Does Google Custom Search Get More Searches than Regular WordPress Search?
36Back in December I swapped from using the regular WordPress search to using Google Custom Search. The change was very easy to make and Diogo Iglésias wrote up an easy tutorial for it here.
The reason for the change was simple; Google is a great search engine. I realized that every time I wanted to search my own site, I was going to Google and typing in “site:problogdesign.com” and then searching there. If I don’t want to use my own site search, who does?
The Test – Number of Searches
If one type of search encourages more people to search, then it’s doing a better job.
Google automatically tracks stats on your search engines (Go to google.com/cse > Manage Existing Search Engines > Statistics). To track WordPress’ search, I used the excelled Search Meter plugin from Bennett McElwee.
One thing to note first is that the search box on this design is very unobtrusive and hard to spot (Purposefully, I have other content that’s more important), so the number of searches is very low. It makes the results less reliable statistically, but as you’ll see, there’s a clear trend regardless.
WordPress Search:
- August – 102
- September – 92
- October – 82
- November – 109
Google Custom Search:
- January – 131
- February – 140
- March – 136
- April – 142
- May – 131
The average number of searches for WordPress was 96, and for Google 136. That is 40 extra searches per month just because people saw the Google logo. It doesn’t sound like much there, but on these small numbers, that’s a 42% increase over the WordPress average.
Reasons To Stick With WordPress
You would need to do a lot more testing with more sites and more users, but even so, the numbers above are quite damning for WordPress. For that reason I’m going to list a few of the reasons to stick with WordPress search:
- No adverts – Google plaster your results page in adverts. Have a look at it on my site, it’s over the top.
- Control over the layout – By creating a search.php file in your theme, you can lay out your results in any way you like. You can create a bullet list of results, show thumbnails, give excerpts, or anything else you like.
- Special Effects – Things like highlighting the search terms, pagination, dynamic search text and any other trick you can think of are possible on WordPress because you really do have complete control.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would love to take advantage of the design of my search page with all the power of WordPress. However, the quality of the results comes first and foremost and for the minute at least, WordPress search just doesn’t cut it.
Someday that will change though, and when it does, I’ll swap right back.
What about you? Have you considered leaving WordPress search for a different system?
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It might be worth trying Yahoo’s BOSS, which is a bit (perhaps much more) complicated to implement but it doesn’t show adverts. You can get a lot more control over the output (with PHP) and add in cool Search Monkey widgets tailored to your site.
I’ve only just begun to explore the possibilities with BOSS (and still have a Google CSE on my site) but I think I’ll be switching fairly soon.
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But, what about people who wants to monetize search ? hmm editing search.php and adding adsense code will do ?
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I think i still comfortable with wordpress search. It is more “wordpress” if you know what i mean… :)
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I switched to Google CSE. WordPress search is sure more integrated but it… sucks at searching.
By the way ads in Google search cannot be removed (at least for free) but can be limited to showing in the right block, makes them much less obtrusive.
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For $100 per year, you can remove the ads. If you have a commercial site, as I do, it is well worth it. I have also found the Google search results FAR superior to WordPress. I used to get complaints all the time because people couldn’t find what they are looking for. Since adding Google search, that has completely disappeared.
Great timing: I’ve been pondering this exact switch for the last week or so. My line of thinking has been much the same as yours–when I want to search my site, I’m doing a “site:” query. That’s a pretty good indicator that WP search just doesn’t cut it.
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I haven’t tought that Google custom search, could bring maybe more visits or clicks to my site, but from now I think I’ll start to using it, and gonna make my test.
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i second michael hyatt’s comment. i use it. it’s awesome.
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My normal search is wordpress, but on my results page I added a link to forward the search to my google custom search page. My WP search is highly customized to search specific custom fields. I had 2,167 total searches last month and only 229 of them were google searches. My biggest concern for switching to google search would be to minimize server resources by using a third party search engine but with only 1,300 posts my WP search is still fast and has nice highlighting and result ordering features!!!
I’m too picky about layout. I’ve used the plugin WPSearch which uses Lucene for search, it does a much better job than the default WordPress search.
However, it seems to need help to reindex posts on a large site I’ve used it on, and it hasn’t been updated for a while)
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wpsearch/
I’ve been using Google’s search engine on both my blogs for over a year now. It’s much more accurate than what I remember the WP search to be, so I don’t see me changing anytime soon.
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I see WordPress as more of a hosting site. Google ALMOST has everything (though I don’t know if it can host a site). Google search is better. WordPress has a different use. :)
As you have mentioned Google search does provide better results. You do make a income if the visitors click on the ads of the search results. Also people associate Google with search , so having the Google logo boosts your chance of people searching your blog.
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WordPress search is my choice, I think more professional.
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why not choose Google custom search, it’s fast and accuracy.
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Google custom search lets you create a special page, which you can theme to embed their results within your website. A couple of sponsored links at the top of the results is a small price for your visitors to pay if it means you’re providing stronger results for them at the same time.
Hmm, i would use Google’s Adsense for search, which also can work like a search engine for your blog, but in same time you earn money if some clicks on related sponsored ads. It also can be customized to appeal with your site.
Anyhow, you should really give some focus on search input field, because i had to look twice over whole page layout to find it, it is almost perfectly blended. That would surely increase your search count..
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Actually, there is a really cool search tool called Lijit (http://www.lijit.com/) that allows users to not only search your blog, but allows searches through any and all content that you have produced including twitter. It’s worth checking out and it’s very clean/unobtrusive.
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You post is very helpful to me and I
I’d used CSE for a while, and my site makes most of its money from AdSense. However, I removed it soon – for the reason that it looks cluttered and poorly designed. I’ve tried a lot of different searches, and WP’s default search seems pretty accurate – perhaps because it is a tech blog with post titles that clearly describe content.
Your result may vary, but for me, WP search is more integrated and looks the part. That alone is worth for me :)
There may be some plugins that enhance the default search, I’m personally looking forward to some attention for it from the WP devs (who seem engrossed in enhancing only theme/plugin/other flashy stuff).
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I combined the Google Custom Search with the regular WP search on my blog: I took the custom search from google and added the search form code into the theme and edited it to fit straight into the theme (so it actually doesn’t look like google search at the moment)
+ added javascript onclick on the form to pass the search term(s) to both google and wordpress search and then display it on the same search.php page on my blog. So it now displays the google results on top and then WP search results below, but that is modifiable on the search.php.
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Zemalf, I’d check Google’s T&Cs on that, especially if you’re using Adsense for Search…
@David Bradley: Thanks for confirming what I started to wonder myself. As far as I understand, it is forbidden to hide the fact that the search is google custom search. I wish they made those T&Cs plain-english, so I wouldn’t have to do guesswork if it’s cool to add the normal search results under the google results on the search results page. Well anyway, I reworked my own search and my article about it, now clearly showing it’s Google Search.
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@Zemalf
http://www.google.com/coop/docs/cse/business/tos.html
“You shall implement Custom Search in a manner that: (a) conforms to the Custom Search Specifications provided by Google to You”
and
http://www.google.com/cse/docs/branding.html
“Google must be given attribution using the appropriate text or brand elements when Google results are shown.”
Fairly plain, certainly isn’t legalese
[…] didn’t need to check, because there is proof that Google Custom Search is used MORE than the regular WordPress search (at problogdesign.com) and as we know that, we don’t want to hide the fact that it is Google […]
Thanks for providing some insight to WP search vs. Google search, I feel better about my choice to switch to the latter. Not only do you get better search results, but you can monetize those search results as well. That’s a double whammy for me.
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Thanks for the info. I prefer Google search because it allows you to monetize your search results.
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I’m very suprised that more people used the Google search, I wonder if it would produce the same findings on other blogs? I would still stick with wordpress too, just because of the adverts on the the results page of the Google search results.
So this may be a little outdated given the time this post came out, but do any of you know if Google Search remains superior to WP search? Has WordPress improved it? I’m considering doing the switch and I’m wondering if it’s worth it…
I too made the switch from WordPress search to Google custom search. I was using both for about a month so I could make a final decision. When I wasn’t using the searches I was trying to visualize what I liked about each of them. The mental photos I was getting strongly lead me to switch to Google custom search, but I just couldn’t do it yet. The next week another photo came into thought and I have to make the switch to Google custom search. It fits my style of work better and my personal life. In the end, I’m glad I made the move.
is Google custom Search implementation increase Google crawling? going to add cse on one of site which have more than 12k post to see possibility of getting search box on search result. Definitely i am going to try CSE in this weekend.
Hello,
I’m happy to find this article about google custom search in your website. I think you might be interested to use our search plugin.
So, I’m inviting you to try our plugin searchGBY. It is a plugin for the major browsers that helps you in your search by combining all results from the major browsers into one.
If you have questions about our plugin, don’t hesitate to contact me.
Leo