Finding the search engine GET variable for PrestaShop 1.5

While adding a search engine to your list in PrestaShop 1.5, there is a required field for the $_Get variable. This is the name of the variable parameter used by the search engine when looking up sites or pages related to the search term.

This variable is important as PrestaShop must know what it is so it can parse the search term out and add that to your Search Engine Keywords report. Once you know how to identify the variable you can then properly add any search engine to your list. Follow along below as we explain how to determine the $_Get variable for a search engine.

Determining the $_Get variable for a search engine

1. Go to your desired search engine. This can be any search engine you like that is not represented in the list like DogPile.com, AskJeeves.com, Mamma.com, etc.
2. Type your search term in the search box. Here we will search for “PrestaShop theme”. Once the search engine does the search, you will get the results page. Look in the address bar of the browser and search through the code until you notice your search term. It will be preceded by an ampersand (&) and either a word or letter followed by an equal sign (=). The word or letter between the & and the = is the variable. In the screenshots below, we included several examples and have the $_Get variables and search terms highlighted.
   

   

   You can see here that the dogpile engine uses the letter ‘q‘ as the $_Get variable.

   

   The Korean search engine naver.com uses the word ‘query‘ as their $_Get variable.

   

   Virgilio, an Italian search engine, uses ‘qs‘ as their $_Get variable.

   

   Here, the famous Google engine uses ‘q‘ for their $_Get variable.

3. Once you have identified the letter or word that is used for the search engine, you can correctly configure your search engine when adding it to the list. The variable will be the data you enter in the $_Get variable field. A sample screenshot is shown below:
   

   Be sure to finish learning about the search engine data management by checking out our article on deleting a search engine in PrestaShop 1.5