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Friday, September 05, 2014
Today you'll see a new and improved sitelinks search box. When shown, it will make it easier for
users to reach specific content on your site, directly through your own site-search pages.
What's this search box and when does it appear for my site?
When users search for a company by name—for example, "Megadodo Publications" or
"Dunder Mifflin"—they may actually be looking for something specific on that website. In the
past, when our algorithms recognized this, they'd display a larger set of
sitelinks and an additional search box
below that search result, which let users do
site: searches
over the site straight from the results, for example site:example.com hitchhiker guides.
This search box is now more prominent (above the sitelinks), supports
Autocomplete,
and—if you use the right markup—will send the user directly to your website's own
search pages.
How can I mark up my site?
You need to have a working site-specific search engine for your site. If you already have one, you
can let us know by marking up your home page as a
schema.org/WebSite entity with the
potentialAction
property of the
schema.org/SearchAction
markup. You can use JSON-LD, microdata, or RDFa to do this; check out the
full implementation details
in our documentation.
If you implement the markup on your site, users will have the ability to jump directly from the
sitelinks search box to your site's search results page. If we don't find any markup, we'll show
them a Google search results page for the corresponding site: query, as we've done
until now.
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],[],[[["\u003cp\u003eGoogle has launched an improved sitelinks search box, displayed above sitelinks, enabling users to search specific content within a website directly from Google Search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe sitelinks search box appears when users search for a company or website name, indicating an intent to find something specific on that site.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eWebsite owners with a site-specific search engine can implement schema.org/SearchAction markup on their homepage to direct users from the sitelinks search box to their own search results.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIf the markup is not implemented, Google will display a regular Google Search results page for a site: query.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eCommon implementation issues include ensuring the search query URL is valid and that the query-input field matches the target field's search term parameter.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["The document discusses an enhanced sitelinks search box feature for websites. When users search for a company, a prominent search box may appear above sitelinks. Website owners can enable users to search their site directly from this box by implementing specific markup on their homepage, using `schema.org/WebSite` and `schema.org/SearchAction`. This markup, using JSON-LD, microdata, or RDFa, directs users to the site's search results page. Proper URL formatting and `query-input` field alignment in the markup are crucial for correct functionality. The old sitelink search box is no longer available.\n"],null,["# An improved search box within the search results\n\nFriday, September 05, 2014\n| It's been a while since we published this blog post. Some of the information may be outdated (for example, some images may be missing, and some links may not work anymore). The [sitelinks search box feature is no longer available](/search/blog/2024/10/sitelinks-search-box).\n\n\nToday you'll see a new and improved sitelinks search box. When shown, it will make it easier for\nusers to reach specific content on your site, directly through your own site-search pages.\n\nWhat's this search box and when does it appear for my site?\n-----------------------------------------------------------\n\n\nWhen users search for a company by name---for example, \"Megadodo Publications\" or\n\"Dunder Mifflin\"---they may actually be looking for something specific on that website. In the\npast, when our algorithms recognized this, they'd display a larger set of\n[sitelinks](/search/docs/appearance/sitelinks) and an additional search box\nbelow that search result, which let users do\n[`site:` searches](/search/docs/monitor-debug/search-operators/all-search-site)\nover the site straight from the results, for example `site:example.com hitchhiker guides`.\n\n\nThis search box is now more prominent (above the sitelinks), supports\n[Autocomplete](https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/106230),\nand---if you use the right markup---will send the user directly to your website's own\nsearch pages.\n\nHow can I mark up my site?\n--------------------------\n\n\nYou need to have a working site-specific search engine for your site. If you already have one, you\ncan let us know by marking up your home page as a\n[schema.org/WebSite](https://schema.org/WebSite) entity with the\n[potentialAction](https://schema.org/docs/actions.html)\nproperty of the\n[schema.org/SearchAction](https://schema.org/SearchAction)\nmarkup. You can use JSON-LD, microdata, or RDFa to do this; check out the\n[full implementation details](/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/sitelinks-searchbox)\nin our documentation.\n\n\nIf you implement the markup on your site, users will have the ability to jump directly from the\nsitelinks search box to your site's search results page. If we don't find any markup, we'll show\nthem a Google search results page for the corresponding `site:` query, as we've done\nuntil now.\n\n\nAs always, if you have questions, you can ask in our\n[Webmaster Help forum](https://support.google.com/webmasters/go/community).\n|\n| **Update (16:30h CET, September 12th)**: We're noticing an enthusiastic uptick in the markup\n| implementation after the initial announcement last week! Here are the two main issues we've\n| observed so far, and what you need to do to fix them:\n|\n| 1.\n| Make sure that when you replace the curly braces and all that's inside of it with a search\n| term it leads to a valid URL on your site.\n|\n|\n| For example: if your `target` value is\n| `https://www.example.com/search?q={searchTerm}`,\n| ensure that `https://www.example.com/search?q=foo` and\n| `https://www.example.com/search?q=bar` both lead to search result pages about\n| `foo` and `bar`.\n| 2.\n| Make sure that the `query-input` field points to the same string that's inside\n| the curly braces in the `target` field.\n|\n|\n| For example: if your `target` value is\n| `https://www.example.com/search?q={searchTerm}`, you must use\n| `searchTerm` as the `name` within `query-input`.\n\nPosted by [Mariya\nMoeva](https://twitter.com/marrrr), Webmaster Trends Analyst, and Kaylin Spitz, Software Engineer"]]
