

At Cludo, we get a lot of questions about how our service compares to other products on the market. Most of them are around CMS solutions, such as, “I already have a search engine built into my CMS. Why would I need more than that?” The short answer is that most CMS solutions do not provide a quality search solution.

Most CMS solutions, such as WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, etc. come with standardized features, which includes basic search. More often than not, the search feature is too simple and not very functional. Typical CMS solutions do not have the capability to offer crucial features such as autocorrect and synonym support, promoted banners, customized rankings, and other features you need to create a high-quality search experience for your visitors. Unless your website is small enough for your visitors to know exactly where to look for content, this basic search engine could throw a wrench in your site’s user experience.


Beyond search functionality on the site, search analytics are also a valuable resource to check the health of your site’s content and gain deeper insights into what your customers are looking for, what content is trending, and where your site falls short on informing your customers. These insights have real-world implications in terms of forecasting and saving time. However, they are rarely available via basic search. There are ways to add some of these advanced features if you’d like, via a patchwork of extensions and plugins, which is more work and still very limiting.

Prior to Cludo, many of us have worked with CMS solutions as search consultants and developers, building new features for search. We’ve seen first-hand how installing basic search features to a CMS can be both time-consuming and costly. Have you considered the time and cost of going back and forth with your development team and your CMS provider every time a new feature needs to be added? Contacting a consultant every time you need a change can rack up an expensive bill, since each new feature will cost you. With Cludo, you take away the middleman and have full control over your search engine.

So how does Cludo provide an effective, efficient search solution?

With CMS solutions, most use an SQL (Structured Query Language) database which, in the simplest terms, is a very structured system designed to store the site’s data. While it is great for data storage, it doesn’t make sense for search engines. To create a good site search, another type of software is required to work alongside the SQL database to help organize the data for search, such as Lucene, Solr, or Elasticsearch. However, Solr and Elasticsearch require significant investments in time and development resources to build them from scratch.

Enter Cludo. Having been on the development side, we understand exactly how complicated it is. In fact, the process of building a truly functional search solution can often take thousands of hours! To make things easier for our customers, we created a solution that provides you with all the advanced features of search with a simpler implementation that works with any website. This gives you more time to do what matters – use search to drive data-driven changes. Leave the development up to us.



To keep Cludo search as user-friendly as possible, we also give you the power to customize your search with our easy-to-use dashboard. Depending on the needs of your site, you have the ability to make changes to your search algorithm, optimize your search experience, and see the results almost immediately. No need for extra emails back and forth with consultants or developers as you wait for changes to happen.

Another important element is the ease of setting-up Cludo’s platform. Simply copy and paste Cludo’s simple code and voila! Your search engine is up and running. In the case of switching from an old CMS to a new one, setting up Cludo remains just as easy as re-pasting the code.

Most CMS solutions aren’t equipped to handle data when it comes to an effective site search solution. Where CMS search solutions fall short, Cludo provides an easy to implement, powerful, data-driven site search tool so you can make the most out of what your website visitors are looking for. Refine your search, web content and customer engagement strategies with our exceptional search and insights platform.

To learn more about Cludo’s search and insights features, contact our team, or sign up for a free trial to experience it for yourself!

By Vivek Mathew