Google Site Search Now Includes Custom Indexing; Will it Improve Your Google Rankings?
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008;
-- Andy Beal |
It appears Google’s Custom Search Business Edition is undergoing a metamorphosis. Just announced, the hosted site search solution will be renamed Google Site Search.
In addition to the easier to remember name, Google’s also adding a bunch of new features and upgrades, including:
- Enhanced index coverage: comprehensive search results on any website by crawling and indexing more content, even pages deep within a site;
- Synonyms: queries expand to include commonly-searched terms (a search for [car] will now include [cars]), and website owners can add their own custom synonym dictionary (a search for [fd] would include [fixed deposits] in search results);
- Date biasing: site owners can influence search results based on the age of documents (e.g., a recent product datasheet is weighted more heavily than older product documents);
- Top results biasing: specific sections of the site (such as the product catalog) appear at the top of search results
- Full customization of the look & feel: site owners can fully customize the search results interface to integrate with the unique look and feel of their sites.
What caught my attention is the upgrade I noted above in bold. Google Site Search’s previous weakness was its reliance on Google’s main index to provide the site search results. If a site wasn’t fully indexed by Google.com, Google Site Search choked. With the new updates, Google Site Search gets its own index, allowing users to ensure all their web content is indexed.
Are you thinking, what I’m thinking?
Will Google use Site Search to supplement its main Google.com index?
That’s what I asked Nitin Mangtani, Lead Product Manager, Enterprise Search. His response? Pages indexed by Google Site Search will not be shared with the Google.com index. However, he did confirm that other data, such as site search queries, "could" be leveraged in Google.com.
Google Site Search starts at $100 a year for up to 5,000 pages. Want to know how it looks, here’s a sample implementation.
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June 3rd, 2008 at 4:48 am
[...] Now almost a year later, it seems this service is finally headed up for a renovation. According to Market Pilgrim, this service has been given a new name and also been given an uplift with new features and [...]
June 3rd, 2008 at 5:31 am
That’s an interesting idea and it’s not a stretch if Google had to use site searches as a distributed way of bolstering it’s own search index.
Would be an interesting revenue stream for Google if every SEO “expert” and his dog started recommending to clients to get their own custom search …
Owen Cutajar’s last blog post..Time for a HoneyPot
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:04 am
Nice way to charge for the privilege of crawling the deeper pages in a site, at the same time adding value to Google’s search results overall. Seems like a winner for both Google and the website owner.
June 3rd, 2008 at 6:29 am
As far as I know there is free version with less features.
Mobile PC guy’s last blog post..ASUS EeePC 1000 (1001) on Computex 2008
June 3rd, 2008 at 7:50 am
What a nice idea
Good for both parties - google and google users
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:22 am
Very interesting subject!
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:24 am
I dont like the idea that google uses these results to add them to their search results. In the long run this would lead two 2 classes of sites: Those that pay and get fully indexed and those that dont pay and get only partially indexed
June 3rd, 2008 at 9:29 am
I didn’t realize, that Google charged for using their search specifically for your site. $100 is pretty cheap, if you have a large enough site. While there may not be any benefits to the main G index, I wonder if that may change down the line?
Top Rated’s last blog post..Looking For Top Rated Point And Shoot Digital Cameras?
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:10 am
Very good for google, very bad for net neutrality. If customers who pay for it get better indexing of their sites in the normal index, then ranking will soon be a question of money and not of quality or effort
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:55 am
But why would it improve your rankings? The title is somewhat misleading.
seo dude’s last blog post..23 creative ads for your inspiration.
June 3rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
@SEO dude - how is the title misleading? I ask a question, not make a statement. And, we answer the question in the post.
June 3rd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
It will definitely be interesting to see how the benefits play out.
Maria Reyes-McDavis
Web Success Diva’s last blog post..Internet Marketing Links for June 2, 2008
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
With this search will sponsored links be displayed in the results.
As far as better indexing, its got to be better, as they are indexing our sites, it just makes sense.
It would be interesting to see what happens next.
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:37 pm
[...] Google’s Site Search now includes custom indexing, could mean better search rankings for your websites. Marketing Pilgrim really breaks down what this will mean for you. [...]
June 4th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Thanks for this news! It very useful tool for my business.
June 4th, 2008 at 5:42 am
Let’s just see how this will impact to our page ranking…
June 5th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Ranking is already a question of money….
June 17th, 2008 at 2:34 am
[...] to the Market Pilgrim, the Google Custom Search Engine Business Edition is now being given a new name and is now also [...]