4 Terrific Spots for Search Unit Placement

Search units are a form of value addition to your site. Here’s why I say this -

»Adsense Search Units make your site(s) searchable, and that too FREE of cost. If you were to implement this by your own, it wouldn’t have been as efficient as this one from Google.

»Your users can search the web without leaving your site. You can either set the search results open in a new window or you can develop a page on your own site, for the search results to open.

»Custom search is a great feature that would keep visitors coming back. With the new Custom search from Google, you can configure to search selected sites or sites that are built around a selected phrase. (ex:- body building)

»You get paid when they click on an ad in the search results. The page that displays the search results also has ads on it. When some users click you get paid.

Having seen the merits, now let’s see the 3 most successful spots for the search box. Yes, it’s important to keep them at these spots to be easily seen by your visitors.

Top Tittle Side
This is one of the places where your visitors would look at when they feel like searching your site. This position goes in accordance with the Google Golden triangle and won’t interfere with other components of your site.


Top of Right Sidebar
This is another position for your search unit where it would get just the required attention and not more. And this holds good if you already have a right sidebar in place. As this location is not always the very best for your ad units, you can use the search unit here. Just below the search box, you can also place ad units where they would get a better visibility that if the search box were not there.


Top of Left Sidebar
This is yet another good position where your search box can go in well without making the site look cluttered. This is also based on the Google Golden triangle. However, this location can be a prime spot for ads. So do a bit of testing for yourself before you fix up your search units at this position. You will have to draw a balancing line between ads and search unit for this spot.


Now if you have both side bars, it’s better to place the search unit on the right one and consider the left one for ad units / link units. (Of course, you may have your own links!)

Bottom of the Long Page
While all the above spots suited well for the first search unit on your page, this spot can hold your second search unit. When your visitors reach the bottom of the page, they may not see the search box that is above the fold. You wouldn’t want your visitors to scroll all the way up to search. This would especially hold good for long pages. The large rectangle unit placed just above this search unit can also work wonders.

That’s it about search box placement for your site. Start experimenting with these positions and choose the best among these for your site.

We have already covered ad unit placement for standard web sites. The next post in this series would cover Ad unit placements on blogs. Stay tuned!