About a hundred years ago Teddy Roosevelt said, "If you build it, they will come." You spend a lot of time and money with hosting, entering data into your store, and improving the look and feel of your pages. But if you don't take an active role in directing traffic to your site and keeping them there once they arrive, your efforts will go unrewarded. To further that goal, we have included our two popular search related modules in the Search Tools Bundle, priced lower than if bought separately. Click the two module links below to read the full details about each module and view several screen shots.
You have to establish incoming links to your site. You could submit your home page to the search engines and hope
all the pages get included in the search index. For better results, you need to submit datafeeds or hire someone
else to submit them for you. Take a look at the comparison chart below between the built in features
and the alternatives. The solution is obvious, you need to improve your external search index interface. Most of the
time you will find the Template Data Feed (TDF) module does everything you need to increase traffic through well placed,
search index insertions. For the cost of dinner for two, you can make a significant improvement in your store's
incoming traffic. If you have a few minutes a month to run the feeds and upload them, I doubt you'll need an expensive
submission service. You can start out with the free indexes, like Google Base. But watch out, if your content is
not rich with keywords related to your products, you'll end up getting traffic that just eats up bandwidth, but
does not bring in the buyers. You want quality traffic, not quantity. More on that below.
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Built In
Template Data Feed
Submission Service
Price
free
$40
$50-$75 per month
Sitemap HTML
yes
yes
no
Datafeed From Your Admin
no
yes
requires export module
Limit Export By Code, Price, Weight
no
yes
depends on export module
Control Over Category Insertion
no
yes
depends on export module
Custom Field Data Included
no
yes
depends on export module
Convert Currency To Datafeed Spec
no
yes
depends on export module
Remove HTML From Description
no
yes
depends on export module
Feed Timeout Avoidance
no
yes
depends on export module
Automatic Exports
no
yes *
depends on export module
Export To Documents Directory
yes
yes
depends on export module
Send Export As Email Attachment
n/a
yes
depends on export module
Create Short Links
yes
yes
depends on export module
XML and RSS Feeds
no
yes
depends on export module
Multiple Pre-defined Feed Formats
n/a
yes
yes
Licensed By
store
domain
store
* requires cron and a long server timeout setting in large stores
Why would you leave your internal site navigation to chance? Granted, you could use the built in search system
and customers might find the products they are looking for. But take a look at the comparison between the built in
system and the alternatives. The answer is obvious, you need to upgrade your internal search capability. 99% of the
time you will find the Power Search module does everything you need to increase sales through better site navigation.
The refine your search feature lets your customer drill down to the specific product they are looking for.
Having an easy to navigate site also increases your chance that the customer will be a repeat customer. The recent
search history feature makes it easy for the customer to go back and look at products they saw but did not immediately
put in their basket. Again, for
the cost of dinner for two, you can make a significant improvement in your store's bottom line by keeping
them on the site and guiding them to the products they want to buy. Considering the law of diminishing returns, I
doubt you'll need an expensive hosted solution.
One of the benefits of Power Search is it logs the searched words so you can analyze the words that real customers are
using to look for your products. When words are used that yield zero results, you can include those words in the
products' descriptions if you have products related to those words. You can also correlate the search words with
actual sales in real time as orders come in by including the search words the customer used while on your site in the
email that you get. By tracking the relevant search words that yield sales and improving your content, you can also
improve your incoming links campaign by submissions to pay per click sites using the Template Data Feed.
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Built In
Power Search
Hosted Search
Price
free
$45
$50-$250 per month
Boolean AND
yes
yes
yes
Boolean OR
no
yes
yes
Exact Phrase
no
yes
yes
Begins With (selected field)
no
yes
no
Customer Selectable Field Search
no
yes
no
Miva Custom Fields Searchable
no
yes
yes
Store Morph Template Control
yes
yes
yes
Customer Controlled Sort Order
no
yes
yes
Field Boosting
no
yes *
yes
Keyword Density Scoring
no
yes *
yes
Category Specific Search
no
yes
yes
Price Range Filtering
no
yes
yes
Numbered Pagination and Count
no
yes
yes
Did you mean (suggested words)
no
yes *
yes
Fuzzy Search
no
no
yes
Highlight Search Words In Name and Brief Description
no
yes
yes
Hide Specific Products From Search
no
yes
maybe
Search Category Fields
no
yes
yes
Search Cloud
no
yes
yes
Admin Log For Keyword Identification
no
yes
yes
Search History Display (all customers)
no
yes
no
Search History Display (current customer)
no
yes
no
Correlate Search Queries With Sales In Each Order
no
yes
no
Product Comparison Grid
no
yes
yes
Autocomplete Capable
no
yes
yes
Licensed By
store
domain
store
Search System Logo On YOUR Search Page
no
no
probably
* MySQL stores only
Compatibility. We are occasionally asked about compatibility issues. If your host is web.com, you may not be able to
use the TDF module due to the way they configure their servers, i.e. not allowing exports. There are no known issues
with other hosts. If you are using Viking Coders inventory module, the product quantity token in the TDF will not
be accurate, however that token is not used for most exports. If you are using the emediasales price group module, the
discounted prices will not show in Power Search. You can use our Price Group Manager which will show the discounted
prices for logged in customers. The TDF can export SEO urls compatible with the Sebenza, Emporium Plus Tool Kit, and
Miva built-in short links.
The bottom line is for less than $80 you can markedly increase relevant traffic to your site and intelligently guide customers to the products they want to buy.
