Years ago when I was working on a rather large website redesign, as part of the project we conducted more than 250 interviews with site visitors. Our goal was to gather inputs that would assist in development of a new architecture and visual design for the website. The number one request from site visitors was that we greatly increase search functionality. When we dug further, nearly all respondents suggested we “make the search more like Google.” From that moment on, I’ve been drinking the Google Kool-Aid.
Many people are unaware that Google offers website owners the ability to create a custom search of their website using the Google platform. As with most Google offerings, they have a free plan as well as premium option. For a mere $100 per year, you can have full access to the application, guaranteed support, and the ability to disable the ads.
Just recently, I implemented Custom Google Search of my blog. You’ll find it in the right column of all pages now.
Here are a few of the reasons I switched to Google Custom Search:
- Ability to Include one or more websites, or specific webpages in your search;
- You can also search the entire web but emphasize your selected sites;
- Host the search box and results on your own website;
- Customize the look and feel of the results to match your site design;
- If you are hosting your search results on your site, you can get enhanced reporting through Google Analytics site search reporting;
- Custom Search offers on-demand indexing — allows you to submit a select number of your site’s pages to be indexed quickly;
- As you type into your search engine’s search box, Autocomplete offers searches similar to the one you’re typing;
- And finally, you can make money with your custom search engine by connecting it to a Google AdSense account.
If you are running a WordPress site like me I would encourage you to visit Tentblogger.com to learn how to add Google Custom Search in less than 10 minutes. It’s really easy. Enjoy!
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