The FrontLook Site Search Engine is great
for small to medium web sites (<1000 pages), but as the number of pages on your web site
grows, the response time of the search will eventually decrease. There are two ways to speed up
the site search engine:
1) Run your web on a faster server or
2)
Organize your search areas to limit pages that
are searched in anyone search area.
The first option is obvious, the rest of
this article will discuss the setup of search areas to reduce search times
and increase the likelihood of a valuable search result.
Its important to make it
easy for your viewer to find things on your web. Brute force searches of
the entire web are rarely effective unless the customer uses a unique
search term. The setup of search areas helps the customer get to the
information they are looking for faster. See our Search Engine
page as an example of how search areas operate.
Edit Search Areas dialog
How Viewers Search your Web
The first step is to decide
how your viewer will likely search your web. You might design your search
areas along product lines (hardware, software, etc.) or areas of your web
site (products, support about us, etc.) or both.
Start with areas of your
web, for example:
Products
Support
Company
Press Room
Then add areas related to your products and
/ or services, for example a fish hobby store might have the following
search areas:
Filtration
Heating
Lighting
Water Quality
Food
Tanks
Decoration
Outdoor
Accessories
Search Everything
Its OK to make a default search area with all the pages of the web in it,
but it may reduce your chances for the user finding what they want and
increase the search time. It maybe more sensible to place product summary pages in
the default search are rather then placing every single page in the web.
Consider naming the Default Area:
-- Choose Search Area --
to prompt the viewer to select a search
area. If the viewer does not select a search area, then the default search
are will be searched.
And That's it.
With a little design, you can optimize your site search times so your users will should be able to find everything
quickly and efficiently.
FYI: last months tip
illustrated how to add a search area menu to the quick search form as
well.
