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I got called out by Mr. John a few weeks ago on Practical WordPress Tip #1, which was how to find and grab titles and links within your blog for internal linking. My technique is fine for searching one blog… but if you have a network of blogs, you need something better. You need a Google Custom Search engine. Mr John shows us how.
Search Your Blog Network With Google Custom Search
-by Mr. John
By now you probably know that one of the most important strategies you can use to improve your website SEO is to interlink your posts – linking back to older posts when you create new posts and editing older posts to link forward to newer posts. Without an effective interlinking strategy each of your articles is out on an island of itself. With good interlinking you begin to build a mesh of content that is search engine friendly and sure to help your site rank higher and be more useful for searchers.
There are a number of different methods available to help you do this interlinking. Of course the simplest approach is to use the search function of your own website. Or use Google Search with the site modifier like [topic site:mysite.com]. Our own Dr. WordPress offered his tip of using the WordPress Admin interface to find old posts and link to them. Or instead of finding specific terms to link to you could use one of the plethora of related posts plugins to automatically insert some interlinking.
Any of these solutions works just fine when you are writing on a single blog but if you have multiple blogs then the solution is not so obvious. Interlinking within your own blog network is as important (if not more so!) than interlinking on a single site. But none of the strategies above apply to interlinking across multiples websites. So what is a budding media mogul to do?
Google Custom Search to the rescue!
What is Google Custom Search?
Google Custom Search is a free product from Google that allows you to build a unique Custom Search Engine (CSE), which according to Google is “a tailored search experience, built using Google’s core search technology, that prioritizes or restricts search results based on websites and pages you specify.” Many bloggers have replaced their blogs’ standard search functionality with a CSE which offers the power of Google – meaning better search results.
But this article isn’t about that – it’s about how to build a standalone CSE for your own purposes.
How to create a Google Custom Search Engine
Building a new CSE is easy – here are the steps you need to follow:
- Create a Google Account – If you don’t already have a Google account then you need to create one.
- Create a New Custom Search Engine – Once you are signed in to your Google account, go to Google’s Custom Search Engine page and press the big blue button that says Create a Custom Search Engine. This will bring you to a simple form that you complete to make your CSE.
- Complete the CSE form – Give your new search engine a name and a description if you want, and then in the “sites to search” box give it the list of sites you want included. Put in all of the blogs in your blog network, one to a line, writing the domain like “mydomain.com”. Then check that you agree to the terms and conditions and click Next. On the next page you will be given an option to test the search engine but I wouldn’t bother as it seems to take a minute or so for it to work anyway. Just click the Finish button and you have created your first CSE!
Using Your New CSE
Once you have your Custom Search Engine built you have a number of options for how to use it. Your CSE is just a webpage so the easiest thing to do is to bookmark it. There are also a number of gadgets available to add it to your iGoogle page, if you use one. My personal favorite is the Custom Search Console gadget which gives you easy access to all of your CSEs.
Two things you can do with your CSE:
Linking backward
As you are writing a post you should search for some of the key terms in your CSE. If you have found that you have written about any of these terms before you should take this is an opportunity to link back to those older articles.
Linking forward
Same thing but in the other direction. Use your CSE to find older articles that relate to your freshly posted article, and then edit those older articles to include links to your new article.
This is classic interlinking, made easy even over a number of blogs by creating a Google Custom Search Engine.
Taking Your CSE to the Next Level
So we’ve seen how you can improve your interlinking across your own network of blogs but can we extend this out even further to include other websites in your niche or other friends’ blogs? Of course! Remember when you entered in your list of domains when you created your CSE? Well guess what – you can enter any domain there you want! It does not have to be a website that you maintain – it can just as easily be any website in your niche.
How might this be used? Well clearly it is good form to link back to others when writing a related article, and using CSE would help you do that. But you could also contact the other author and suggest they might want to link to your post from their older post. Of course this would go over better if you already know the person, but it’s worth a try either way. This kind of interlinking is not Black Hat SEO and is totally appropriate assuming the content is applicable.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article on utilizing Google Custom Search to improve your blog network interlinking. While I have utilized this technique myself writing this article has been a good reminder that I need to be even more vigilant in doing do as I write each post, not just periodically as I have been doing.
So let’s all make a New Year’s Resolution to improve our interlinking – and using Google Custom Search to do it.
Mr. John is far from a media mogul but he does write on his weight loss blog and occasionally about making a secondary income online.
Thanks for publishing the article David – if anyone has any questions I’ll be happy to answer them!
.-= john´s last blog ..2009 Popular Posts =-.
John, my pleasure. I’m trying to carve out some time to publish a few more of my really technical articles languishing in drafts.
.-= Dr WordPress!´s last blog ..Where Good Design Begins: Getting to know your customer =-.
Man, it seems Google is on its way to building a massive monopoly for all things online.
Kudos to them for thinking big. Let’s hope they don’t become too proud of themselves like Microsoft did. :)
.-= Gordie´s last blog ..The Three F-words You Must Know To Succeed. =-.
You’ve got that right, Gordie. Microsoft won’t be happy about my recent computer upgrade – sure I upgraded to Windows 7, but I didn’t reinstall Office as I now am completely happy with Google Docs. I also installed OpenOffice, but for the most part everything I do at home now I do using Google Docs. And I use Google Analytics for analysis, make money using Google Adsense, use a Google Android phone, etc etc.
Yep, they are well on their way!
.-= john´s last blog ..2009 Popular Posts =-.
Thinking of create it long time ago. But still no action, so still using WordPress built in search function now. :P
.-= Jayce´s last blog ..How to hack Facebook account profile =-.
Jayce – no better time like the present! Consider it part of your blogging education.
.-= john´s last blog ..2009 Popular Posts =-.
I had no idea Google had a custom search engine option like that. Is there a way to integrate the custom search into the search bar already on your webpage?
Also, There is an addon in wordpress that allows you to designate a link to certain words you define. You can set it to only link the first time those words are used in the post, or as often as they show up. If anyone is interested, I’ll see if I can hunt it down. It seems pretty handy for getting lots of links with they right anchor keywords. It’s also probably easier if you have years worth of content to go back and edit.
.-= Blake @ Props Blog Rewiews´s last blog ..Everything You Thought You Knew About SEO Is Wrong =-.
Blake – yep, integration is easy. As an example, go to my site and use the search box that is in my menu bar. Search for “oreos” which are something I know I have written about a few times. The results are actually using a Google Custom Search Engine that is spanning a single blog rather than multiple, but same concept. You could easily create a master site to power your search and then the search could return hits across your multiple blogs.
.-= john´s last blog ..2009 Popular Posts =-.
@Jayce – You implement it on your network, report back on the results. Either guest post, or send me an email, I’ll link back to your article. It would be very cool.
@Blake, almost sure there is a plugin for that.
.-= Dr WordPress!´s last blog ..Website In A Weekend: Friday Evening – Off to the Races =-.
Mr. John is right on point with this, I added Google custom search to all of my blogs and connected the one’s that I felt needed to be connected. It has done a few things for me, the one key thing it did is make it much easier for me to search through my own articles regardless which of my blogs the articles were on. This makes deep linking so much easier.
.-= Extreme John´s last blog ..5 Reasons Google Page Rank Drops =-.
John, same benefit once you have several hundred posts.
I have a Lijit account which supposedly does the same sort of thing, but I haven’t hooked it up yet.
.-= Dr WordPress!´s last blog ..Top 3 Social Media Bookmarking Services – Don’t leave home without them =-.
I’m in the process of trying to integrate Google CSE into my Thesis WP blog, but am having difficulty with the displayed results.
On another post on this blog it was mentioned that help might be provided to registered Thesis users, of which I am.
I’ve started a thread about my problem here http://bit.ly/anoI6W in the DIY forum.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
.-= Jim (Doggybytes.ca)´s last blog ..Eating Raw Fish Could Kill Your Dog =-.
That’s a tough one. I’d have to do some digging.
Display issues are often a CSS issue. Use Firefox to dig out what’s it’s doing now and tweak it. Fix the the CSS in the custom.css file.
Probably guest post worthy when you figure it out.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Doing It By The Numbers – Blog Post Engineering =-.
You didn’t paste enough code into your WP page, all you show are the VARs but you didn’t include the actual javascript. Go back to your search engine in CSE, click “Look and Feel” and then click the Get Code button. Paste in ALL of the code that shows in the search results code box. The code will start with “div id=”cse-search-results” (I’ve stripped out the <s in case doesn't render in the comment) and will also include script headers.
Bottom line, it's not a CSS problem it's a following instructions problem. :-)
Let me know if it helps.
.-= john´s last blog ..4 Fitness Tips for Losing Weight =-.
Nope John, it’s not a following instructions problem, at least not regarding copying the Google code into the “Search Results” page in WP.
I copied the entire code from Google into the “Search Results” page in HTML side of the WP editor starting with;
div id=”cse-search-results” (part of the fist line of code), and ending with;
script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.google.com/afsonline/show_afs_search.js” (part of the last line of code), with all that “var’ junk in the middle.
The exact code that Google gives is the exact code I’ve pasted into the HTML editor in the “Search Results” page in WP. The visible results when previewing the page are these five lines of code;
var googleSearchIframeName = “cse-search-results”;
var googleSearchFormName = “cse-search-box”;
var googleSearchFrameWidth = 600;
var googleSearchDomain = “www.google.com”;
var googleSearchPath = “/cse”;
WordPress is also putting some tags and one tag in when saving the page too, I have no idea why it’s doing that. I can take them out but they come right back with every updated of the page.
.-= Jim (DoggyBytes.ca)´s last blog ..Eating Raw Fish Could Kill Your Dog =-.
p tags and br tag didn’t make it through in the last comment.
Go ahead and link to the instructions page, I’ll watch the spam queue and pass it through. That will be helpful. If that comment doesn’t post, email me I’ll go dig it out.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Doing It By The Numbers – Blog Post Engineering =-.
Perhaps you have a plugin that is adding abnormal functionality to a page upon save? You could temporarily disable all plugins and try again.
Also, could you provide the URL to your search results page as I would like to see the resulting code. Here is mine: http://www.johnisfit.com/search-results-for-john-is-fit/ of course it won’t show anything returned but if you look at the html source code you will find the google code snippet for the search results page showing up correctly and if you actually initiate a search from the search in the header you will see it work.
And just to confirm, you are using the HTML editor and you are correctly pasting in the code. When you first paste it in I am sure it looks correct, right? At what point does it not look correct? When you hit Update on the page? When you naviagate away from the page in wpadmin and then go back to it?
.-= john´s last blog ..4 Fitness Tips for Losing Weight =-.
Thanks Dave. There was no “reply” link after your last comment so I’m starting a fresh thread.
Here’s the link to the Fourblogger tutorial and comments between Suresh and I – he’s been trying to help me out too.
http://bit.ly/cQiokM
I’ve also posted screenshots in the Thesis Support Forum of what I’m seeing on my Google Custom Search page.
Once you figure it out, and I’m sure you will now, I’d like to get a 1-2 paragraph write up from you which I will add into this article.
I’ll also be delighted to link out to both you and to fourblogger as well, such that future readers have more resources when they run into problems.
That would be easier than a guest post, and if you do write one, see if fourblogger will take as he’s been able to help your more than I can (I’d be happy to have it if he doesn’t want it though.)
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Doing It By The Numbers – Blog Post Engineering =-.
You’re more confident of an imminent solution than I am. :/
Is it possible that the p> & br /> tags (that WP is automatically adding) are messing things up?
I have no idea how to prevent them from being added, they just show up again after every update. Any ideas?
div id=”cse-search-results”>script type=”text/javascript”
var googleSearchIframeName = “cse-search-results”;
var googleSearchFormName = “cse-search-box”;
var googleSearchFrameWidth = 600;
var googleSearchDomain = “www.google.com”;
var googleSearchPath = “/cse”;
script>
Sorry, wasn’t sure what code would get stripped out of the comments, hopefully this makes it through and you understand where the p and br tags are being added by WP.
div id=”cse-search-results”>div
p script type=”text/javascript”
/script br /
script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://www.google.com/afsonline/show_afs_search.js” /script /p
Read up on wpautop. Personally, I think it’s evil: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wpautop
The problem is that globally disabling wpautop causes lot of other problems.
At this point, it’s something you need to know about though.
.-= Dave Doolin´s last blog ..Definitely up to no good (no blog post today) =-.
You aren’t using the visual editor in wordpress are you? That will strip out the script.
No, using the HTML editor John.
Dave, does that mean I’m SOL for being able to host a search results page within my blog then?
Not necessarily.
You may have to filter your results first. It’s really hard to say.
My advice would be to put this down for the weekend and let it steep for a few days. Then attack it again from a different angle.
Yeah, I should, it’s driving me nuts! LOL