How to Create a Search Bar in WordPress

Have you ever struggled to find what you were looking for on a website? Search bars are a crucial element of any website design and can help visitors quickly and easily find the content they need. In this article, we will guide you through how to make a search bar in WordPress – one of the most popular content management systems (CMS) in the world.

Why You Should Have a Search Bar on Your Site

A search bar is essential for improving user experience on your website. Visitors can navigate your site more efficiently and find the content they want without having to click through numerous pages. As a result, adding a search bar can increase user engagement and make your site more user-friendly.

Step 1: Install the WordPress Search Bar Widget

WordPress provides an easy way to add a search bar to your website by offering a widget specifically for the task. Go to Appearance → Widgets in the WordPress dashboard, and locate the “Search” widget. Drag it to the “Sidebar” or “Widget Area” on the right. However, the location you place your search bar depends on the theme you are using.

Step 2: Configure the Search Bar Widget Settings

Once you’ve added the search bar widget, you need to configure its settings. Expand the “Search” widget’s settings by clicking on the small arrow on the right corner of the widget. The settings options include:

1. Title – the text that appears above the search bar
2. Placeholder – the message or text displayed when no text is entered
3. Search Button – choose whether to display a search button
4. Submit Button text – customize the text on the search button

Once you’re done configuring the search bar widget’s settings, click the “Save” button to save your changes.

Step 3: Customize the Search Bar with CSS

If you need further customization, you can use CSS to change the size, color, and layout of the search bar to match your website design. To add CSS code to your WordPress theme’s style.css file, go to Appearance → Editor in your WordPress dashboard, select your theme’s “style.css” file, and add the following code to the bottom of the file:

/* Change search bar background color */
.widget_search input[type="text"] {
    background-color: #FFFFFF;
}

/* Change search bar text color */
.widget_search input[type="text"] {
    color: #999999;
}

/* Change search button styling */
.widget_search input[type="submit"] {
    background-color: #333333;
    color: #FFFFFF;
    border: none;
    border-radius: 3px;
    padding: 5px 10px;
}

Feel free to modify the search bar’s colors and styling using the values within the CSS code.

Step 4: Add Advanced Search Functionality

If you want to offer your visitors more advanced search functionality, you can use plugins like the SearchWP plugin. This plugin allows you to create custom search engines for your website, search specific categories or custom post types, and offers search statistics and faceted search options. To add the SearchWP plugin to your WordPress site, go to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress dashboard, search for “SearchWP,” and click the “Install Now” button next to the plugin. After installing the plugin, you need to activate it and configure its settings. You can access the plugin settings by going to Settings → SearchWP.

By following these steps, you can create a search bar in WordPress that enhances your site’s user experience, increases user engagement, and makes your site more user-friendly.