Dig you shouldn't have any problems.

And of course there are great benefits to having a site search besides your visitors finding information. I don't remember what HT Dig offers in the way of reports, but even basic ones can be eye opening as to what people are trying to find on your site - great for building new content. And, after the index is built, you'll know at a glance if it was able to spider all of your pages and just how important that site map can be.

[nixon60]

jimbeetle,
Yeah, you're probably right. I should knock the site map up to the top of my to-do list. As I'm loathe to commit the next five days to building a map, I'm likely missing out on some good leads in the meantime. Thanks for the feedback on HT-Dig, too.

[jimbeetle]

commit the next five days to building a map

That's the easy part. If your site is as large as you impy wait 'til you try keeping up to date. Here's a short list of the "reasons" I have for my site maps to often be a bit behind:

"I'll do that after I finish updating the enitre section."

"I'll do it all at the end of the day."

"At the end of the week I'll make a sweep through the entire site."

But it is worth it. And the sweep through the entire site forces you to take a close look at it in its entirity, just in case you sometimes get blinders on as I occassionally do.