In order to build an ideal website, various factors need to be considered. From the design aspects- the ease of using the website to the navigation; equal importance must be placed on every aspect. Amidst all these, the one that usually gets overlooked is the need to add a search bar.
Search Bar is a simple quadrilateral that sets everything straight.
A search bar is essentially a small box that you can add to your site (whether in your sidebar, header, footer, etc.) which allows people to search your entire site for what they are looking for.
Depending on the size of your website, you may have hundreds or more posts/ pages for people to browse. You may have category links, tag links, best posts, related posts, etc. listed on each of the pages but it only goes so deep.
To enhance the user experience, Search bar plays a huge role in the sense that it allows users to search through your website quickly and easily.
For an e-commerce website, customers can just insert their query and simply click on the search button to narrow down their result. It is quicker and easier to find a product, especially if your site has too many products to offer. Quicker search-ability means, you are reducing the extra effort that your customer might have to implement, had there been no such option.
Whichever page a visitor lands on, they can search for what they want. This allows people access to some of your hidden content that would take much longer to find by clicking through countless pages.
The easier it is for people to navigate around your entire site, the more likely it is that they will. If not, they can easily click away to another site, lowering your click-through rate. Not only that but the more pages you can direct people to, the more you are likely to earn from advertising and affiliate links (they can only click on them if they can see them).
How to add a Search Bar to your site
So now that we know “why” the search bar is so important, how do you add one to your site? Well there are different ways of doing this.
1. Add it as a widget,
2. Add it manually with code.
3. Add a Custom Search Bar
Head on over to Google and you can add a custom search bar to your site. Here you will be able to design the look of your search bar to match your site.
Google offers two methods that you can use.
- Basic (Free) – Custom search bar that displays AdSense ads that can earn you money.
- Advanced (Paid) – More control over how your search bar looks and performs. Also, you don’t have to display ads if you don’t want to.
Whichever method you choose, just make sure that you include a search bar somewhere on your site (preferably where people can see it easily). That way, you are making it easy for people to find all your content.