Long-winded site search SEO question

I have a boat building forum that goes back to 2001
(1999 actually, but the earlier stuff got lost somehow).

My readers want to have a search mechanism....there
are far too many posts to search manually.

1)
I could make a simple mysql isam table and put the
text for each post into a text blob row. Then I could
use fulltext search........and I could add all kinds of
sexy, hotrod features, like search subject, search
body, search everything, search by poster,
and lots of other boat-building specific stuff
too complex to talk about here.

2)
Or I could make use of Google's site search mechanism.
That mechanism indexes pages outside the forum, which
I don't necessarily want, but I can hack the system to get
what I want........
....I can pre-load the Google site search with the "forum"
keyword, so only forum posts come back at the top
of the result pages (I tested it, it works).


So, if I use Google I have to give up on the sexy hotrod
search enhancements I could make with my own
php/mysql code. But routing all those search keywords
directly through Google might boost Google's awareness
of my forum.

Would it? That's my long winded question.
Would using Google site search do more for (forum) page rank
than a more powerful home-rolled mysql search mechanism?

"darnel" wrote ...

Would using Google site search do more for (forum) page rank
than a more powerful home-rolled mysql search mechanism?

I don't see how either method would affect your rank or ranking in any way
at all. One potential problem of a home-grown search is that you'll need to
be sure it doesn't throw up millions of unnneeded URLs which may damage your
site - but will for sure clutter up the web! But robots.txt should fix
that.

You can have a Google site search without any hacking at all (and with some
adsense income), but your own search will probably update more quickly,
which may matter with a forum.

I'm not sure that your own search would be "more powerful", but if it can do
features that google doesn't offer - provided they are useful to your
readers - then you'll need to think about that, too.
--

Andrew
Editor
http://www.seo2seo.com/

Andrew Heenan wrote:

"darnel" wrote ...
Would using Google site search do more for (forum) page rank
than a more powerful home-rolled mysql search mechanism?

I don't see how either method would affect your rank or ranking in any way
at all.

Another way to ask my question would be "does Google
somehow count click-throughs, and then add that to page rank?"

In other words, when users ask Google for links to
sites that include the "boat building" keywords, if those
users choose to click the links to my site more often than
my competitors, will Google notice that, and factor that
(click through rates) into the page rankings?

If so, using Google Site search over home-rolled mysql
would load Google up with a larger number of
click through rates, to my site rather than my competitors,
for certain well-used keywords.

So, does Google somehow count and use click throughs?
I have no idea. But it seems like it would be good
to know about it, if they do.

On 5 Oct 2006 09:19:25 -0700, "darnel" <Sandy.Pittendrigh (AT) gmail (DOT) com>
wrote:

Andrew Heenan wrote:
"darnel" wrote ...
Would using Google site search do more for (forum) page rank
than a more powerful home-rolled mysql search mechanism?

I don't see how either method would affect your rank or ranking in any way
at all.

Another way to ask my question would be "does Google
somehow count click-throughs, and then add that to page rank?"

Somehow being through the data gained by Google analytics, one
supposes.

In other words, when users ask Google for links to
sites that include the "boat building" keywords, if those
users choose to click the links to my site more often than
my competitors, will Google notice that, and factor that
(click through rates) into the page rankings?

Maybe. It would make a kind of sense if they did. Or, it might not
make sense as it could just reflect on what was in the snippets.

If so, using Google Site search over home-rolled mysql
would load Google up with a larger number of
click through rates, to my site rather than my competitors,
for certain well-used keywords.

So, does Google somehow count and use click throughs?
I have no idea. But it seems like it would be good
to know about it, if they do.

Lots they do would be good to know!

BB
--

http://www.kruse.co.uk/seo-sitemap.htm
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/art-prints-sitemap.htm
http://www.here-be-posters.co.uk/lithographs.htm

darnel wrote:

Andrew Heenan wrote:
"darnel" wrote ...
Would using Google site search do more for (forum) page rank
than a more powerful home-rolled mysql search mechanism?

I don't see how either method would affect your rank or ranking in any way
at all.

Another way to ask my question would be "does Google
somehow count click-throughs, and then add that to page rank?"

Only if your visitors have the Google Toobar installed in their web
browser. And, only if they opted for the advanced option where Google
is allowed to keep track of which web pages they visit.

johngohde (AT) naturalhealthperspective (DOT) com wrote:

Only if your visitors have the Google Toobar installed in their web
browser. And, only if they opted for the advanced option where Google
is allowed to keep track of which web pages they visit.

......that makes sense....and it sounds like an answer to the question.