A search function on websites has been nothing new for a long time and everyone is very familiar with the function of the small magnifying glass. But what if all of a sudden a completely new opportunity arises? An opportunity that blurs the boundaries of the websites you have created, both for you and for your customers?
With the Google Search Smartstore plugin, you can now take advantage of the search engines. This is ideal exactly when your Smartstore installation is primarily about content and less about store items.
To search for store items, there is already Shop Search, and a smart extension MegaSearch. With the Google Search plugin, you can now offer your visitors a search across all pages and their content.
A targeted search with the help of the familiar Google format
The Google-Search plugin allows Smartstore shop owners to make the content from a website searchable. What makes this feature special, however, is that other external websites can also be included if you wish so. You may have other valuable content placed on the web besides your Smartstore shop that also needs to be included in the search. You can freely specify and define which external websites will be searched. You may even have used the plugin yourself without noticing it. Because we at Smartstore also use it for our own homepage smartstore.com. When a search is being made using the corresponding input field, results from the external online documentation docs.smartstore.com are also displayed.
Now you can also use this feature.
And the best thing is: it only takes a few clicks and you have full control over the websites included in the search. Customers immediately get a better overview of the services and content you offer. And all of this without having to fight through a jungle of results and links, as it is often the case with standard search engines.
How do I configure the “Google Search” plugin correctly?
After installing the new Smartstore Google Search plugin, only a few steps separate you from having your own search engine that works for you.
-
You log in with your Google account and then go to the URL https://programmablesearchengine.google.com/. On this you then add a new search engine.
-
The next step is to specify the domain of the website you want to search, select a language, and give your search engine a name.
-
Now edit your search engine, copy the search engine ID and enter it in the plugin’s configuration.
Additionally activate the option "Replace search". If you want to place the search over a wigdetzone yourself and the default search of your store should be hidden, select "Hide search".
-
From now on, the indexed website results from Google will be displayed in the Smartstore shop or your homepage implemented with Smartstore. To facilitate the view of results, you can activate and save the “Results only” option under “Design”. This way, an additional window will not be opened after you have finished the search.
If you want to hide the Google ads displayed in the hit lists, you need to purchase a corresponding service from Google. Now if that is the case it can be found here: https://support.google.com/programmable-search/answer/9069107?hl=de&ref_topic4513742
How to get Google Search
The Smartstore plugin Google-Search is an in-house development of SmartStore AG and can be purchased after a consultation with our sales department, starting with the licence of the Premium Edition.