Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Can I work it so that the Google Search Bar will be there when there is no ad?
I don't see any reason why it would be disallowed.
I seem to recall some limitations to the type of pages you can place the Adsense for Search box on. I looked at the Terms and Policies the other day, but couldn't find the relevant parts.
If I recall right, the page has to have some other relevant content. I think you might be able to get around that by placing some comments relevant to your site, or about using search on the page you are calling as an alt ad. But that might be harder to fit into the adblock.
Another idea might be to just use a page that directs visitors to a page that has the search box on it and also some other relevant content.
I'd check with Google before implementing either of these ideas.
If I recall right, the page has to have some other relevant content.
Adsense for search doesn't require any content to work properly. It is the search keyword which triggers the ads.
I also see no reason why it would be against any rules. However, it also makes no sense to show the search box as the alternate ad. Instead, place it on top of all of your pages. People know what to do if they don't find what they're looking for:
click the back button,
close the window,
or use the search box.
And, what they are looking for is not the ads.
Conclusion: Why don't you place the search box on every page? - Do it. If you do, is there a need to a second one? - Not at all unless your pages are long; then you can place a second one at the bottom.
Adsense for search doesn't require any content to work properly. It is the search keyword which triggers the ads.
I didn't say that search required additional content to work properly.
The point is I suspect you are not allowed to place a search box on an otherwise empty page. And an otherwise empty page is what would seem to be the most likely choice for it in this case.
But best to check with Google about it.
Why don't you place the search box on every page?
That defeats what I'm trying to do.
I have a common border for every page on the site. In this border I have an AdLinks unit as well as a small ad-block in addition to our normal site links.
In some cases, especially in non listed countries, there are not enough advertisers to get an ad in the block in addition to the normal ad-blocks(s) I already have on the page.
This small ad-block gets really good results however and I used it to replace the search bar that I had previously that got iffy results.
What I would like to do is have the search bar show up when there is no ad for the area.
Sounds simple and should be within G's rules as long as I can figure out how to get it to show up.
I think I will write G tomorrow and see if they can tell me how to do it.
Actually the more I consider it the better an idea it sounds.
as long as I can figure out how to get it to show up.
Just place the search code into a new html document and point the alternate ad URL tag to this new page.
> If you let us know whether G says yes or no, that would be good to make sure.
At this time (my bold) you can not use a search bar in place of a non appearing ad.
Hopefully this is something that they will look at for the future because it would work great in our particular situation.
