Pay attention to a company called Swiftype. Swiftype is a startup that creates search engines for individual websites. We'll get to the bones of what Swiftype does in a minute, but first lets look at what Swiftype has just gained $1.7 million in funding from major VC firms (Andreessen; NEA; and Kleiner).
What VC Firms See
Small VC firms don't give away funding unless a startup has a solid business plan, amazing potential, and a great group working on said project. Major VC firms are even pickier when it comes to giving out millions in cash. In short, Swiftype has something that these backers want a part of. What is that thing? Here's what Swiftype does for websites like yours – and, really, this is a great idea for any site!
Inside Swiftype
Using Swiftype, companies can fully integrate search engines into any existing website – without the need to know any type of coding. Again, you don't need to know how to code in order to add a search engine to your site. All you have to do is sign up for a Swiftype account (this takes seconds to complete), build the engine (again, seconds), and snag the JAVA code to place on your own site.
But, no search engine (easy to install or otherwise) is worth anything if it doesn't work well. So, how well does Swiftype's engine work? Think of it this way: Swiftype creates a fully integrated search engine for your site that's also entirely customizable. How customizable?
Picking Through Searches
When you first sign up for a Swiftype account, the company crawls your site to find all possible searches and matches. From there, you can enter that code on your page, and your site will have a complete search installed – but there's more. You can also customize search results quite easily.
Using Swiftype's friendly dashboard, you can pick through and reorganize search results. You can even use drag-and-drop options to organize results and to choose which results are ranked highest. If this sounds like a brilliant way to let users search your site while also putting the content that you want users to see in front of them, it is. It's also why this startup has just gained millions in funding.
Already Taking Off
This might be the fist time that you've heard of Swiftype, but this startup's product is being used by many major companies already. Companies like Shopify, MailChimp, BestBuy, and even Facebook are currently using Swiftype. So, how much will it cost for you to get in on this search game?
Prices start at $44 per month and go up to $500 per month depending on the package that you choose. Different packages come with unique incentives, so make sure to figure out what you need in a search engine before you buy. No matter what kind of site you run (cheap hosting, cloud hosting, or otherwise), you can always use an integrated and intelligent search engine option.
Do you use Swiftype? Would you?
