Search API has been my go-to module for building search pages for the last two years. Even if the client doesn't ask for anything fancy, I still download and install Search API, use Database Search for the index and Views for the page.

If you start with Search API from the beginning, then it's easier to customise later on. The core Search module, on the other hand, is easy to setup but hard to modify.

Recently, I had to create a search page that highlighted the keywords in the results. If you search using a particular keyword, then the word is highlighted.