Google Search Implementation

Why Use Google Search

WebinOne has general site search that can search all module items and pages at once, or individual module items, and there is the Advanced AI Search extension which can provide semantic, context-aware searching with fine-tuned property settings. However, the one main drawback of database searching like this is that the search index isn’t looking at your end-result, rendered pages, which could be combining dynamic data from various sources to produce overall content that has a different context then its individual parts.

Google search, on the other hand, only indexes the final rendered pages, capturing the complete and intended context of the page.

So, if your site is constructed from highly dynamic sources, Google Programmable Search might be a good option.

Create a Search Engine

Start by creating your search engine in the Google Programmable Search Engine Control Panel (https://programmablesearch.google.com/).

From the website, choose “Getting Started”, or if you already have search engines set up and you’re within your account, click “Add” to start configuring an engine for your new site.

You’ll need a Google account to access this service.

There are various configuration settings you can go through here to tailor search to your preferences, but there are few key options worth noting here.

Look and Feel

Under the look and feel section, click on the “All look and feel settings” button to drill down further into the appearance options.

In here you’ll find “Layout” options which control how the search box and results are structured.

For a typical setup, with a separate search box in the site header and a separate page for results, choosing the “Two-page” option should work well.

Once set, click back to the “Overview” page to continue the configuration.

Get the Code

Lastely, we just need to get the install code as well as specify the URL to the search results page on your site.

From the top of the “Overview” section you can click the “Get Code” link, which will present install code for the search box, search results, and the URL for the search results. If you already have a page created for this, enter the full URL, or set the URL here now with your desired page address and be sure to match this when creating the actual page on your site.

There are plenty of other settings you can explore, but these are the main options to get you up and running.

Installation

Copy the code snippet for the search box and place this in your Content Template or header snippet - wherever you want the search box to display.

Next, create your search results page, if you haven’t already, making sure to use the same URL path that you entered in the search engines settings.

In the main content area of this page, paste the search results code snippet (you can actually omit the script tag if you’ve added the search box globally to your site, as the script will already be loaded for this page as well in that case. If unsure, just leave it in).

That’s it!
As long as Google has indexed your site pages, your search should now be working.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Google sees and indexes your pages as a whole, which usually means better context
• Search queries are context-aware, understand natural language, and use related terms
• Search is lightening fast
• If you don’t mind ads, or are using AdSense on the site already, Google search can be free

Cons:

• Pages, and changes to them, need to be indexed by Google first, which can take some time
• No ability to search specific properties or create filter-based searches
• Less control over layout and appearances
• API has a usage cost with no free tier, if you don’t want ads