How to Add Google Search to Your WordPress Site

In spite of being the world’s most popular blogging platform, the WordPress content management system provides little in the way of built-in search features. While there is a basic search widget included with any default WordPress installation, those wanting to take advantage of the more advanced features of modern search engines, such as a customized Google search feature, will need to take a few additional steps. This guide takes a look at the process of installing a custom Google search function on your WordPress website. Before you proceed, you will need to have a free Google account. You will also be able to use this account to access any of Google’s other useful services, such as Gmail, Google Docs and AdSense.

 

1. Visit google.com/cse to open the Google Custom Search Engine website. Click “Add” to add a new custom search engine. On the next page, enter the URL of your WordPress website and a name for your custom search engine. Click “Create” to save your changes. The new custom search engine will appear on your Custom Search homepage.
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2. Obtain the code for your custom search engine by clicking on the search engine you just created. Click the “Get code” button, and copy the code provided in the grey box on the next page to the clipboard.
3. In your WordPress administrator dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Editor. In the right-side column, scroll down until you find the searchform.php file. If you do not have one, it means that your current theme does not provide one of its own. In this case, you will need to create a new searchform.php file using a text editor such as Notepad before uploading it to the directory of your currently selected WordPress theme by using an FTP client (most Web hosting companies provide a Web-based FTP client).
4. Paste the code from Google into your searchform.php file and click “Update File” to save your changes. This will tell the built-in WordPress search widget to use your Google custom search engine instead.
5. In your WordPress administrator dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Widgets and drag the search widget over to the preferred widget area. The available widget areas vary depending on your currently activated theme.
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You can customize the look and feel of your custom search engine by returning to Google, clicking on your custom search engine and navigating to “Look and feel”. Changing any settings will also update the code.