Google has always closely guarded the secrets of how exactly their search engine works, but a newly updated service from the company, that lets web site operators pay to use the company’s search technology, allows business to get a foothold in the, constantly changing world of search engine optimisation.

The service was launched in July 2007 with the name Custom Search Business Edition but now has the more palatable name, Google Site Search, said Nitin Mangtani who is the product manager for enterprise and small business search at Google.

“With this launch, we are giving full control to the Webmasters for indexing as well as for customizing these search results,” Mangtani said.

Google Site Search’s annual fees correspond to the number of Web pages Google indexes at a company site;

$100 for up to 5,000 pages
$500 for up to 50,000 pages
$850 for up to 100,000 pages
$2,250 for up to 300,000 pages
and custom pricing beyond that.

Customers are increasingly aware of how to use search engine’s to find what they are looking for. Search engines are able to infer, to a rough degree, the intent of the searcher.

The intent becomes clearer when the customer has taken the trouble to visit a company’s web site. If well done, the search box can connect users with what they want to buy, instructions on how the product works, forums to discuss company topics and the right contact in the sales department.

Put simply, if the customer gets exactly what they need at one website, they are less likely to look at a competitor’s site. To ensure the company are happy relying on Google search technology, there going to want to make sure it can meet there own needs for the business. The re-vamped service from Google makes that easier.

Some aspects of Google Site Search have remained the same. Customers can place a search box on their site and customise it to fit in with the look and feel of the page. They can also customise the appearance of the results and share Google ad revenue if they wish.

According to Google, What’s new is that customers now have three ways to influence the search results;

With “synonyms,” customers can upload a custom dictionary that Google can use to translate or interpret site-specific terms. For example, a banking company might want “SD” to be translated as “safety deposit” for searches on its site.

With “date biasing,” customers can ensure more recently published documents rank higher in search results.

With “top results biasing,” customers can make sure specific documents are high in the search results. That could be useful, for example, for a company selling digital cameras that has a promotional partnership with specific camera makers, Mangtani said. Or it could show online catalog results preferentially.

Google made it clear that it was careful not to let the user-configurable search results affect the main Google search site. “Any special indexing we do for Google Site Search customers doesn’t impact the ranking on Google.com,” Mangtani said.