Mac SEO Blog

EverWeb version 3.5 adds site wide search as its major new feature using the all new Search Field widget. This widget can be used to display your search results in a dropdown list or popup window. There is also a third option which links to the Search Results widget where you can choose to display search results on a dedicated page in either a scrollable or static results set. 

How Search Works in EverWeb

EverWeb automatically use certain fields in your project file as well as the text content of its pages as the basis for site wide search. EverWeb takes care of everything so you don’t need to do any work to set up search.  

However, if you want to, you can refine and customize your site’s Search Criteria when setting up your website search in order to refine search criteria and also to help boost SEO. It can also be useful to do a little work on your Search Criteria as there may be, for example, pages in your site that you do not want to include in your search results. For example you probably would not want to include placeholder directory pages that are blank but are used as dropdown menu headings in the Navigation Menu widget in your search results.

SEO and Search Criteria

Customizing your Search Criteria can be of benefit to your SEO, especially if you use your SEO Keywords or phrases. If you have followed the SEO for EverWeb Video Course, you will probably have already added keywords or phrases to your pages’ text and also to certain fields in EverWeb’s Inspector window to help boost your SEO. You should also find some useful SEO tips in the rest of this blog to help further boost the SEO potential of your website. Check out our SEO for EverWeb Video Course for more information.

What is Automatically Included in EverWeb’s Search Criteria?

EverWeb’s Search feature automatically uses the following search criteria:

• Full Text Search: The text content of your pages is included when performing a search. When including text in your pages, the words that you want people to search upon should be included in your page. 
  
  The text that you enter in to fields such as captions, or in the Styled Text Editor when using Widgets, is also used in Search.
  
  Remember that where possible, and appropriate, include your SEO Keywords or terms in your text. If possible position these keywords or terms in the first (or second) paragraph of your page’s text. You may even find that your search words and SEO keywords are often the same. Also remember, though, not to sacrifice the readability of your text just for the prospect of better SEO. This is counterproductive as your website’s visitors are less likely to return to your website if the text is not well written.
  
• Filename: In addition to the text content of your pages, EverWeb uses the Filename field in the Web Page List in site searches. Therefore, if you can, give your page’s filename a good descriptive name if at all possible. The additional benefit here is that a good Filename can also help your SEO!
  
• Web Page Title: Search takes in to account the Web Page Title field of your page in Search. You should aim to have a good descriptive title and include SEO keywords if it is appropriate to do so. As always please do not sacrifice your Web Page Title just for the sake of SEO.
  
  The Web Page Title is also important to include as it is used as the Page Title in the search results list. If you leave this field blank, the page title will be listed as ‘No title’ which is not helpful to anyone who is searching your site.
  
• Web Page Description: The Web Page Description field is found in the Search Engine Optimization section of the Page Settings tab if you are using EverWeb 3.5.
  
  Add the words, or phrases, that you want to be searched upon as part of your page description. Make sure that this field describes the page, and is not just a list of SEO or search related words. This field is important as it is used for both your website search results set within your website itself and for Internet searches where it is used to describe your page to the outside world.
  
  Again, it is better to have a good page description, even if it means having to exclude SEO Keywords or search words.

Excluding Pages from Search

EverWeb allows you to easily exclude any page that you do not want to be searched upon from the site search. Simply uncheck the ‘Include in Site Search’ box in the Site Search Section of the Page Settings tab of the Inspector Window to remove the page from the website search.

Excluding pages is appropriate if, for example, you have directory pages that redirect to child pages. If such a page is found in a search result, it will be empty as it is a blank page, so you should exclude pages such as these from your search criteria.Typically you use these directory pages as the main heading of dropdown menu lists in the Navigation Menu widget.

You will probably also want to exclude pages such as your ‘404 Page not found’ page from any search and if you have a dedicated Results Page that uses the Search Results widget, you may also want to exclude this too. Other examples include ‘Thank You’ and ‘Cancelled Order’ type pages that you might set up for use with PayPal widget.

SEO Power Up Addon and Search

If you have EverWeb’s SEO Power Up Addon, you can also explicitly add words that you want to be available for search, by entering them in to the ‘Keywords’ section of the Search Engine Optimization section of the Page Settings tab. This will also, of course, be advantageous for your SEO as well. To activate this field, check the box ‘Include page in search engines’. 

EverWeb SEO Power Up Addon users can also add keywords in to blog posts as described in the next section.

Search Criteria and Blogging

If you have your own blog for your website, Search also includes your blog posts in search results. Use the same methods as described above to add search terms to your blog main and archive pages.

When creating your blog posts, EverWeb will the blog post’s text and post title as search criteria, so again apply the same tips as described above for adding keywords and phrases in to your blog post.

EverWeb 3.5 has also added a couple of new features to blogging which will help you with search and SEO. You can now add specific search criteria to your blog posts. First select the blog post you want, then click on the settings cog on the left hand side underneath the list of blog posts. A dialog box will appear. Use the ‘Short Summary’ field to enter in a description of the blog post in the same way in which you would for a regular page using the Web Page Description field.

If you have purchased EverWeb’s SEO Power Up addon you can also add keywords to any post you want, which will then be used in Search and will also benefit your SEO.

Add the Keywords or phrases that you want to be available for search and SEO in the Keywords section of the dialog box. When adding keywords or phrases use the same methods as you would if you were adding Keywords or phrases to a regular page.

Setting up Search Criteria in EverWeb is super customizable so that you can define and refine your search criteria, and boost your SEO, simply and quickly.