Looking to enhance your website navigation with a search bar?
A search bar is a user interface element that allows visitors to your website to search for specific content or information. Adding this feature enhances the user experience and provides valuable insights into your visitors’ interests.
One of the easiest ways to add a search bar to your Elementor website is by using an Elementor search bar widget.
This article will guide you through the necessities and process of adding an Elementor search bar widget to your website.
So let’s get started!
What is a Search Bar Widget?
An Elementor search bar widget is a pre-built tool that helps you to easily add a search bar to your Elementor-powered website.
It provides a functional search bar that visitors can use to find content on your site. In addition, the search bar widget also offers customization options, allowing you to style it to match the overall design of your website.
Why You Should Add a Search Bar to WordPress Website?
Adding a search bar on your WordPress website offers several benefits. It enhances the user experience by providing a quick and easy way for visitors to find the information they want.
Additionally, the search data collected provides valuable insights into your audience’s interests, helping you improve your content strategy and overall website optimization.
Furthermore, by adding a search bar, you’re making your website more user-friendly and increasing the chances of visitors finding the content they need.
Pre-requisites For Adding a Search Bar
You may use different ways to add a free search bar to your Elementor-powered website.
You can write custom code to create a search bar and seamlessly integrate it within your Elementor-powered website. However, this method requires various technicalities and coding knowledge to implement.
You can also consider using the built-in widgets the Elementor page builder offers. As we know, Elementor is a popular builder offering a huge library of widgets, including the search bar widget.
While the widgets Elementor page builder offers these functional widgets, its advanced customization requires you to have the premium version.
Another method to easily add a search bar widget to your site is to use a third-party plugin. Various Elementor add-on plugins offer a huge library of widgets to enhance your website’s features and functionality.
One such free Elementor Addon plugin which we recommend you to use is the Responsive Addons for Elementor plugin. Responsive Addons for Elementor is a powerful WordPress plugin offered by Cyberchimps. It provides a library of 80+ free widgets that help you enhance the functionality and customization options within the Elementor page builder.
The plugin also offers 150+ WordPress website templates that help you instantly build a website.
The Responsive Addons for Elementor offer a variety of advanced widgets, including a specialized Elementor Search bar widget.
How to Add Elementor Search Bar to Your Website
To add a search bar to your WordPress website with Responsive Addons for Elementor, follow the following steps:
Step 1: Install and Activate Responsive Addons for Elementor
Navigate through your WordPress Admin dashboard and go to Plugins > Add New Plugin.
Go to the search bar and search for responsive addons for elementor.
Next, click on the Install Now button.
Click on the Activate button to activate the plugin.
Step 2: Adding Elementor Search Bar Widget to Elementor Site
Once you have added the plugin, open the page where you want to add the Search bar.
[For the purpose of this article, we will be using the Influencer WordPress Website Template. For more templates, check out the 150+ Elementor templates offered by the Responsive Addons plugin].
Once you’ve selected the page, click on Edit with Elementor.
Search for the Search Bar in the widget search bar.
Next, drag and drop the RAE Search Bar widget.
Once you’ve added the widget, you can customize it using the following step.
Step 3: Customizing Search Bar
The Elementor search bar allows you to customize the search bar with the following options:
Customizing the Search Form
Skin: You can choose a skin for your search form and make it appear in classic, minimal, or full screen.
Placeholder: Select a custom text that would appear on the placeholder of the search form.
Button: This allows you to add a button in your search form in the form of either text or an icon and further adjust the size of the button.
Step 4: Styling Search Bar
The Elementor search bar allows you to style the search bar with the following options:
Styling Search Bar Input
Typography: You can select the overall typography of the text on the search form.
Text Color: Set the text color as you need.
Background Color: You can also set the color of the background of the search bar input.
Border Color: This allows you to set the border color for the input field.
Box Shadow: This allows you to create a box shadow effect for the search box.
Border Size: This allows you to set the border size of each corner.
Styling Search Bar Button
Text Color: This allows you to set the button’s text color in the search bar.
Background Color: Choose a color to set the background of the button.
Icon Size: This allows you to set the size of the overall button icon.
Width: Set the width of the button widget.
How To Use the RAE Search Bar Widget?
Now that you know how to add a search bar widget to your website and the customization settings are at your disposal. Let’s understand how I used them to create a fully-fledged search bar.
You can follow the same steps to customize and style or make changes as necessary.
Content Customization of Search Bar
For the content, I kept the changes minimal and kept the content’s appearance simple.
I used the classic search form skin and changed the placeholder text to “Search here…” I kept the search bar button as the default type icon and slightly increased the overall size of the search button.
Styling Search Bar Widget
Once these basic content customizations were done, I directly jumped into styling the search bar’s visuals.
To style the search bar’s input, I made a few changes in the typography, changing the font family, weight, and size. I also changed the text, background, and border color in both the normal and focused states to match the overall website appearance.
Furthermore, I also added a box shadow to the search bar and adjusted the border size and radius.
I added a few basic stylings to the button with an icon in the search bar. I added a matching color to the text and background in both the normal and hover states.
Moreover, I adjusted the icon size and width of the search button but kept it the same in both states.
Final Appearance of Search Bar Widget
Once I successfully implemented these customization settings the final appearance of search bar looked like:
FAQ
There are various ways to add a search bar to your website, you can either use the plugins offered by the Elementor page builder plugin from their plugin library or install a third party plugin and drag and drop the search bar plugin form the addons library.
A search bar is a user interface element that allows visitors to your website to search for specific content or information.
Yes, you can add a search bar in Elementor for free using free third-party plugins like Responsive Addons for Elementor.
Conclusion
Overall, a search bar is a crucial component that significantly enhances your website navigation.
While you can add a free Elementor search bar to your website in various ways, we recommend using the Responsive Addons for Elementor, given its free availability and ease of use.
If you liked this article, you may also consider reading:
- How to Add Modal Popup in Elementor
- How to Add Google Maps To Your Elementor Website
- How To Add Elementor Timeline To Your Website
Further, you can also consider using the Responsive Theme by Cyberchimps to create a fully functional website for free.
