Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is - Custom Site Search

Two days ago I wrote about how your website is your face. In the article, I mentioned that you can create a Google Custom Search Engine for free to help your customers find products on your websites.

Today I'm putting my money where my mouth is. The company I called out was Roche, a company who's products I use and respect. So this morning I built them a Custom Search Engine (CSE) to find products on their website. The link is here - Roche Product Engine.

Here's the process

1. Log In to Google Account
   
2. Find and open CSE Creator
   
3. Fill out form
   
4. Find the product domain URL for Roche products in separate window
   
5. Paste URL into CSE window, read format tips, re-format URL to search entire domain roche-applied-science.com/*
6. Accept Terms and Decide on Standard vs Business Terms (we pay you vs you pay us)
7. Test Search Engine with product Im looking for this morning -
   

Search - "LightCycler FastStart DNA MasterPLUS SYBR Green I"

I get 35 or so hits only on Roche's site. Most of the results are in pdfs? That's frustrating! I want to order a product. Maybe that's why I can't find anything on Roche's website!
(Note: that in its exuberance Google will index anything on your site including handwritten Post-it notes on your desktop - kidding)

Ok how to fix that.... easy exclude pdf from the search by telling google to stop. You do this by adding a minus sign (-) infront of any term you want to exclude.

so... Search... LightCycler FastStart DNA MasterPLUS SYBR Green I -pdf

Bam! the first link is exactly the page for the product I want to buy

I encourage you to try it yourself. Click here to try my Roche Product Engine

I will try and make a video of this process later today. There are tons of options for customization, removing the ads, etc. That is another blog....



Bonus Cooking Tip of the Day - Wrap celery in aluminum foil in the fridge and it will keep for months! Who knew!