Searching for Revenues

When it comes to searches that really turn up results, Google is the King of
the Hill. A dozen or so other search engines are out there, and some of them
even offer search capabilities for Web sites and enterprises; but none of them
match the power of Google and none of them have gained the confidence
of users like Google has. Google’s known for results, and that’s why using
AdSense for Search makes so much sense.
If you’ve had a Web site for any amount of time, you’ve probably already discovered
that you must have search capabilities on your site. Whether those
search capabilities are only for your Web site or are for the entire Web is a
decision that’s best based on the amount of content you have on your site,
but it’s probably no secret to you that users want search capabilities. In fact,
you may have already added Google Search to your Web site, using either
Google’s free search capabilities or the Google Custom Search Engine.
So, if you’ve already added Google Search to your site or you’ve strongly
considered doing so, why not go the extra mile and add a search capability
that makes you a little bit of money? Admittedly, AdSense for Search probably
won’t ever make you as much money as AdSense for Content, but that
shouldn’t stop you from trying. Why let even a little bit of potential coin surf
away from your site untapped?
Here’s how it works: A visitor to your site types a search query into your
AdSense-enabled Google search box in hopes of finding something either on
the Web as a whole or just on your Web site. You don’t get paid just because
the visitor used the search box on your Web site. Instead, you get paid if that
visitor clicks one of the ads in the search results that are shown from the
search box that you put on your page. It’s a secondary-click revenue stream,
which means that, with AdSense for Search, the revenues are admittedly a
little harder to get to. Visitors must first use the search box and then click
through an ad for you to get paid.
Just because it’s not a direct click doesn’t mean you should ignore the
potential of this AdSense approach. The fact is that every site has visitors
that won’t find exactly what they’re looking for. If they found your site with
a search engine, they’ll likely go back to that search engine and refine their
search term. If they found your site directly and it doesn’t contain what they
want, they’ll probably surf away to search for what they want.
Also, if you already have search capabilities on your site, visitors who use
those capabilities are already seeing the ads that are shown in the search
results. You’re just not getting paid for them. If you have the capability
anyway, you should at least be able to collect revenue from increasing
Google’s confidence level.
Besides, if the visitor will leave your site anyway to search for the information
she’s looking for, why not give her the option of searching from your
site? The visitor benefits in time saved, and you benefit in the possible revenue
stream.
Plenty of options for the types of search you can allow are available, too.
Users can
Conduct a site search
Conduct a Web search
Conduct a targeted search
See results returned on your Web site
See results returned on the Google site
It’s not just plain vanilla search, in other words. You can really punch up
your search capabilities so that your site visitors can search with style and
find what they’re looking for. You can even direct the search so that users
aren’t pulling information from your competition.