Google Search can expose a search box scoped to your website when it appears as a search result. This search box is powered by Google Search. However, if you wish to power this search box with your own search engine, or if you want search results also to include an associated mobile app, you can do so using structured data embedded on your website.
Search users sometimes enter the brand name or URL of a known site or app, only to do a more detailed search once they reach their destination. For example, users searching for pizza pins on Pinterest would type Pinterest or pinterest.com into Google Search—either from the Google App or from their web browser—then load the site or Android app, and finally search for pizza. The search box provides a quick way for users to search your site or app immediately on the search results page. The search box implements real-time suggestions and other features.
Example
Here is an example search result for "Pinterest" on Google that returns a sitelinks search box for the Pinterest website:
Here is some example markup that would implement a sitelinks search box that uses the website's custom search engine:
Here's an example in JSON-LD using the Structured Data Testing Tool:
Here's an example in Microdata using the Structured Data Testing Tool:
Here's an example of a site and an app in JSON-LD using the Structured Data Testing Tool:
Guidelines
In addition to structured data general guidelines, these additional guidelines apply to sitelinks search box markup.
Here are the steps to set up a search box for your site or app:
- Install a working search engine on your web site or Android app.
Sitelinks search queries send the user to the search results page for your site or app, so you need a functioning search engine to power this feature.
- Websites: Set up a search engine on your website or Android app. The feature forwards the user's query to your target using the syntax specified in your structured data. Your search engine should support UTF-8-encoded queries.
- Apps: See
Search Overview
on the Android Developer Site to learn how to implement a search engine for your app.
Your Android app should support an
ACTION_VIEW
intent from Search results, with the corresponding data URI specified in your markup'spotentialAction.target
property.
- Implement the
WebSite
structured data element on the homepage for your site. An app must have an associated website to enable this feature, even if the website is only a single page. A few additional guidelines:- Add this markup only to the homepage, not to any other pages.
- Always specify one
SearchAction
for the website, and optionally another if supporting app search. You should always have aSearchAction
for the website even if the app is your preferred search target; this ensures that if the user is not searching from an Android phone or does not have your Android app installed, the search result directs to your website.
- Verify your structured data using the Structured Data Testing Tool.
- Verify your search engine implementation by copying the
WebSite.potentialAction.target
URL from your structured data, replacingsearch_term_string
with a test query, and browsing to that URL in a web browser. For example, if your website is example.com, and you want to test the query "kittens", you would browse tohttps://www.example.com/search/?q={kittens}
. - Set a preferred
canonical URL for your domain's homepage using the
rel="canonical"
link element on all variants of the homepage. This helps Google Search choose the correct URL for your markup. Your server must support UTF-8 character encoding. - For apps, enable the proper intent filters to support the URL you specify in the app target of your markup. For an example of how to create intent filters for Google Search urls, see Firebase App Indexing for Android.
Prevent a sitelinks search box from appearing
Google Search can choose to add a sitelinks searchbox to your site even if it does not include the structured data described here. However, you can prevent this behavior by add the following meta tag to your homepage:
<meta name="google" content="nositelinkssearchbox" />
The sitelinks search box will be disabled as part of the normal Googlebot crawling and processing of the page, which can take a few weeks depending on the site and other factors.
Structured data type definitions
You must include the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result. You can also include the recommended properties to add more information about your content, which could provide a better user experience.
Modified type WebSite
Google Search uses a modified WebSite
structured data type both for website and
app search boxes. The full definition of WebSite
is provided on schema.org, although Google Search deviates slightly from the standard.
The description shown below is definitive.
Required properties | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
potentialAction
|
Array of one or two SearchAction objects This object describes the URI to send the query to, and the syntax of the request that is sent. You must implement a webpage or intent handler that can receive the request, and perform an appropriate search on the submitted string. If the user is not on an Android app (or is on an Android app but has not specified an Android intent target), the search box will send the website version of the query to the location specified; if the user is on an Android device and has specified an Android intent URI, it will send that intent. You should always create a website |
||||
potentialAction.query-input
|
Use the literal string |
||||
potentialAction.target
|
A string in this format: For example: https://query.example.com/search?q={search_term_string}
|
||||
url
|
Specifies the URL of the site being searched. Set to the canonical homepage of your
site. For example: |