15 Easy Steps to Place Google Custom Search for Your Site

Introduction

To produce a usable web site design, the ideal is to place a search box on the upper right-hand corner of site's home page. If your web site template can not accommodate this ideal, then any part of the home page would do, as long as it is placed for readers to conveniently search the site. Advanced web developers have the know-how to design their own search box application. For basic and small Catholic web site development, there is no need not study the complex code needed to produce a search application on your site, because Google has designed a customized search application for web developers. This custom search box includes the presentation of Google AdSense in the search results. Those who search your site will be given additional relevant information through these ads. Below are the 15 easy steps to place a Google Custom Search application in your site.

Step 1: Register for an AdSense account

Visit http://www.google.com/adsense and register for an account. Google will then give you a special .html file that you need to upload in the root directory of your web server. After you have uploaded the .html file, you can now get a Google custom search application for your home page. Google has recently improved this service so that it can deliver better results and provide alternative design and presentation of search results.

Step 2: Sign in at AdSense

After you have finished registering for a Google AdSense account, you can now sign in with your username and password to access the site's services. Go to www.google.com/adsense and sign-in. If you are not new to Google and already have Gmail for your email account, then you can sign-in with your Gmail address and the password that is used to access all sites connected with the Google network.

Step 3: Click "AdSense Setup" Tab

When you have arrived at the main dashboard of your AdSense account, click the "AdSense Setup" Tab.

Step 4: Click "AdSense for Search"

You will then be led to a page where you have several options. Since what you are interested in is the Custom Search application of Google, click the link which says "AdSense for Search".

Step 5: Select "Search type"

You will now have the option to select which Search type you want for your site: either "only sites select" (wherein you can place the urls of your site and blog[s]) or the "entire web". If you have one small Catholic web site and a couple of Catholic blogs, then it would be good to select the "only sites select" option.

Step 6: Specify your "Selected sites"

When you have chosen the "only sites select" option, the next step would be to list down all the urls of your sites which you want searchers to search across. So that Google can completely register your sites, it would be good to give the complete URL address, including the http:// and the trailing slash at the end of the URL if you wish to register a site. (You can also register a page of a site).

Step 7: "Optional keywords"

Google will then ask you for the keywords that best describe the content and subject of your site(s). It would be good to have this list of keywords, so that you can fully connect the content of all your sites, with the keywords searchers will use to access the essential content of your site.

Step 8: The "More options" section

In this section, you can select the following features that are related to your site:

• Site language
• Your site encoding
• Country or territory for Google domain
• Custom channel
• SafeSearch

Step 9: "Look and Feel"

This is the section where you can select the "look and feel" of your search box. You can specify how many characters you would like to be accommodated in the search box ("Text Box Length"). Also, you can select among the many options of branding style (Google trademark) that is part of the search application code. There is a new branding style available which you might like - a search box that has a watermark trademark of Google inside it.

Step 10: Opening of search results page

You are also given the option where you want the results page to open: either on Google or within your site. If you can adjust the template of your site to accommodate the results to open at its main index.html page, then this would be advisable, so that searchers can continue within your site after being given the results of their search.

Step 11: Ad location

There are several options to choose from so that you can specify in what location of the page the Ads will appear. The default location is "top and right". There are two other options. Choose which would be beneficial to the searchers of your site. After selecting your preference, click on the "Continue" button.

Step 12: Name your search engine

Google gives this feature because you may need more than one search application in your site(s) or blog(s). Google also gives examples of how you can name your search engine applications. It would be good to note down all your search engine names so that you can go back to them for review or updating.

Step 13: Get Search Box Code

Once you have finished all of the above, you can now get the Search Box Code to place in a location of your home page. Be careful in copying so that you will not miss any part of the code. Check and recheck if you have copied and pasted on your home page the complete code of the Search Box.

Step 14: Get Search Results Code

After copying and pasting to your home page the Search Box Code, copy and paste also the search results code. If you had selected the results page to open within your site, then place the Search Results Code in the template of your home page so that it can easily be read by your searchers and at the same time go back to the main section of your home page for further reading.

Step 15: Reupload your home page and test

Once you have completed all of the steps given above, the final step would be to reupload your main index.html page and view the page if the Google Custom Search box is displayed. Then, test the search application if it works for your site. This Google Custom Search box application is a very good site enhancement tool that can give your readers and searchers the information they need to know.

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