Google Search Box

Does Google Search Box help?

[wildfiction]

If you place the Google Search Box on your page and a user clicks an ad on the search results page, do you get credited with that click? I can't see how that click is tracked back to you because the html code doesn't seem to have any publisher reference in it?

[Sanenet]

Yes, the click is credited to you, that's kind of the point.

[wildfiction]

Well that's exactly what I thought initially. But if you paste ad code into the html part of your page it has your publisher number. But the search box doesn't. So how does it tie back to you?

[europeforvisitors]

So how does it tie back to you?

Beats me, but it does, unless Google is making up the numbers in my "Search Performance" report. :-)

[Sanenet]

You sure? I get the following code:

<!-- Search Google -->
<center>
<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" target="_top">
<table bgcolor="#ffffff">
<tr><td nowrap="nowrap" valign="top" align="left" height="32">
<a href="http://www.google.com/">
<img src="http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_25wht.gif" border="0" alt="Google" align="middle"></img></a>
<input type="text" name="q" size="31" maxlength="255" value=""></input>
<input type="submit" name="sa" value="Search"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-011111111111111"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="forid" value="1"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="ie" value="ISO-8859-1"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="oe" value="ISO-8859-1"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="cof" value="GALT:#0033FF;GL:1;DIV:#006633;VLC:663399;AH:center;BGC:FFFFFF;LBGC:006600;ALC:0000FF;LC:0000FF;T:000000;GFNT:0000FF;GIMP:0000FF;LH:25;LW:25;L:http://www.mesite.com/images/logo/logo.gif;S:http://www.mesite.com/index.htm;FORID:1;"></input>
<input type="hidden" name="hl" value="en"></input>
</td></tr></table>
</form>
</center>
<!-- Search Google -->

Are you sure you're getting credited with the clickthrus?

[wildfiction]

I get the same. There's no publisher information in there like there is with the ads.

[Paris]

If you singed up for AdSense for Search the following line of the HTML code. . .

<input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-011111111111111"></input>

That pub number will be unique to you. Not 0111, etc.

I think the problem of the original poster is that he/she may have just put up the basic Google search box HTML. Obviously that won't generate anything. You need to sign up for the Search feature in AdSense and then you will get the unique code.

The payouts for the Search product are pretty pathetic but if you're going to use a Google search box you might as well do it through AdSense.

[hyperkik]

Given the horrendous format of SERPs from the search box, and the seemingly low rate of return for most webmasters... if your primary interest is indexing your own site, dare I plug the open source program ht://dig? (Add your own AdSense ads to the search results.)

[wildfiction]

Paris,

I did sign up for the AdSense Search feature but my publisher id is not embedded in the html when I request the html from the AdSense site.

Could you possibly copy/past the html code (obviously replacing your pub id) here so I can compare it to mine?

Thanks

[ncw164x]

It already has been posted

<input type="hidden" name="client" value="pub-011111111111111"></input>

the 0 and 1's have replaced his adsense code

[wildfiction]

Sorry - you're right about that. For some reason my old search html doesn't have my pub id in it but now when I fetch the html it's there.

Thanks for the help everyone. No idea why it wasn't there before.

Thanks again.