Google for search on your forum

Hi there,

I been thinking of doing a bit more of monetizing on one of my forums. I have realized that stuffing it with ads, will just kill it so that's not an option. I belive that there are other ways to make profit of your sites, without filling it with tons of ads that just are a pain in the ass for the users.

What do you guys think of using Google Search for searching the board? I know that it wouldn't include the latest posts, but lately google has been really fast with indexing and most of the searches aren't really aimed for the lastest posts anyways..

What do you think? And is there a plugin for this?

 

I have google coop integrated on my forum, but from the stats no one really uses it....but then, I don't really promote it's use all that much either, in fact, it's UNDER the main search feature (which is actually better then google in many cases).

Coop has the added advantage of opting in more then the normal allowed sites into the mix, and I've put in non-competitive, but related sites (many of which I own) so it also has the bonus of pulling up sites which you won't mind putting ads on.

As for a plug-in...
[How to] Add custompages to your forum - vBulletin.org Forum

Uses the example for adding in a custom search page. Though, it's actually easier to simply add in a page via vBa (if you use that). I also have it added into my search template...which is pretty much just the code given by google added in under the main search options.

There may be an actual plug-in for this, but I've not looked for it.

 

i am also using Google search on my forum.

 

I was actually thinking of replacing the main search feature of the forum, with google search. But I have no idea how my users would like it..

 

Personally I'd hate it. The internal search is actually more powerful in that it can search for individual posts by members, individual threads, and more.

You could add in instructions on how to search the vB interface, and maybe just add in some affiliate links to the search template with something like "search powered by" or the like.

You can get instructions from me here: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=363177 PM me for more details...

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EDIT:

Although, you could just put the google search on TOP of your search rather then the bottom like I did. That would put it in the mind of your members to google it...though regardless of what you do, the vB search should likely remain for a more refined search (even if as a secondary roll).

 

I did a combination of the two allowing users to select which one they want to use. (in the search in navbar and in advanced search) http://cellphoneforums.net/

 

I use also both search types, since google search depends on how many pages are actually indexed by google. If you don't have them all in the index you can't find some stuff.
But some users are very used to google search and find it easier to use than the forum search. I use this google search script:

<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/search" target="_blank" class="mainmenu"> <input type="search" name="q" value="Google Search" autosave="eve" results="20"
onblur="if (this.value =='') {this.value ='Google Search';}"
onfocus="if (this.value =='Google Search') {this.value ='';}" />
<input type="hidden" name="domains" value="http://www.yourdomain.com/" />
<input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="http://www.yourdomain.com/" />
</form>

Code (markup):

 

Does it help bring in much profit though?

 

it does not pay will

 

Are you sure? It's been working well for me.

 

I think it depends on what your members are search for and the content of your site. I don't see a terrible amount of searches even though I have it setup like I do.