Google custom search or WordPress built-in search function?

I'm currently using WordPress, and the main reason why I decided to use it in all my website (at least before I discovered the other features) is that it has a built in search function.

WordPress search serves results based on reverse order of the date, not based on relevancy. It's useful for new blogs with less than 50 posts but not for around 100 or more.

I'm thinking of shifting to Google custom search. I think it's better for two reasons:

1. Search results based on relevancy

2. Can put google adsense ads in search results page.

However, there are certain things that prevent me from using it.

1. Sometimes, it serves random snippets from the post instead of the post excerpt in the search results page

2. I want to restrict the search results of the Custom Search to the posts only, but have other pages (categories, homepage, etc) to appear in Google's search results as accessed in Google's website.

So what do you guys think is the better decision? Shift to Google Custom Search or keep the WordPress built-in search function?

Also, in particular #2. Is it possible to do this? If the search was done through the embedded Google Custom Search in my website, only the posts will be served, but if the search was done through google.com, my home page and category pages can still appear.

Thanks!

 

you can try install CUSTOM SEARCH PLUGIN ... there are some plugin on WP, just try it .. they have "custom" to provide what you need.

for my website, i use google custom search, because i have a lots of data (100K post) which to heavy for database on every search query.

hope help.

 

Hi anest. Thank you. I'll look at that plugin sometime this week.

My site has 80+ post. I'm thinking of using the custom search because of the adsense ads for search.

My particular concern is if it is possible to display posts pages only when using the Google custom search embedded to my site, but also display the main, category pages, static pages, etc when searching at google.com itself.

 

The Wordpress plugin for Google search is definitely the way to go - I agree, the default Wordpress search is terrible. Here's that plugin: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-custom-search-for-wordpress/ - you can see the demo through that page, it looks pretty nice.