This tutorial is not a web/html primer and assumes that you already know how the process of "web surfing" is accomplished (i.e. a browser requests a page from a server which then returns the page to be viewed), and what an HTML "form" is and how it works. If you are not familiar with these concepts please read a basic web/html primer.
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How does it work?
When a visitor goes to your site they will see your "search panel" and use it to specify word(s) they are looking for. When they do this the request is sent directly to the FreeFind servers which determine which pages of your site contain the desired words. We then display a list of those pages so the user can choose one.

How do you determine which words are on which pages on my site?
Our servers "spider" your site(s) ahead of time to gather this information. The spider works just like a very persistent visitor to your site, browsing page after page until it has followed all the links that it can find which lead to other pages of your site. It does not find the pages of your site by scanning your server's hard disk.

What happens when I update my site?
You will need to log in here, go the "build index" page, and use the "index now" link to tell our spider to re-index your site.

Where do I get the search panel to include on my site?
When you sign up you are sent the instructions for this.

Won't the visitor realize they have left my site?
No. Because you can customize the search results that we display to look just like your own site, the vast majority of people do not realize that it was our server which provided the results. Your visitors have a seamless experience.