How to Show Search Box in Google Search Results of any Website/Blogger

How to Show Search Box in Google Search Results of any Website ?

Hello Guys, ever saw search box in a search engine? Do you know how it comes? If no then- Google has a feature that displays site links and search box below your homepage's URL. It looks really cool to have it. Imagine- your blog's visitors can search directly from Google search results and Google will also show some attractive URLs from your blog which can help you in attracting more and more visitors from search engine plus, a search box from where, peoples can search what they want.

But now, the question is- How can you inform Google to show that search box for your blogger blog? So today, we are answering this question. We will not only tell you how to tell Google to show that search box for your blogger blog but also how to tell Google not to show search box for your blog (because sometimes, Google automatically shows it) and it's just a simple thing that can be done with a single line meta tag.

What does the sitelinks search box do?

The search box appears in the results when you search for certain brands or publishers, or when you add the word ‘website’ to a brand name (’sony website’) or search for a brand with its top-level domain (.com, .co.uk etc.).

If the search box appears, you can then search within that site. Here I am searching for Mashable’s articles on Instagram, which makes a change from my usual search for Gifs of kittens yawning.

Why would I want this?

Hmm, good question. After all there’s no guarantee that the searcher will find the articles they want in the listings above and may carry on with their Google research while never stepping a virtual muddy-boot in your website.

But of course we don’t do this kind of thing to get traffic, we do this to improve the experience for the user. If they can’t find a relevant article on your site, then they shouldn’t be visiting you, and if they do, they’ll bounce straight back out again.

However by serving these results, it increases the chances of a visit to your site as there are many more possible results, all of which are solely yours, without any organic or paid results from your competitor.

Moz did a little research and found that once the search box appeared in its branded results, there appeared to be a small rise in visits attributable to the box. 150 results per week, or 0.05% of all organic search sessions. Not an awful lot sure, but it’s still not to be sniffed at.

There’s also an psychological consideration to make. The search box perhaps adds a touch of extra legitimacy to your site; Google has deemed you worthy of your own search tool, so perhaps you are to be trusted.

How do I get a search box to appear in my sitelinks?

As I discussed in last week’s post on whether it matters if you come first in search or not, Schema markup gives you all kinds of options to make your search results stand out from other results; five star ratings, images, aggregated customer reviews and a search box.

In fact, according to SimilarTech, a search box is the most used Schema markup for the top 10,000 websites.

To get your own search box, the only things you need are a website with a search tool of its own and the following piece of Schema code which you need to add to the HTML of your homepage.

How to Enable it for Your Blogger Blog?

It's really easy! You just have to add a small chunk of JavaScript or a little chunk of MICRODATA in your template's head section.

Steps are following:

• Go to Blogger Dashboard > Template > Edit HTML
• We have two methods for finalizing the process of telling Google to show that search box for your blog. 

Note: - You have to do only any one method mentioned below.

Method #1- Using JSON-LD

Now, you will have to add this small chunk of code before '</head>' in your template:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "http://schema.org",
  "@type": "WebSite",
  "url": "https://www.example.com/",
  "potentialAction": {
    "@type": "SearchAction",
    "target": "https://query.example.com/search?q={search_term_string}",
    "query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
  }
}
</script>

Customization:-

• Change the highlighted URLs with your blog's URL and save your template.

Method #2- Using MICRODATA

This time, you will have to add a different chunk of code in your blog (that's why it is #2 method =P). Add this code in your template before '</head>':

<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/WebSite">
  <meta itemprop="url" content="http://www.example.com/"/>
  <form itemprop="potentialAction" itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/SearchAction">
    <meta itemprop="target" content="http://query.example.com/search?q={search_term_string}"/>
    <input itemprop="query-input" type="text" name="search_term_string" required/>
    <input type="submit"/>
  </form>
</div>

Customization:-

• Change the highlighted URLs with your blog's homepage URL and then save your template.

You're Done!

How to tell Google not to display Search Box of your blog?

Now, if you don't want Google to display search box for your blog (if you don't like it), then there is also a way by which you can tell Google that you don't want to display search box for your blog. And the way is:

• Add this Meta Tag in your template before '</head>' or after '<head>' (after '<head>' is recommended):

<meta name="google" content="nositelinkssearchbox" />

Note:- Search box of your blog will get removed within some weeks (after Google crawl your blog again).

To check it works, submit your site to the structured data testing tool or for more detail check out the Google Developers page.

Much like most things in search, there’s no guarantee that Google will recognise your effort here, especially if your website doesn’t receive much traffic from branded navigational search. However, like most things in search, it’s worth a try.

Don't forget to share it on social media with your friends and family. If any problem occurs, please comments. Thanks!