How to Add Google Search to Your WordPress Website?

Whatever content you host on your website, you want to make it as easy as possible for your visitors to navigate. Getting people to visit your website is hard enough, but this is just the first step: you need to make them happy and keep them coming for more and easy navigation go to the content they want a long way to improve user experience. You can add a search bar to your WordPress menu or let your visitors filter your content by category or tag, but there is another way to help your visitors find the content they want: Add Google search to your website. And that’s what this tutorial is about.

But WordPress comes with its own search functionality: do i really need a google search? We hear you ask. Why is exactly the question we want to address before we move on to how to do it.

Why Do I Want Google Search on My WordPress Website?

The answer is easy enough: there are benefits to harnessing the power of Google and WordPress The default search function has its drawbacks.

WordPress has a search function that works in their default themes, but pretty simple. It returns results based on keywords and that’s it really. If you want a more versatile search feature, you should look elsewhere.

Adding a custom search bar as a theme’s feature or plugin usually works better and gives you more options. Plugins and themes also require keeping up with WordPress updates. Google doesn’t do it for good or bad. Also, any search that uses your server’s resources (like using a theme’s search feature or a search plugin) can cause slow operation – in other words, it’s not a great UX if your server is dealing with more traffic than it can handle.

On the other hand, Google fastand with a Google search function, you can also limit Google’s searches to your own website or websites. Also, Google searches free for end user, and installing them on your WordPress website is also free. Finally, the world’s most popular search engine your users Take advantage of Google operators and refine your searches.

In simple terms, Google is faster and more versatile than WordPress’ search functionand also by activating the Google brand, it advertises to your visitors the efficiency and speed associated with the brand and contributing to Google becoming the search engine power it is today.

With that in mind, let’s jump right into the brass nails. There are two ways to add Google search to your WordPress website: with a plugin or by modifying your theme files. In either case, you must create a custom search engine using Google’s Programmable Search Engine service.

Here is what we will discuss:

How to Create a Custom Google Search Engine

The first thing you need to do is sign up with Google Programmable Search Engine Web site. This service allows you to: Create and configure an automatically updated custom search engine powered by Googlewe’ll show you how to add it to your website.

Once on the website, click To start.

You will be taken to the screen where you need to configure your new search engine.

The most important settings sites search domains You can set your search engine to search a single website like us, but also to search multiple websites, individual pages, parts of a website, or all domains.

You also need to set the language which defaults to English and Name your search engine.

After doing all this, you can TO CREATE your private search engine.

You will be directed to a screen with buttons to let you do it. Add to your site, view on the weband Change your search engine.

What you do next depends on the method you want to use to add Google searches to your website. In both cases, keep this tab open. You will need it later.

How to Add Google Search to Your WordPress Website Using a Plugin

If you want to use a plugin to add the custom search you created, you must first install the plugin. we will use WP Google Search. After installing, you will need to configure your custom search engine to use it. To go to the plugin configuration screen Settings>WP Google Search From your WordPress dashboard.

you will need to login Google Search Engine ID to the upper area. To find out what it is, go to your programmable search engine page and Control Panel button.

you will find search engine ID inside basic knowledge tab of the control panel of the search engine. Click to copy this ID code. copy to clipboard button.

Going back to your plugin configuration screen, enter the ID Google Search Engine ID field and click Save Changes.

Now, to introduce this custom search engine to your plugin, you need to add its widget to a widget area. To do this, go to the widget selection screen by selecting . Appearance > Widgets From your WordPress dashboard.

Next, you need to find WP Google Search The widget is on the left side of the screen. We chose to add our search to our list. Header Bottom Right domain. Note that the availability and behavior of widget areas will depend on the theme you are using. we use our flagship Bridge The theme is here Header Bottom Right The field is right next to the top menu.

To add the widget to a widget area, you can drag and drop it from the left part of the screen to a widget area on the right, or you can do as we did: select a widget area from the widget’s drop-down area -menu down and click Add Widgets.

And your widget will appear in the widget area you selected.

How to Add Google Search to Your WordPress Website Using Code

You can also choose to go a different route: changing your code. Find get code Press and click the button on your Programmable Search Engine screen.

You will see some code that you need to copy to integrate your custom search engine into your website.

Then you need to copy this code inside your theme. search form.php file. You can find it by browsing Appearance>Theme Editor.

choose search form.php enter from the menu on the right and replace all the code in it with the code you copied from your Programmable Search Engine. If you want to be more careful, back it up. search form.php file. In fact, back it up even if you just want to be careful. After changing your code, Update File.

You still need to add a search widget to your website. Set route to Appearance > Widgets and add Call Add the widget to your preferred widget area. we will add you again Header Bottom Right domain.

And your Google-powered search form will appear where you put it.

Your visitors can now search for anything and only get results from your website or from whatever corner of the internet you’ve configured your search engine to look at.

As a result

As we show, it’s easy and free to set up Google search on your website, whether you’re modifying your theme’s code or installing a plugin. Either way you can’t go wrong, just be sure to backup everything if you’re going to change your code. If you’re unhappy with WordPress’ search option, can’t find a plugin that works for you, or just want to create a better way for your users to access your content, Google may be the way to go.