Google Search API PHP Example Tutorial with Demo to Get the First Web Pages and Images as a JSON Array

Introduction

The PHP Google Custom Search API package

Simple Example

Conclusion

Google Custom Search API

Introduction

The Google Search API lets you search for given keywords and receive the results in a JSON encoded array that you can easily process in PHP.

Google is the leading search engine. Its search API provides you the same quality of results that you are used to from the Google search engine site. Using some PHP loops and array searching methods you can get very good analysis to find out where are your golden keywords ranking.

The PHP Google Custom Search API package

Google Search API enables you to send search queries 100 times a day for free. You can use it on your site but here we are using it for our applications. You can configure your search query to search both Web pages and images and you can fine-tune the ranking.

Using PHP Google Custom Search API package you can perform a search by passing in the search keywords plus an optional array of advanced search options to API call URL and get a response in JSON or ATOM.

Table of search options

Parameter name	Value	Description
q	string	The search expression
c2coff	string	Enables or disables Simplified and Traditional Chinese Search.
cr	string	Restricts search results to documents originating in a particular country.
cref	string	The URL of a linked custom search engine specification to use for this request.
cx	string	The custom search engine ID to use for this request.
dateRestrict	string	Restricts results to URLs based on date.
exactTerms	string	Identifies a phrase that all documents in the search results must contain.
excludeTerms	string	Identifies a word or phrase that should not appear in any documents in the search results.
fileType	string	Restricts results to files of a specified extension.
filter	string	Controls turning on or off the duplicate content filter.
gl	string	Geolocation of end user.
googlehost	string	The local Google domain (for example, google.com, google.de, or google.fr) to use to perform the search.
highRange	string	Specifies the ending value for a search range.
hl	string	Sets the user interface language.
hq	string	Appends the specified query terms to the query, as if they were combined with a logical AND operator.
imgColorType	string	Returns black and white, grayscale, or color images: mono, gray, and color.
imgDominantColor	string	Returns images of a specific dominant color.
imgSize	string	Returns images of a specified size.
imgType	string	Returns images of a type.
linkSite	string	Specifies that all search results should contain a link to a particular URL
lowRange	string	Specifies the starting value for a search range.
lr	string	Restricts the search to documents written in a particular language (e.g., lr=lang_ja).
num	unsigned integer	Number of search results to return.
orTerms	string	Provides additional search terms to check for in a document, where each document in the search results must contain at least one of the additional search terms.
relatedSite	string	Specifies that all search results should be pages that are related to the specified URL.
rights	string	Filters based on licensing. Supported values include: cc_publicdomain, cc_attribute, cc_sharealike, cc_noncommercial, cc_nonderived, and combinations of these.
safe	string	Search safety level.
searchType	string	Specifies the search type: image. If unspecified, results are limited to webpages.
siteSearch	string	Specifies all search results should be pages from a given site.
siteSearchFilter	string	Controls whether to include or exclude results from the site named in the siteSearch parameter.
sort	string	The sort expression to apply to the results.
start	unsigned integer	The index of the first result to return.

Simple Example

With this class the work becomes very easy. You do not need to create any search URLs and process any hard JSON responses.

<?php 
use Fogg\Google\CustomSearch\ CustomSearch; 
require 'CustomSearch.php'; 

//Initialize the search class 
$cs = new CustomSearch(); 

//Perform a simple search 
$response = $cs->simpleSearch( 'whole foods' );

The response will be an object with all the results for the keywords you send in the query, in this example "whole foods". You will need then search for your site in this array and you will get your position. Do that for all your keywords and you will get which keywords best suites for you.

Conclusion

The PHP Google Custom Search API is a package that allows external applications to perform searches using the Google search engine. This class can perform arbitrary searches on Google using its custom search API.

Next part of this article you will learn how to perform advanced queries and how to find your Web site pages ranked in the Google search results.

If you liked this article or have questions about searching using the official Google Search API, post a comment here.

Google Search API PHP Example Tutorial with Demo to Get the First Web Pages and Images as a JSON Array

Contents

Introduction

The PHP Google Custom Search API package

Simple Example

Conclusion

Introduction

The PHP Google Custom Search API package

Table of search options

Simple Example

Conclusion

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Google Search API PHP Example Tutorial with Demo to Get the First Web Pages and Images as a JSON Array

Contents

Introduction

The PHP Google Custom Search API package

Simple Example

Conclusion

Introduction

The PHP Google Custom Search API package

Table of search options

Simple Example

Conclusion

You need to be a registered user or login to post a comment

1,616,151 PHP developers registered to the PHP Classes site. Be One of Us!

Login Immediately with your account on:

1,616,151 PHP developers registered to the PHP Classes site.
Be One of Us!