29 replies to this topic

[bims]

Google Search works fine for me...once the page has been indexed by Google...It's fast, and easy to integrate into one's site...

However, the only issue i have with it is say someone uses Google Site search to find some information on my site...when i check my Site Stats I cannot immediately tell which search results have been generated by Site search and which has been as a result of Google Web search...so it's not clear which terms you rank highly for unless you do a manual search yourself.

[artifact]

I have on every page of the website a link to "Site Search by Google". Click on the link and you will see the Google search box on a page of its own (google.htm). That separate page has my logo, the Google search box, and a brief comment about it (which just happens to have a few keywords sprinkled in). This page has its own tracking code so I can look at the site stats for that page, but I rarely do so as its results are insignificant or unimportant to the website as a whole.

When a new search term pops up in the site stats for any page, I sometimes do a quick Google search for my position and the number of web pages involved. I may tweak the Title or description tags as a result, and then followup with a manual search.

Most users don't use onsite Google (most users don't use ANY onsite engine, as I understand it), but I think its presence helps make the website more user friendly. I would rather have it there, and under-used, than not have it there at all which guarantees it won't be used.

I don't know of any other website that has a link to onsite Google on every page and a separate page for the search box itself. This technique would not be practical for most websites, but it works for mine, and over time I hope its presence will encourage more viewers to use it. The use of this separate page is another way to improve traffic via the search engine keywords being used on the page, the title tag, and the meta description.

In my experience, I think that the only truly effective way to find and develop the best keywords and phrases for any website requires a lot more than perfunctory homework. Before you can say the homework is really done, you will need to do the numerous manual searches yourself. Searches of this kind are tedious and time consuming but the long-term pay off is high rankings. You will find that you can do this better than anything or anyone else.

Finding what is best and what works for your website takes time, energy, commitment, attention to detail, and passion. I believe that anyone who has the right stuff and a passion for his/her website will find this to be true.

Good luck bims.

[Presentationrentals]

Hey artifact,

Why did you modify the google search html default coded to take visitors away form your site?

Was this a error or am I missing something.

-----------Your code--------
<!-- Search Google -->
<center>
<FORM method=GET action=http://www.google.com/custom>
<TABLE bgcolor=#FFFFFF cellspacing=0 border=0>
<tr valign=top><td>
<A HREF=http://www.google.com/search>
<IMG SRC=http://www.google.com/logos/Logo_40wht.gif border=0 ALT=Google align=middle></A>
</td>
<td>
<INPUT TYPE=text name=q size=31 maxlength=255 value="">
<INPUT type=submit name=sa VALUE="Google Search">
<INPUT type=hidden name=cof VALUE="T:black;LW:550;ALC:#FF0000;L:http://www.imagesofeyes.com/images/
ioegall550x80.gif;LC:#0000FF;LH:80;BGC:white;AH:center;VLC:#FF6600;GL:0;AW
FID:b0fdbf5204d58268;">
<font face=arial,sans-serif size=-1><input type=hidden name=domains value="imagesofeyes.com"><br><input type=radio name=sitesearch value="" checked> Search WWW <input type=radio name=sitesearch value="imagesofeyes.com"> Search imagesofeyes.com </font><br>
</td></tr></TABLE>
</FORM>
</center>
<!-- Search Google -->

results in this
(X) Search WWW ( ) Search imagesofeyes.com

[artifact]

Hey PresRent,

You asked:

Why did you modify the google search html default coded to take visitors away form your site? Was this a error or am I missing something.

I have to say I don't know what you are talking about. I have not modified the Google code in any way. And I don't see how the code is taking visitors away from my site. So I don't know if there is an error or what.

If you can explain what you mean, I will try this again.

[Presentationrentals]

Hey artifact, I'll try to explain




See how the default check is next to a world wide web search and not limiting the search to only your domain? So even if I enter a word that is contained within your site the result will bury this below other sites with higher search engine ranking. Try a few words and test it out.

This is because someone altered the code.

I’d have to test it and see if this works but here is I what I think would do the trick.

Change this line of code:

<font face=arial,sans-serif size=-1><input type=hidden name=domains value="imagesofeyes.com"><br><input type=radio name=sitesearch value="" checked>
Search WWW <input type=radio name=sitesearch value="imagesofeyes.com"> Search imagesofeyes.com </font><br>

To this:
<font face=arial,sans-serif size=-1><input type=hidden name=domains value="imagesofeyes.com"><br><input type=radio name=sitesearch value="">
Search WWW <input type=radio name=sitesearch value="imagesofeyes.com" checked> Search imagesofeyes.com </font><br>

Please let us know if you could follow my explanation and if this helped.

I was thinking of modifying the default google code myself at my own site but before I do I am going to go back and make sure that would not violate a google rule. It took me so much effort it get a descent search engine result now I don’t want to do something to get banned.

[artifact]

Hey again PresRent,

I think I have figured out what happened. I found in the computer an entry dated 12-9-01 which was a copy of the code as received from Google when I first registered to use Google Free custom. I can say again the code was copied verbatim from Google, and it has never been changed or altered.

The snippet of the original Google coding is like this, just as you saw it on my website:

<font face=arial,sans-serif size=-1><input type=hidden name=domains value="imagesofeyes.com"><br><input type=radio name=sitesearch value="" checked>
Search WWW <input type=radio name=sitesearch value="imagesofeyes.com"> Search imagesofeyes.com </font><br>

I did not notice it at the time, but you can see the original coding default is to WWW , not imagesofeyes.

I went to Google Free tonight, and discovered that the custom coding now being used defaults to the domain name, instead of WWW, if I am interpreting it correctly. Here is the entire coding from the Google website:

<deleted code that was causing scrolling issues>

You will see that the new coding defaults to [domain name].

In a day or two I will change the web page to pick up the new coding.

Can you believe that Google Free has been on the website at least four years and I never noticed the default was to WWW, or if I did notice the default to WWW, I just didn't give it any thought at all.

The "Case of the Altered Code Which Wasn't" seems to have been solved. Thanks for your input!

Edited by Scottie, 16 September 2004 - 10:36 PM.

[artifact]

A P.S. to my post, a few minutes ago.

I hate this looooooooooong horizontal scrolling, but have no idea why
my post seems to have caused it to happen.

[Jill]

It wasn't your post artifact, it was the code in PP's post above. I just added a couple of line breaks to it and we're back in business with no scroll.

[artifact]

It now seems that the "Case of the Altered Code" hasn't been solved, after all. I'm now starting to believe there are some hidden evil demons altering and wrecking the code.

The page containing the new code, with the default to domain, was uploaded to my server today. My website page with Google Free search on it looks fine and it defaults to imagesofeyes.com. BUT when I do a search on that page for, say, --art work from Africa-- the resulting Google search page does not show the logo, and the "logo" is aligned left, not center. A similar search at WWW shows the same results.

I went back to Google Free (http://www.google.co...vices/free.html),
logged in, and it shows I selected these customization options:

location of logo: [http://www.imagesofe...gall550x80.gif]
size 550 x 80
alignment of logo: center

A click of the preview button brings up the preview page, which correctly shows the logo, aligned in the center, but it shows a default to WWW, not imagesofeyes. The file name and size for the logo are correct.

Two snippets of the Google source code as it appears on the results page are as follows (spacing will be off) :

<div align="__center"><a href="http://www.imagesofeyes.com">
<img alt="Web Search" border=0 src="__http://www.imagesofeyes.com/images/ioegall550x80.gif"
width=550 height=80>
-----------------------------
<input type=hidden name=cof value=
"AWFID:b0fdbf5204d58268;L:__http://www.imagesofeyes.com/images/ioegall550x80.gif;

LH:80;LW:550;BGC:white;T:black;LC:#0000FF;VLC:#FF6600;ALC:#FF0000;AH:__c
enter;S:http://www.imagesofeyes.com;">
<input type=hidden name=domains value="imagesofeyes.com">

If you go to my website and duplicate these steps, you can see it more clearly than I am able to explain it here. Go to website, click on Site Search by Google, enter art work from africa , and see the results. The source code can be looked at. I'm not a code expert, still a fledgling beginner, but it seems to me the error may be on the Google server. My web service provider has been serving the logo image on other web pages without incident.

I've done everything I can think of, or am capable of doing, but have not been able to fix this so the logo shows and is centered. It seems I have taken two steps back, not one step forward.

Can anyone figure out what has happened and what has to be done to make the logo display correctly?!? Help!! And thanks to anyone who can!

And thanks Jill for your comment about that loooooong post. I thought for a minute I had lost it (again).

<edited scrolling issue>

[artifact]

Damn, hiding head again. Is this destined to be the loooooong scrolling thread from hell?

[Presentationrentals]

Hey Arti,

(Jill, just a FYI, this page is already requiring scrolling before I post this)

Go to the results page. Look where you see that empty box with the red X.

Here is the good news. The link works. Click on it and bingo, you are back at your site.

The picture is not working, that’s the only problem. Right click on the red X where you should see your picture. Go down to properties. Here is where Google is trying to find your picture:

http://www.google.co...egall550x80.gif

And of course that is wrong. What you want is
http://www.imagesofe...egall550x80.gif

It could be as simple as you need to delete what is in the box now then paste in the line from above.

Go back to google. Log into google free. See if you can change the settings on the url where the picture comes from. If it does not work change the url to something else, anything else with a real picture and see if you can get it to work.

Once you get some picture to work then try to the picture you want to work.

If this works please as a thank you review my Webpage

[artifact]

Hey PresRent,

I am aware that the link works. You said when you clicked on the red x the properties showed
http://www.google.co...egall550x80.gif
meaning a big chunk of the code is missing.

When I click on the red x, the properties shows the correct, complete code, which is

http://www.google.co...agesofeyes.com/
images/ioegall550x80.gif

Why wouldn't everyone who does this see the same code that I am seeing? If you enter that code into Google search box, you will get an error message that says "The requested URL.....was not found on this server." This would seem to confirm a suspected server problem; if so, why is the complete image URL in the source code?

I have been back to Google Free and the code which they show must be complete and correct. You cannot change anything in the code -- you can only copy and paste it into your webpage. I imagine this is so because Google isn't going to let anyone tinker with their code. So I cannot change the URL or the code at Google to something else as you suggested. If changing the code copied into my web page would solve the problem, I would be glad to do it, but don't know how to make it happen.

With so many experienced techies and others here who know their way around code, etc., I hope someone can offer some advice on where or what the problem is and how to fix it. Thanks again to anyone who can offer anything.

P.S. to PresRent -- your ideas didn't work, but I may review your webpage anyhow!

[Presentationrentals]

The code was longer. When I posted it this site cut stuff out of the middle. That is where you see the "......."

Just one other idea to try. Can you find a site that works the way you want? If you do, look at the code. Copy it if you need to then don’t change it, see if it works on your site. One thing at a time change the code to search your site, not the one you copied from.

Art, I use the google search on my site but I did not mess with the results page. I see even here at highrankings they let the results page be the standard page with no custom logo at the top.

[artifact]

My problem of the website logo that did not display on Google Free results page has been solved by a Google Answers researcher. You can read what caused the problem and the solution at this link:

http://answers.googl...dview?id=404463

Take a few minutes to read the very thorough, detailed answer. Problem solved! Page now displaying the website logo.

My thanks to everyone who viewed and participated in this thread.

[Presentationrentals]

Hey Art,

Wow, what a excellent reply aht-ga gave. His complex yet simple answer reminded me of a story.

A company was trying to make widgets. The widget machine was not working, every widget was defective. The company had its entire staff of engineers, vendors and designers study the problem for months on end to no avail. Finally they hired a retired employee that was doing freelance consulting.

The freelancer came in, walked up to the machine and turned one screw one turn and zinga the machine started spitting out perfect widgets. He handed the business owner a bill for $75,000. The furious owner yelled out “$75,000 that is ridiculous, I demand to see an itemized bill!” So the freelancer wrote on a piece of pager “Turning one screw one turn $1. Knowing what screw to turn $74,999. “

Kinda reminds me of the way SEO was being presented to me before I found this forum.