Site search software is a tool embedded directly into websites or applications to facilitate the retrieval of stored data. Site search solutions allow businesses to securely expose select data and information sources, including product catalogs, videos, and marketing content, to external sources, such as mobile applications and websites. Its purpose is to enable external users to efficiently search for specific information, content, or products on that particular site. These solutions provide indexing and power search features for public-facing websites, e-commerce storefronts, support portals, etc.
Site search software differs from enterprise search software as the latter focuses on connecting structured and unstructured internal data repositories like knowledge bases. However, site search software crawls and indexes public website content to aid conversion and customer experience. Site search software also differs from browsers, as external site search indexes and retrieves information from within a single website’s defined dataset, rather than the World Wide Web. Lastly, site search software differs from e-commerce search software, as e-commerce search solutions are exclusively focused on e-commerce, whereas site search can be applied for multiple use cases.
To qualify for inclusion in the Site Search category, a product must:
- Index and retrieve site-specific content for a website or application
- Be designed for external users and focused on interacting with public-facing assets like websites or customer portals
- Provide search experience management capabilities such as auto-suggestions, synonym recognition, typo-tolerance, or semantic search
- Offer analytics to provide insights into user search behavior to optimize search experience
- Support various methods for indexing website content
