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How To Create And Setup A Google Custom Search For Your Blog

The truth about blogging is; apart from the passion, we are all looking for ways to increase our blogs income, right? And strategizing is one good (if not the best) way to go with it. Most bloggers (new and old) uses Google adsense to monetize their blogs, why? Because Google adsense made its platform much easier and flexible to their publishers so they can earn smartly.

adsense

If you are a blogger that uses adsense to monetize your blog, you should know that – Aside from placing your Google adsense on strategic places, it is also a great idea to monetize your blog search box as well. Yes, creating a custom search for your blog can help increase your adsense earning. But how can you create a custom search on your blog that pays? In a few, you will definitely see how…

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Hey! If you are still wondering what I’m talking about, take a look at the image below…

custom-google-search1

Now from the image above, you can see that the search result is showing only my blog results, right? And the ads are showing relating to the search term used as well. Now tell me, how can that not boost your adsense earnings :).

How To Create Google Custom Search For Your Blog

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Let me run to the story as quick as possible so you too can get your own Google custom search that pays.

First off, we are going to create a page in our blog and name the page “search” or any name you wish to name it as…

Have you created a page for this project? If yes, go to your adsense dashboard and click “My Ads” >>> Below the list by your left, click “Search”

adsense-for-search-3

By clicking the “Search”, you will be taken to a new page. Now click “New Custom Search Engine”

adsense-for-search-2

Clicking that, will take you to a new page where you will fill all necessary spaces provided.

In the form that shows;

Name: Give it a name that you will remember, – this part is needed incase you want to edit the code next time

What to search: Click “only site I select” – this will bring out a box >> In the box, type in your site

Keywords: The keywords you place will determine the kind of ads that will be displayed when people use your search box

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Safe search: You should thick it to prevent unwanted ads 🙂

Country or territory: The country of Google search you want to use

Site Language: Leave it in “English” except you’re running a none English language blog 🙂

Encoding: Please don’t touch this, except you know what you’re doing…

Transliteration: Let it be “English” but if your blog is not in English, then you can choose.

Popular queries: Tick this

Let’s jump to “Search Result”, shall we…

Search Results: Tick “on my website using an iframe”

URL where search results will be displayed: Put in the “Page” you created earlier because this is where the search results will appear 🙂

Width of results area: This should be “800” or based on the width of your blog. (Here is mine)

custom-google-search

Now click “Save and get code”

Have you done that? If yes, let’s continue to the main event – shall we?

Now copy the code from the “Search results code” and go to the page you created for the search >>> Click “text” in your composer and paste the code you copied earlier >>> Click “Publish” to save the code.

adsense-for-search

Go back to your adsense code you generated and copy the code from the “Search box code” section

Now go to your blog dashboard >>> Click Appearance >>> Click widget >>> Drag your “Text” widget to where you want the search box to appear and paste the code in the “text widget” >>> Click “Save” and you’re completely done.

Note: To reduce size of the search box to your preferred size, search for the below line

<input type=”text” name=”q” size=”38″ />

Have you seen it? Now change the size to which ever number suites you and your blog :).

You should be smiling now because you are done with setting up your own custom search 🙂

Hope I made the tutorial as simple as possible? But if you still don’t understand, please do let me know where you don’t understand and I will be sure to explain it 🙂

Conclusion

Since I added the custom search feature on my blog, my adsense income increased drastically, why? You can figure that out yourself 🙂

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So here is my question to you: Do you use the Google custom search? If yes, how is it going for you? Please do share your answer(s) using the comment box below.

Hey! Do you have questions, comments or thoughts you’d love to share with us? Then please do by using the comment box below. Remember that your comments, questions and thoughts are highly welcomed and appreciated.

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55 thoughts on “How To Create And Setup A Google Custom Search For Your Blog”

  1. Wow! I kinda love your tutorial on setting up custom google search box babanature.

    The styling options you gave actually made it very easy for even newbies to setup their correctly.

    I remember losing my way around at the first when I wanted to configure it for my mobilepress powered mobile version to suit the size of my design and now you are making so easy for every other persons.

    Thanks for sharing and do have a great week ahead of you bro

    1. Hello Obasi,
      First let me say, thanks for seeing the tutorial as simple 🙂 . I actually made this today post based on request and i do know that it will be of value to a lot of people who haven’t done it yet.

      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your wonderful comment, do have a great week ahead… 🙂

  2. To be honest i didn’t know that custom search results on a website can display ads too.I would apply this on my blog when I’d monetize my blog with adsense .Thanks for sharing the information Baba and Congrats for the drastic rise in you adsense Income 😀

    -Pramod

    1. Hello Pramod,
      Yeah! custom search do show ads and it feels awesome putting it in a google website :). Thanks for stopping by and dropping your comment, do have a joyous week 🙂

  3. I had just completed a post on my blog and I decided to take a stop here to get my Monday dose 😀 , I could only smile because today we are on opposite sides. I can see that we have both talked about the search bar today but in my case, I have opted not to have any and I have my reasons.

    Alot of people will benefit from this and I will bookmark this page so that when I cross 2000 posts on my blog, I can quickly refer to this.

    Nice one, Babanature.

    1. Hello Nosa,
      Hmmm… You know that all blogs needs navigation and your search bar is also a navigation system to help your blog readers get what they are looking for…
      I’d say good luck with the 2000 post and happy blogging 🙂

    1. Hello Collizo,
      I never reinvent any wheel, this is a request post for a friend. Ahhh… so you’ve writing something like this? Well, the online world is indeed small, abi?

  4. Hey Babanature,

    Well you know I don’t use Adsense so boosting that is not an issue with me.

    I learned about this I’m thinking late last year maybe. I’m SO bad with time but it’s been awhile. Here’s the deal, I don’t want anymore Google on my blog. It’s bad enough they rule everything else online. I don’t like the ads at the top when someone is searching for content on my blog.

    I can totally understand why you’d want that since the ads are important for you but I find them irritating myself. I know, I’m such a pain sometimes.

    Great tutorial though and I know a lot of people who have installed it on theirs and they love it.

    ~Adrienne

    1. Hello Adrienne,
      Ahah… Google is the owner of the World Wide Web, so using their products is always a must for we bloggers :). But i can definitely see why you don’t want to use all of their products, even i get that feeling. But they are the giant and nothing we can do about it, right?

      We all use Google search engine to make research and believe it or not Google search still do show adverts to the people doing the search, so i’d say that its only natural ;).
      Thanks for the thought my friend, i really do appreciate it…

  5. Hey babanature i’m really getting used to like your site. Just visited a month ago and subscribed.From then onwards i recived completely useful stuff to my inbox.
    Nice content bro,helpful to every blogger. Keep it up.
    Hey and another small question. Why don’t u change your site theme> This one’s boring. (i just can’t stop asking , sorry if i’m rude.)
    That’s all bro . Bye keep Rocking.

    1. Hello Sumuanth,
      A lot of people have complained about my blog layout, but i will admit this to you, i love the blog template and i will be using it for a while. But i might change it on my blogs anniversary, you never can tell.
      Well, thanks for your thoughts, i do appreciate 🙂

  6. Thanks for this great tuts, Babanature!

    I know beforehand about Google custom search, but haven’t yet applied on my blog. I guess I’m a little wary and not-so-confident about the technical stuff.

    However, the way you’ve explained it, I’d surely go ahead and try it out! Ya, why not have one more option to monetize the blog and earn a few cents more if they’re in the offing. 😉

    Okay, I did put up the Google custom search on my blog as I were writing this comment. Do check up any of my blog posts and let me know if I’ve done it right. I wish this customized search could come on the above “search site” option you see, but I guess that’s a hardcored code in php so the Google script can’t fit in there, or can it?

    1. Hello Harleena,
      I can see the custom box on your blog 🙂 You did it beautifully, but i’d say that you miss just one step. Now if i search, i am seeing other sites search instead of just your site. This is what you’ll do >>> go back to your adsense dashboard and edit your search code.

      In the; WHAT TO SEARCH: Click “only site I select” – this will bring out a box >> In the box, type in your blog url like; http://onenaijablog.com or http://www.onenaijablog.com.
      That is the only step you skipped, but you did every other step perfectly.

      Replacing the Google search with the default search, yes it is highly possible for those who knows a little about coding 🙂

      Thanks for the lovely comment and do expect your reply when you have done the step you skipped 🙂

  7. Its the simplest way to encourage more valid clicks on adsense ads. That’s why your adsense income might increase using this tips.

    Thanks for this post

    1. Hello Okto,
      You are absolutely right. But i wouldn’t called it encourage, i’ll call it tactic because it is all from Google :). Thanks for the comment buddy, do have a good week ahead…

  8. Hello Baba,
    You have truly done a great job bringing such a tutorial on board. It is very detailed and anybody can truly indeed understand the process using this.
    I actually did see something like this last week but i couldn’t understand the tutorial that’s why i begged you to give me the tutorial and you did it almost immediately. Thank you for helping me and all bloggers that are not that techie. Do have a peaceful week ahead my brother 🙂

  9. Hello Babanature,

    I just started using Adsense, and I haven’t even gotten my pin yet. I can’t find the Search tab. Is it when I get my pin that the Search tab will begin to show?

  10. hy, i am view my adsense page but cant see the search option….what is the problem…..i am not directly approved in adsense. i am approved via youtuve…..so it is the problem?

    1. Hello Ariful,
      You will see this option only when you want to create a new adsense code, it wont show in your dashboard. Look by the left hand side when you click “My ads”

  11. Babanature i must say i like the way you write your tutorials,they are very explanatory. i think this will help alot.tnx for sharing

  12. Google custom search is a very powerful tool and you might your own search bar but I would prefer Google search, thanks for this tutorial.

    1. Hello Ferb,
      Google custom search is one great tool to help monetize your blog. It is great because it only search your blog and uses your keyword to generate your ad terms. So google search is totally different from google custom search. Thanks for stopping by and do have a great weekend… 🙂

    1. Yea, when your readers search your blog using the Google custom search, you can track everything using your webmaster tool. To me that can help you with your blogging success.

  13. @babanature
    bro i have some question.
    1. I created this successfully and my question is where is the place Popular queries code in blog…
    2. how to place search button in line and how to change color of search button
    3. In keyword which keyword am i used please tell me …

    1. Hello Ariful,
      Here are your answers,

      1. There is no code for popular query, Just mark it and that’s all
      2. Changing your search color needs some css codes and that might be another tutorial 🙂
      3. Your keyword determine what your blog is all about. If your blog is about food your keyword might be; cooking, tasty, food, meal… Hope you understand?

  14. bro (Now go to your blog dashboard >>> Click Appearance >>> Click widget >>> Drag your “Text” widget to where you want the search box to appear and paste the code in the “text widget” >>> Click “Save” and you’re completely done.) this section am i place my code on html section nor text section i am adding this code on html section on my page….but when i am add this code on text section the codes are showing …..and no ads showing solve this..

    1. I said first create a page on your blog, then go to your adsense and copy the code from the “Search results code” and paste in the page you created…
      If you do that successfully, then before you’ll copy the next code to where you want the search to be… Hope i made it clear?

      1. thank you bro i create this successfully. i am thinking that i make a article about this topic. bro did you have any tutorial about this Changing your search color needs some css codes and that might be another tutorial..

  15. Hi Babanature!
    I’m a big fan of using Google Custom Search on my blog. Mainly because the default search from WordPress is horrible. I can never find anything with that.

    I actually wrote a blog post about this back last year and I included a video so that people wouldn’t get confused about how to set it up.

    I’ll leave the link in CommentLuv so you can take a look and feel free to embed that video in this post if you like.

    Thanks! Have a wonderful weekend.

    1. Hello Ileane,
      You know, from the first day i started using wordpress i haven’t tried its default search box. Me too, i have always loved and used the Google custom search because they are indeed more accurate and they also provide analytic from your custom search through web master :).

      I’ll definitely check your post out and take a look at the video :). Oww!!! and embed it if possible.
      Thanks for stopping by and dropping your valuable comment, do have your self a valuable weekend 🙂

  16. Just did this for my blog.. best decision I could’ve made. Solves so many issues with bandwidth demands, and its faster than my own search was, and also manages to pick up even more topics. Well worth it to leave it to the pros! Anything you can do to speed up your site, go with it! Outsource your resources if you can so the demand is hardly on your own server!

  17. Hello Babanature,

    Another great post. Actually I love reading all your posts! It is so nice to know that by creating a custom search for our blog can help increase our adsense earning. This post is really helpful and very informative. Thank you for sharing.

    Regards,
    Abby

    1. Most welcome Abby,
      Well aside increasing your earnings, it is also the best way to search any blog to also reduce the workload of your blog server.
      Thanks for the comment and do have a blessed weekend 🙂

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