Thank you everyone for the comments. They were very helpful. I think I will be looking at a Google search box when I am ready. The only problem is the site map. I used FreeFind to create the site map and didn't have to worry about it. I think Google will be a better search maybe? As far as a statcounter, I have been reading up on it and I just add it to each page. The counter gives the stats on the page by url. So that is solved. Thanks! Sheri aka. FamilyTwigs TwigTalk My blog Indiana Trails To The Past Jackson County/INTTTP

On-site Google Search does not require the 'special' (computer lanuage) site-map, although it is recommended to be submitted to all search engines. A simple text-link site map you create will do. Even without a perfect site map, Google On-Site Search does a really good job at indexing all pages. Google Webmaster Tools has basic features to tell you about: 1. Crawl Errors (usually badly formed link) 2. 404 page not found (also often a badly formed link) 3. Meta Tag duplicates or errors (examples: missing Title tag; duplicate Descriptions on 2 or more pages) 4. Top keywords found on site as a whole and top keyword searches Recently, through Google's Webmaster Tools, I discovered 13 instances where "link farms" had used one or more of my pages or images-- except they made mine as a "broken link" on their page. I decided to be pro-active--- IF I could identify the hosting company of the website, I called them to report the issue. I also called one church-- they had 2 uploaded real pages for their "web", but had millions of 'garbage' uploaded since Feb 1st. My call alerted the church that they had a significant virus on their web host's server. So, Google Webmaster Tools can reveal a lot ! I still don't know how I'm going to handle the other link farm problems, but I hope the places I contacted will clean up their messes. One issue I have with Google Webmaster Tools is that they report Broken Links / Crawl Errors for anyplace my link is shown within the entire Rootsweb site. So, for example, most of us use our signature lines to show our website's URL/URLs. Some of the indexed archived Rootsweb Mailing List threads suddenly show as "crawl errors / Broken links" of my sites--- usually if the URL in the List Archive 'breaks' the link into 2 lines, often after or before a hyphen in the URL. The same problem happens with URLs placed in Rootsweb Message Board Posts, and Google Webmaster Tools will list those! My issue with that is, I can't fix those supposed broken links because they aren't under my control, they aren't really "in" my webs but are on the RW servers, and it seems silly that Google reports those as being "in" my websites when instead they are just one mention on one of Rootsweb's areas. I'm still working on manually making a better site map. I keep thinking, "it shouldn't be hard" but then I get confused about how to list pages in sub-folders. And updating it manually is a pain for me at least. I looked at sites that do the computer-language site map for free, but they only do about 100 pages -- far less than the thousands I need done. Judy On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 9:59 AM, Sheri Bush <mytwigs@hotmail.com> wrote: > > Thank you everyone for the comments. They were very helpful. I think I > will be looking at a Google search box when I am ready. The only problem is > the site map. I used FreeFind to create the site map and didn't have to > worry about it. I think Google will be a better search maybe? > > As far as a statcounter, I have been reading up on it and I just add it to > each page. The counter gives the stats on the page by url. So that is > solved. > > Thanks! > > Sheri aka. FamilyTwigs > TwigTalk My blog > Indiana Trails To The Past > Jackson County/INTTTP >