A demo shows you someone else's catalogue. The useful test is your own pages, your own product names and the searches your visitors actually type. How to try Tomorrow Central Search on your website in a few minutes, what to test, and how to go live when you're ready.
Can I try site search on my website before I commit to it?
Yes. Many site-search setups need a DNS change, a developer or a catalogue export before you see a single result on your own pages. If you want to try site search on your website before doing any of that, you need a test that runs on your own pages and that nobody outside your team can see.
Tomorrow Central Search has that test. You sign up, type your website's address, and Search reads a sample of your pages into a private project. You then search it, typos and all, from your dashboard. You don't need to verify your website (prove the site is yours with a DNS record or a small file) or touch your DNS. Nothing the trial read goes live, and no visitor can see it, until you verify the site.
This guide is for store owners, catalogue owners and marketers deciding whether site search is worth the effort. It covers what the trial does and doesn't do, the exact steps, what to test in ten minutes, and how to go live.
A trial answers one question: does search find my own products, under my own product names, when people type them badly? A demo on someone else's catalogue can't answer that.
Why is trying search on your own site better than watching a demo?
A demo is built to look good. Its catalogue is tidy, its searches are chosen in advance and its product names are short. Your catalogue is different, and the differences are exactly where site search fails:
- Your product names. Long titles, brand names, house abbreviations and the words your buyers actually use.
- Your codes. Model numbers, SKUs and sizes that people type with dashes, spaces or half the digits.
- Your near-duplicates. The same item in five colours, three sizes or two editions, which a search has to tell apart.
- Your visitors' habits. The misspellings, the extra words and the shorthand that turn up in your own search logs.
None of that shows up in a demo. When you try free site search on your own pages, you see within minutes whether it finds what you sell.
What does the free site search trial do, and what doesn't it do?
The trial is a private copy of part of your website, searchable by you and your team while signed in. It isn't a preview of a live search box, and it isn't a link you can share.
| The trial does | The trial doesn't |
|---|---|
| Read a sample of your public pages (the panel shows how many: up to 100 at the time of writing) | Read your whole site. A full import, up to your plan's item limit, comes after you verify |
| Let you and your team search it in Try it, with typo correction | Give you a search link, a search box for your site or a results page |
| Show results the way a visitor who isn't signed in sees them | Let anyone outside your organisation search it |
| Run for a limited time; the project shows the end date | Re-read your site after it ends |
| Keep what it read after it ends, still searchable by you | Count against your plan's monthly searches |
Three rules sit behind that table.
- Signed in only. There is no shareable preview link, because a link anyone can open would amount to going live.
- Nothing the trial read goes live until you verify. You can't create a search link or set up a results page for a trial project until you verify the website the trial read, or replace the trial's content with your own catalogue.
- It is small and time-limited. A trial reads a sample of your pages, can be re-run once a day, and allows a limited number of searches a day. These limits stop the trial being used to copy someone else's site. They don't get in the way of judging whether search works on yours.
Like the full website import, the trial respects your site's rules for automated readers. Pages your robots.txt blocks, and pages marked noindex, are left out. If your robots.txt can't be reached because of a server or network error, Search treats the site as closed, which is what the robots.txt standard (RFC 9309) tells crawlers to do.
You can only try Search on a website that hasn't already been set up by another organisation on Tomorrow Central. If it has, you'll see: "This website is already set up on Tomorrow Central. Contact us if it is yours."
How do I start a site search trial on my own website?
The whole path takes a few minutes. The labels below are the ones you'll see on screen.
Step 1: Sign up with Search switched on
Go to sign up for Search. Signing up from that link switches Search on for your new organisation and takes you straight to the Search dashboard. Before Search is switched on, you'll be asked to confirm a short notice: anything you upload can be found by your visitors through a search link, once you verify your website and create that link.
Step 2: Create a project
On the Search dashboard, type a name under New project (for example "Shop") and press Create. A project holds one searchable catalogue.
Step 3: Point the trial at your website
Open the project and go to the Catalogue tab, then choose From your website. While you have no verified website, you'll see a panel headed Try Search on your website, which explains that you don't need to verify the site first, how many pages Search will read, and that only you and your team can search the result.
Type your address in Your website (for example example.com) and press Try Search on this website. When it finishes, you'll see a line telling you how many items from your website are now searchable.
Step 4: Search it in Try it
Go to the Try it tab and start typing searches. Tick As your visitors see it to see the results laid out the way a visitor would see them, rather than as a list for checking.
At the top of the project, a banner reads "Trial, not live", followed by the date the trial ends and a link to verify your website. That banner is your reminder that nothing you see here is public yet.
What should I test in the first ten minutes?
Use searches your buyers would type, not your exact titles, for products you know the trial read. The guide to catalogue search explains why each of these is a common failure.
- A misspelt product name. Drop a letter, swap two letters, or spell a brand the way a hurried customer would. Corrections come from words in your own catalogue, so a fix should point at something you actually sell.
- The words in a different order. If your title says "stainless ball valve", search "valve ball stainless". Matching is by word, not by phrase.
- Extra words. Add words your titles don't use, such as "buy", "cheap" or "latest". When not every word matches, Search shows results that match most of the words you typed. When most of them don't match, it shows nothing rather than an unrelated item.
- A product code. Type a model number or SKU with and without its dash or space. Part number search covers how to write codes in your catalogue so they are found.
- A near-duplicate. Search for one colour, size or edition and check that the right one comes first.
- Something you don't sell. A good search says so plainly. An unrelated "best match" is worse than an honest empty page.
Keep a note of each search that disappoints you, and check whether the product was among the pages the trial read. A trial reads a sample, so a missing item may simply not be in it yet. A full import after verification reads the whole site, up to your plan's item limit.
What if the results are poor?
Check the item's page first. A vague title, a product name that only appears in an image, or a page blocked from crawlers will hurt any search. Often the quickest fix is a clearer title or a cleaner catalogue file. You can also upload a CSV, JSON or product feed under From a file at any time; that replaces the trial's content with your own catalogue (this also ends the trial).
How do I go live after the trial?
Going live means verifying that the website is yours. Verification is how Search knows a public search link may serve your catalogue on that site, and on no one else's.
- Open Websites in the dashboard menu (the Search screens call it Organization → Websites), type your site under Add a website, and press Add.
- Publish one of the two proofs shown: a DNS TXT record (Type, Name and Value are shown for you to copy), or a small file at the address shown, with the content shown.
- Press Check now. A new DNS record can take up to 10 minutes to reach Search.
Verify the same website the trial read. What the trial read goes live only when that same site is verified; verifying a different website doesn't unlock it. (Uploading your own catalogue file instead also ends the trial.) Both methods, the search box and the results page are covered step by step in how to add search to your website.
Until then, the project's Search link tab reads "Go live: verify" followed by your website's name, with the two steps to take. Once the site is verified, go back to that tab and press Create my search link; from there you add the search box or a results page to your site.
What happens to my trial project after I verify?
Your trial project becomes an ordinary project. You don't start again.
- What the trial read stays. Verifying doesn't wipe or re-read anything. The trial's sample is still there and is now allowed to go live, so you can create a search link straight away if the sample is enough.
- You'll usually want everything, though. In Catalogue → From your website, the normal import is now open to you: Preview shows what a full import would read, up to your plan's item limit, and Import into this project replaces the trial's sample with the full import. You can also upload a catalogue file instead.
- Trial limits no longer apply. The project now follows your plan's normal rules, including its monthly search allowance and scheduled re-imports.
What if the trial ends before I verify?
Nothing is lost. The banner changes to "Trial ended. Your results are kept." You can still search what the trial read in Try it, but Search won't read the site again for the trial. Verify the website at any point, and you can then create a search link from what the trial read, or run a full import of the site.
Who is this trial not right for?
If your catalogue is mostly behind a login, the trial can't read it, because it reads your pages the way a visitor who isn't signed in sees them. Upload a catalogue file instead. If you already have a clean export with an id, a title and a URL for each item, uploading it shows you more than a sample of pages would.
If you need tuning for your own vocabulary, such as synonyms and abbreviations, or you need search to run inside your own infrastructure, that is a deployment ITMTB runs with you on-premises; see ITMTB enterprise search. The self-serve service and its free plan are the place to start for most stores and catalogues.
Key takeaways
- You can try site search on your own website without verifying it: a sample of your pages, searchable only by you and your team while signed in.
- Nothing the trial read goes live until you verify the same website the trial read.
- Test with the searches your buyers really type: misspellings, other word orders, extra words, codes and near-duplicates.
- Verifying turns the trial project into an ordinary one. Nothing is wiped, and a full import brings in the rest of the site, up to your plan's item limit.
- If the trial ends first, what it read is kept and you can verify later.
Try it on your own site
The free plan covers up to 5,000 products, 10,000 searches a month and one search project. Sign up for Search, type your website's address, and run your first ten searches. See Tomorrow Central Search for what the plan includes.
Sources
- RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol, IETF, September 2022 (section 2.3.1.4 on unreachable robots.txt).
- Tomorrow Central Search: the free plan and how verification works.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I try site search on my website without changing my DNS?
- Yes. Tomorrow Central Search's trial reads a sample of your public pages without any verification, so you don't need a DNS record or a file on your site. You only verify the website when you want to put search live.
- Can my visitors see the trial?
- No. A trial is searchable only by you and your team while signed in. It has no search link and no results page, and nothing the trial read goes live until you verify the website it read.
- How much of my site does the trial read?
- A sample of your public pages; the trial panel shows the current number, which was up to 100 pages at the time of writing. Pages blocked by robots.txt or marked noindex are left out. After you verify, a full import reads the whole site, up to your plan's item limit.
- What happens when the trial ends?
- What the trial read is kept, and you can still search it in Try it. Search won't read the site again for the trial, and what it read can't go live until you verify the website.
- Do I have to start again after I verify my website?
- No. The trial project becomes an ordinary project and keeps what the trial read. You can create a search link straight away, or replace the sample with a full import of your site.
- Do trial searches use up my free plan?
- No. Searches you run on a trial in Try it don't count towards your plan's monthly searches. A trial has its own small daily allowance instead.
- Why can't I try Search on a particular website?
- A website already set up on Tomorrow Central by another organisation can't be trialled; you'll be asked to contact us if it is yours. A trial can also be re-run only once a day. You can try one website at a time, and not in a project whose search is already live.