I'm sure you've often seen a search function on websites. Now, I'm not talking about a box that lets you search the entire internet from one particular site. Sites like Google and Ask.com have those, and many of them allow you to put their search on your site.

No, I'm talking about the function to search your own website. You just type something into a text box, click search, and it pulls up a list of the pages on your site that has that word or words in it.

When is such a search function necessary? I've previously discussed when a site map is necessary. If your site is large enough to have a site map, it still may not quite be to the point where you need a search function. However, if you plan on the site being a fairly decent size, it might be wise to go ahead and add in a search function even before it is needed. I hate to put a number on it, but for the average site, a fairly decent size might include 50+ pages with actual content, ie articles and such.

So how do you add a search function to your website? There are several free services that you can use to add search functionality to your website. Those include www.freefind.com and www.picosearch.com. For a more complete listing, just go to your favorite search engine and type in "search your website." Some of the options available are free, some have a small fee.

Most of those search options have fairly good directions explaining what to do. If the one you try does not, just move on to try another one.

Once the search engine is on your site, be sure to test it out. Make sure it works fairly intuitively. If not, try out another one.

Many of the search engines will require that you update the search engine's database whenever you update. They call this reindexing your site. So whenever you update your site, don't forget to do so.

Many content management systems come with their own search function built in. If that's the case, just enable it and you should be good to go.

Whatever the reason you're adding search functionality to your website, just make sure that the admin side is fairly easy to use, and that the side your users will see is intuitive.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.