How to Add a Search Form in a WordPress Post

Want to boost engagement on your WordPress blog?

Adding a search form inside your posts might seem unusual, but it’s surprisingly effective, especially for content-heavy sites like online magazines.

Instead of relying solely on a header or sidebar search bar, placing one within your content encourages readers to keep exploring. It’s a small change that can lead to longer sessions and more page views.

In this guide, we’ll show you step-by-step how to add a search form to your WordPress post, no matter which theme you’re using. Let’s dive in!

Why Add a Search Form to Your WordPress Posts?

If visitors enjoy a post on your WordPress website, they’re likely to want to read more. By adding a search form to a post, you can help visitors find more blogs they’re interested in reading.

In this way, you can increase your pageviews and reduce your bounce rate.

The longer visitors stay on your website, the greater the chance they’ll join your email list, leave a comment, make a purchase, follow you on social media, or take other positive actions.

In this guide, we will show you how to add the standard WordPress search form to your posts. If you want to use a custom form instead, then see our step-by-step guide on how to create a custom WordPress search form.

Having said that, we’ll share three methods for how to add a search form in a WordPress post. Just use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use:

• Method 1. Add a Search Form in a WordPress Post (Works With Any Theme)
• Method 2. Add a Search Form to All WordPress Posts (Block-Based Themes)
• Method 3. Add a Search Bar to All WordPress Posts With Code (Works With Any Theme)
• FAQs About Adding a Search Form in WordPress

Let’s get started.

Method 1. Add a Search Form in a WordPress Post (Works With Any Theme)

The simplest way to add a search form to your posts is by using the built-in Search block.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to add the block to a post, but you can also add it to any page or widget-ready area of your site.

We also recommend adding this at the bottom of your post to avoid disrupting the reading experience.

To get started, simply open the page where you want to add a search form. In the WordPress block editor, click on the + icon.

In the popup, type in ‘Search.’ When the right block appears, click to add it to the page.

By default, the block uses ‘Search’ for both its label and the button text. This text will be visible to visitors, so you may want to replace it with something more descriptive.

For example, if you’re adding the search bar to a WordPress blog, then you might want to use ‘Search recent blog posts’ or similar.

You can even use the label and button text to motivate your visitors.

For example, if you’ve created an online store, then you might use something like ‘Find more great deals’ or ‘Search for similar offers’ for your product search form.

You can also add some placeholder text. This text will disappear automatically when the visitor starts typing.

To add a placeholder, simply click on ‘Optional placeholder…’ and then start typing.

By default, WordPress will use your theme to style the search bar.

However, you can change the button’s background and text color using the ‘Color’ settings in the right-hand menu. This can help your search bar stand out from the rest of your site.

When you’re happy with how the Search block looks, you can go ahead and either publish or update the post. If you visit your site, you’ll now see the search bar within the post’s content.

You can add a search form to more WordPress posts and pages following the same process above. For detailed instructions on how to add the Search bar to a sidebar or similar section, please see our guide on how to add and use widgets in WordPress.

Method 2. Add a Search Form to All WordPress Posts (Block-Based Themes)

If you’re using a block-based theme such as ThemeIsle Hestia Pro, then you can add a search bar to the template that WordPress uses for all your blog posts.

In this way, you can quickly and easily add a search bar to every single blog post across your entire WordPress website.

To open the full-site editor, go to Themes » Editor in the WordPress dashboard.

By default, the full site editor shows your theme’s home template.

To see all the available options, select ‘Templates’ from the left-hand menu.

This shows a list of all the templates that make up your WordPress theme.

To customize the blog template, go ahead and click on ‘Single.’

WordPress will now show a preview of the blog layout.

To go ahead and edit this template, click on the small pencil icon.

You will now see this template in the full-site editor.

To go ahead and add a search bar, click on the blue ‘+’ icon.

In the popup that appears, type in ‘Search’ to find the right block.

You can now drag the block to the location where you want to show the search bar.

To customize the block title or placeholder text, simply type the new messaging into the search block.

When you’re happy with how the block looks, click on ‘Save’ to make the search bar live.

Now, if you visit any blog post on your site, you’ll see the search bar.

Method 3. Add a Search Bar to All WordPress Posts With Code (Works With Any Theme)

If you don’t use a block theme but still want the search bar to appear in all of your posts, then you will need to use code.

To do this, we recommend using WPCode. This code snippet plugin makes it safe and easy to insert custom code into your theme files without directly editing them. This way, you can add various code snippets without breaking your website.

Some of our partner brands actually use WPCode to add and manage custom code snippets. We’ve also tested it extensively, and you can see our findings in our detailed WPCode review.

What you want to do is install the WPCode plugin in WordPress. You can read our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for more information.

Then, go to Code Snippets » + Add Snippet. Select ‘Add Your Custom Code (New Snippet)’ and click the ‘Use snippet’ button.

Now, give your new custom code a name. It can be something simple like ‘Search Bar on Blog Posts.’

After that, change the Code Type to ‘PHP Snippet.’

Then, in the Code Preview box, copy and paste the following code snippet:

// Define the button text and placeholder text. You can customize these values as needed.
$button_text = 'Search'; // The text displayed on the search button
$placeholder_text = 'What are you looking for?'; // The placeholder text in the search input field

// Construct the search form HTML using the defined button text and placeholder text.
$search_form = '<form role="search" method="get" action="' . esc_url(home_url('/')) . '" class="wp-block-search__button-outside wp-block-search__text-button wp-block-search">
                    <label class="wp-block-search__label" for="wp-block-search__input-2">' . esc_html($button_text) . '</label>
                    <div class="wp-block-search__inside-wrapper ">
                        <input class="wp-block-search__input" id="wp-block-search__input-2" placeholder="' . esc_attr($placeholder_text) . '" value="" type="search" name="s" required="">
                        <button aria-label="' . esc_attr($button_text) . '" class="wp-block-search__button wp-element-button" type="submit">' . esc_html($button_text) . '</button>
                    </div>
                </form>';

// Output the search form HTML.
echo $search_form;

This code will add a basic search bar similar to the search block. You can customize the button and placeholder text as needed.

Once done, scroll down and make sure ‘Auto Insert’ is selected for the Insert Method.

For the Location, navigate to the ‘Page-Specific’ tab and choose the one that best suits your criteria. For the sake of example, we’ve chosen ‘Insert After Content.’

When you are done, just make the code ‘Active’ and click ‘Save Snippet.’

You should now see something like this:

Bonus Tips: Discover Tips and Tricks to Improve WordPress Search

The Search block uses WordPress’ built-in search feature. However, this is quite limited and not very good at showing accurate results.

In some cases, you may want your WordPress search feature to be more advanced. Perhaps you want to add a search-by-category function or make your blog post comments searchable.

That’s where SearchWP comes in. This custom search plugin gives you complete control over the WordPress site search so you can deliver more accurate results to your visitors.

SearchWP also makes all parts of your site searchable, including PDF files, ACF files, text files, WordPress custom fields, and more. You can check out our full SearchWP review to learn all its features.

After creating a custom search form, you can add it to any part of your website using either a block or a shortcode.

To learn more, please see our guide on how to improve WordPress search with SearchWP.

FAQs About Adding a Search Form in WordPress

After understanding the benefits and various methods of adding a search form to your WordPress posts, you might have some lingering questions. Below, we address some common inquiries to help you get the most out of this strategy.

Why would I want to add a search form inside a blog post?

Adding a search form directly in your posts makes it super easy for readers to discover more of your content, right when they’re most engaged. It’s a smart way to increase page views and keep people on your site longer.

Can I make the search form match my site’s style?

Absolutely! Most WordPress plugins let you tweak things like colors, placeholder text, and labels so the form blends in perfectly with your design.

What if I’m not using the block editor?

No worries. If your theme doesn’t support block-based editing, you can still add a search form using custom code. A plugin like WPCode makes it easy and safe to drop those snippets into your site.

How can I tell if my search form is actually working?

You can track performance using tools like Google Analytics. Keep an eye on metrics like time on site and page views per session. If they go up, your in-post search form is doing its job!

We hope this tutorial helped you learn how to add a search form in a WordPress post. You may also want to learn how to create a contact form in WordPress or check out our expert picks of the best conditional logic plugins for WordPress.

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