Content Management and site search represent different software families, but nonetheless have become increasingly related.  Clearly, a good site search engine is essential to any high-quality Web publishing effort.  Moreover,   a CMS can significantly improve site searches by normalizing (and even automatically generating) Meta information such as key words, page titles, content descriptions, structured asset descriptors, categories, and so forth.  The result is improved site searches for your visitors, potentially improved Internet search engine rankings (Search Engine Optimization), and reduced cost and effort on your part to add these features to your site.

When it comes to Web site searches, two approaches dominate.  The most common method is “spider”-based search, which scans your site and builds an index of your published content.  This works well for static HTML sites, and is also the technique used by Internet search systems such as Google, Alta Vista, and Lycos.  The other approach -- “dynamic”-based search -- is used where a database delivers fluid content.  In this case, the search is turned into a database query, submitted to the database, and the results are reformatted in HTML.

With both approaches, a few basic technology alternatives have an important impact on search performance and results.  Among these is full text vs. fielded searching, and whether the content is indexed or not. Because at their core, all CMSs store your content in a database, it may seem that a more dynamic approach would be the preferred method if a CMS is involved.  In reality, there are major differences in how various CMSs handle site searches; these differences will have impact on how well your search system works and how simple it is for you to manage.