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As your website grows you need a tool to make it easier for your readers to search for information on the site. A great solution for installing a search function on your site is available through Google. Google offers the ability to download a Google search box to your website to search the contents of the site. The results will be presented in the same format as the Google search engine results page. Google offers two options for the search function. If you go to Google Free at http://www.google.com/services/free.html you can register to get the HTML code that will put the Google search on your site. This requires that you fill in information that is requested and the site will be customized for you. You can then preview the results, and if it is what you want, you copy the HTML code that Google gives to you and paste it into your web page where you want the search box to appear. It is fairly easy to do. If you have a logo, you can insert it in the input information and the logo will appear on the search engine results pages. Click the following link to see the Boomer eZine example http://www.boomer-ezine.com/Boomer_eZine_Search.htm. Once the search page loads, enter SBI in the search box and search. The results will be all of the times SBI appears on the Boomer eZine site. Notice the Boomer logo on the customized search engine results page. The look of this results page is attractive, but you have no control over the Adwords adds that are placed on the right side of the page with the results of the search. Ads for your competitor will appear on the results page and this may be unacceptable to you. The other option is to use Google Adsense for Search. This allows you to create a customized Google search for your website. This option has filters that you can set to exclude certain websites from being included in the Adsense ads on your site. The other benefit is if someone clicks on an Adsense ad, and purchases an item, you get a fee for the transaction. If you want to sign up for Google Adsense, go to https://www.google.com/adsense. Click the “Click here to apply button” When you log on the Google Adsense site, you can choose to use Google Web search or Google Web search + Site Search. Select the Google Web search + Site Search. On the page where you specify the options for the search function, enter the URL for your site and the other required information. You will be given the chance to review what it will look like and you can change parameters until you are satisfied. At the bottom of the page, there are three options for how the search results are displayed. • Open results on Google in the same window • Open results on Google in a new window • Open results within your own site The last option is probably the best for you. This will place the search results on a page in your site with your own header and footer. It holds the reader on your site. Option one keeps them on your site, but they do not get that impression since all they see is a Google page. Option two opens a new window and sends them to Google. You might lose them at that point. Option three requires that you specify a web page for the search results, but that is easy if you specify the same page the search box is on. If you put the search input box and the search results below the search box, your page will function like Google. On the next Adsense page you specify the color scheme for your ads, the country for the search, if you want to use Safe Search (keeps porn from coming up on the web search), and if you want to use a tracking channel. I recommend that you use channels for each different use of Adsense so you can see where your revenue is coming from. On the next Adsense page, you will get two sets of HTML code. One set goes on the page at the location where you want the search box. The other code goes on the location on the page where the search results will be placed. Copy the HTML from the Google site and paste it into the proper location on your web page. View your page and see how it looks. The search box may be left justified and you may want it in the center of the page. If so, use the HTML center tags to center the search box and the frame on the page. (
