Setting up Google Search on Your Go Edit Website

Note: This article covers adding a search feature to your site.

How to Set Up Google Search

To implement Google Search, go to Settings > Integration. Click Add below Search Engines.

You can add several search engines in your website’s admin panel. This allows your search widget to find results across multiple websites, if necessary.

You will see four fields:

1. Search Engine Name
2. Search Engine ID
3. API Key
4. API Type

To get the first three fields, visit this link to create your Custom Search Engine.

In the Edit Search Engine tab, click the Add button.

You will be directed to the New Search Engine tab.

In the Sites to Search field, enter your website. You can add as many sites as you’d like for your search widget to search across multiple websites.

The Search Engine Name field is where you name your search engine. This value should be pasted into the Search Engine Name field in the Go Edit admin panel.

Once complete, click the Create button.

Congratulations! You have now created your Custom Search Engine. Click the Control Panel to further modify your search engine.

In the new window, copy the Search Engine ID and paste it into your Go Edit admin panel.

Next, scroll down to the Programmatic Access section and choose which API you’d like to use:

• Custom Search JSON API provides 100 free search queries per day. If you need more, you can sign up for billing via the API Console. Additional requests cost $5 per 1,000 queries, up to 10,000 queries per day.
• Custom Search Site-Restricted JSON API costs $5 per 1,000 queries, with no daily query limit. You can also sign up for billing in the API Console.

Once you’ve decided, click the Get Started button.

To test the Custom Search JSON API free edition, click Get a Key.

In the new window, create or add an existing project.

If creating a new project, specify its name and click Next.

After this, a new window will appear showing your API key. Copy it and paste it into the Go Edit admin panel.

Important: Please note that each API generates a different key. If you select Custom Search API, use the key generated for it. If you use Site-Restricted Search API, use the corresponding key generated for it.

You should now have your API set up.

How Does It Work?

First, place the Google Search widget on the page where you want visitors to perform a search. You can find this widget in the More section.

The Google Search Results widget can also be found in the same section.

Note: Results will be displayed in the Google Search Results widget, which must be configured on the Results Page.

In the Google Search widget, specify the page where the Google Search Results widget will be located.

The Google Search Results widget will return search queries with a link to that page.

When setting up the Google Search Results widget, you need to configure the following two settings to ensure it functions correctly (all other settings can be left at their default values, although you may customise them as needed):

• Search Engine: This option allows you to select the search engine you created earlier. Without it, the widget will not provide any results.
• Cache Lifetime (hours): This setting saves search results in the browser cache for up to 24 hours, helping you reduce the number of search requests to Google, which can be useful if you’re using a paid API.

Adding a Billing Account

As of 13th August 2018, Google does not charge for creating a billing account and offers a $300 bonus for Google services, valid for 12 months. However, as this service is provided by Google, these terms are subject to change.

To create a billing account, visit this link and click Add Billing.

You will be redirected to a consent page where you can agree to Google’s Terms of Service. Once agreed, click Agree and Continue.

The next page will ask for your personal details. Here, you can choose whether to register as a business or an individual user, then fill in the relevant information.

At the bottom of the page, you will also need to specify your billing information (debit/credit card or bank account) to link to your account. Once all fields are completed, click the Start My Free Trial button.

It will take a few moments to create your account, after which you will see a popup confirming that your billing account has been successfully created.

Next, you will need to link your project to your billing account. To do this, visit this link and select your project from the dropdown menu.

Then, navigate to the Billing tab and click Link a Billing Account.