The Power of Search

[Joel Comm]

I’ve got to admit I’ve never been too impressed with AdSense for Search. I just haven’t seen great results with it. In fact I’ve always considered it the stocking-filler of AdSense’s goodies: nice to get but nothing like as much fun as the main package.

But maybe I’ve been underestimating it. After all, the results page is a great example of AdSense optimization. You get hit with a perfectly blended, giant ad unit right above the fold (I wish they’d make that unit available for websites!), good content and a second giant unit at the bottom of the page. I’m pretty sure those pages have been delivering good CTR... once people get there.

And that’s always been the problem with Search. Very few people use it. And that’s fine. I get paid every time someone clicks on an ad. I only might get paid when someone does a search, and I’ve got no control over what they’re searching for. I’d much rather people click on my ads than search and leave without giving me any money.

But I get a lot of site targeted ads that pay by CPM. On those pages, I don’t care whether the users click ads or not. In fact, I don’t want them to click. I want them to generate lots of page views... and then I want them to search and leave.

If you’ve got a site that’s getting a lot of CPM ads then, I think it’s worth making that search option nice and prominent. You could put it in the side bar sandwiched between a list of related links and surrounded by eye-catching color. You could write in big letters next to it “Want to learn more about [the topic of your website]?” and put a good, high-paying keyword there to increase the chances that they’ll look for the sort of subjects that give good ads. And you could keep your content short to make sure that your readers aren’t saturated with information and leave your site hungry to find out more.

Of course, you’d also need to keep an eye on your ads so that you know when you’re back to earning per click so that you can put the emphasis back on your ads, and away from the Search.

Although if you find then that your new, prominent stocking filler is giving your site greater value, then I guess you can say that Christmas came early this year.

[Mytigodess]

I actually like it. People do use it on my site and I get between $45-60 a month depending on my traffic. It may not be the big cash Joel is used to getting, but I'm not going to throw away that chunk of change either.

My sites are all information based and having a search engine makes sense in my case. They are blended in to the same colours of my sites and include the option to search the web or the site itself.

I look at it this way, most of the people use it to search my site. My site makes use of Adsense ads on all the pages. If they go to any other page in my site, they are just as likely to click on an Adsense banner when they get there. If they surf the web, chances are I would get as much as I would from them if they stayed.

The search engine is a useful function with the surfer in mind. Anything to help those on my site makes it more appealling for them to come back.

[DoxazoAdonai]

What's "CPM"?

Thanks!

Scott <><

[jmaloney]

Scott
CPM ads are ads that advertisers pay for per impression rather than per click. Whether they are clicked or not has no effect on your earnings. You earn money each time they're shown on your site. The abbreviation (and eCPM in AdSense reports) irritates me every time I see it. CPM stands for cost per thousand. Of course, I always think "cost per million" and find it confusing for an acronym to switch languages in the middle. It should be CPT. Plus, CPM doesn't show a publisher's cost or earnings. CPM is the advertiser's cost. For AdSense folks the abbreviation should be EPT for earnings per thousand. I'll get off my soap box. Life's to short to let stuff that's absolutely beyond my control bother me for long. <g>

Judi
One of my sites has over 600 pages and I had a site search box on about 20 of the main pages. My reasoning was like yours. By defaulting the search box to search my site it meant most users who used the search would still end up on one of my site's pages. Great. Then I performed some test searches for things on my site's pages and Google didn't return those pages. So I did a Google search using the "site" prefix. (You type site:www.yourdomain.com in the Google search box.) Google returns an estimate of the number of pages from your site that are in the Google index. Google only has about 44 of my 600+ pages in the index. That means most of the time even if my site has what a person searches for, Google will tell the searcher it's not on my site... and searchers would leave because they think I don't have what they want.

Without a site search available at least visitors have the chance of finding what they want by using my site's menus. I thought about the problem and replaced the site search boxes with search boxes that don't offer site search. I may be losing potential income from people leacing the site as Joel suggests.

Anyway, you might want to do a site: search on your domain to see how many of your pages are in the Google index. You might be surprised by what you find.

Jon

[MicalJohnson]

I always try and put the google search box on my pages to give an option for the visitor without distracting from the ads on the page.

The one thing I have noticed is that the people who do use the search (although very few) have a very high CTR in some cases even over 100% because they click on more than one ad.

*Just a thought* Maybe Joel can figure out a way to encourage visitors to use the google search tool and test the results. See if you start getting higher CTR and adrevenue because of it. I am not tech savvy enough to pull this one off or I would do it myself.

Mical

[nyfalcon]

If you have crappy content and a search box on the bottom of the page the user will use the search box more to find good content and you will make more money.

[tbcox3]

I like the site search myself too, as I have it on my sites. I don't see a lot of use with it, it just seems kinda like an extra little bonus when i get a few clicks from the good ol search box on the site.