Ask Salomon

For those of you who don’t know what a Google Custom Search is or how to implement it on your blog keep reading.

I’ve inserted a Google Custom Search engine on Ask Salomon a will share the process with you.

Example of an Integrated Google Custom Search Engine

Currently I’m using a Google Custom Search Engine and you can see it on the top right hand corner of Ask Salomon.

Making a search will bring you to my Search Results page.
Here is an example of a search for “Adwords”. As you can see, the result is delivered to the visitors below the Adsense ads.
To change where your adsense ads will appear. The choices are “top” , “bottom” , “top+bottom” . You’ll read more about that below.

Set up a Google Custom Search on a Wordpress blog

1. Create a New Page

This is the page where the results of the search queries will be displayed. As you can see in in the image, I’ve called my new page “Search Results” . After you have created your page, copy its url somewhere (maybe a notepad file) for later use.

2. Create Your Google Custom Search Engine

Visit the Google Custom Search Engine homepage and click on the “Create a Custom Search Engine” tab.

Give your Search Engine a name. I named mine AskSalomon Search Engine
Enter a description. I named mine Search Engine for AskSalomon
Enter your keywords. Just to play a little I entered “contest, money, blog, webmaster”
Select “Only Sites I Select”. This is very important unless you want to achieve something else, but that’s another tutorial

Sites to search: I entered ” www.asksalomon.com/* ” , so it can cover the blog completely.
Select “Select Standard Edition”
Read the Terms of Service and agree.
Click Next

Now is the time for testing the search engine you just created. I entered “contest money” as a search string.

3. Look and Feel for Your Search Engine

Now click on the “Look and Feel” link on top of the control panel.
Choose the colors according to your pages design.

Customize your Search Results page.

4. Set up Adsense for Search

Click on the “Make Money” link on top.
Select ” I already have an Adsense Account” .
Enter your e-mail zip code, phone and location.

Now your custom search engine is connected to your Adsense account, so it’s time to create a custom channel. I’ve used “Ask Salomon Custom Search” as my channel name, so I can easily track the performance of my custom search engine from my Adsense Dashboard.

5. Insert the Code on Your Blog

Click on the “Code” Link on top on the control panel.
Select iframe.
Do not select Overlay. If you do you will not be able to run ads in your page results.
Remember that url you saved in step one? Now is the time to use it, so paste it on the field below.
Decide where you want your ads to show. I selected “Top and Bottom”.

Time to copy the first code and paste it where you want your search box to appear. In my case I pasted on the sidebar. After that, copy the second code and keep reading ….

Now open the page “Search Results” you created in step one.
Paste the code and Save the page.

That’s it! You have a Google Custom Search Engine in your blog.

Adios

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