HackingUniversity - Hacks . Tricks . How-To's

09 April 2014

How to Add Google Custom Search Engine in Blogger Blog

Google Custom Search Engine

Search boxes could prove to be a useful widget in getting more and more views by more satisfied readers. It helps them crawl your blog pretty easily and they can even find solutions to difficult problems little faster. Well now by default you can add a simplified version of search in blogger that's not that accurate but still it's the faster way to load results and even its not a heavy stuff to load in your blog.

But still many people want a customized way to search their entire blog the way actually they want it too, and even I use the same google custom search engine on my blog like you might have seen on the right. So I have just created a normal custom search engine and then I have implemented my own styles so it suites my blog design.

So yes if you are good @ CSS then possibilities limitless, you can make your search look like the way you want and even in contrast to your blog. So now today we will be looking at how you can actually add a google custom search widget in blogger blog. Well there are two methods one is the simplified one but with less control and the other one is technical one but with more improved control.

Adding Official Google Custom Search Widget Blogger

Well now blogger officially provides you with the search box option in combination with custom search parameters. So now implementing that could be the easy JOB but you do not have any control over the search it does. So now to add that box check below.

  1. Open Blogger > Layout > Add Gadget.
  2. google-search-blogger-layoutScroll down and choose Search Box widget like in the image on the right and press that + icon.
  3. Now it will show you some simple settings like what search you want it to do.
  4. So you can select your blog only, or the whole web for reader satisfaction.
  5. Now you need to align the Widget in your Blog and press Save.

That's it now your search BOX is implemented and you can easily search your whole blog content using it, so by default your results will be displayed above the first post in your blog, so its really fast and convenient.

Implementing Google Custom Search in Blogger

Now the another method I am using is creating and implementing google custom search engine by adding your own rules. Well using this you can even monetize your search by linking it to your AdSense account. So now lets see how to create and customize your own Google Custom Search Engine.

  1. Visit https://www.google.com/cse
  2. Now choose New Search Engine option.
  3. Enter your website domain and then enter your search engine name.
  4. Now press Create and your search engine will be created.
  5. Now either you can hit Get Code and implement the search engine in your blogger blog or you can setup the engine further with more awesomeness.

So now this tutorial ends pretty much here, well we will be posting on how you can easily customize your google custom search engine using CSS like we have done on our blog, so till tell enjoy the below video explaining the whole process in a lot easier way by demonstrating you everything.