SEO (search engine optimization) has been a growing topic on the Internet for a while and many articles have been written about it. I agree SEO is important but with all the the focus on the external search engines and optimizing a site to attract visitors we can tend to forget what happens to the visitors when they get to your site.

SEO is about getting people to visit your site. You start to build value when that visitor starts to interact with the site. This can lead to establishing an ongoing customer relationship or they may even transact early within the first visit.

Some visitors will hit the page on your site which meets their needs at first visit, some will not. What then happens when they start to explore your site. It is at this point that the navigation, information architecture and the search capabilities of the site come into play.

There is no point attracting a visitor only for them to leave in frustration because they cannot find what they need.

Use the search facility yourself, does it work, can you find links to the most valuable products and services you have?

Many times, a web developer has built a site and the search functionality gradually falls into decay as it is not self-maintaining. Does the search engine need re indexing regularly. How does it cope with empty searches, a helpful message or just a nothing found message.

As a final resort you could always consider putting Google search capabilities within the site. If your site is being crawled regularly then the search will fully cover your pages. There is a risk that the customer uses this search capability to search the web if you cannot meet their needs but that is best for the customer, and you could earn some Adsense commission on the back of it.