How to Create an Advanced Search Bar in Elementor?

The default WordPress search bar isn’t satisfactory. You won’t want your visitors to play with something that throws you into a complete mess of irrelevant results. This is why you must go for something advanced. 

Your search box should contain filtering parameters and navigational elements to give authentic real-time results within an easy to understand layouts. Plus, your custom search box should seamlessly align with your brand’s look and feel.

And, this is where ElementsKit comes in handy, with its Advanced Search widget that helps you create a functional and stylish search box that delivers precise results. Let’s see how to create an advanced search bar in Elementor websites.

Why You Should Upgrade WordPress Default Search Experience?

An advanced and modern search box is usually equipped with helpful features to help visitors get precise results.  

Unlike the default WordPress search functionality, which supports a blank search box only and provides numerous irrelevant results. And when your website has a lot of content, the user experience gets worse.

However, with the right plugin, you can transform the entire website search box by adding category and tag filters, popular keyword suggestions, custom buttons, icons, and placeholder text. Plus, style the entire search panel to match your site perfectly.

In my opinion, upgrading the default search does two big things: it delivers more accurate results. Since it provides different parameters for a personalized search experience. You can let searchers pick exactly which content types they want to explore. Then, you’ll have complete control over customizing both the search panel and results layout.

And next, we’ll be showing how to create an advanced search bar for your WordPress website. 

👉 Learn how to create a stylish list in WordPress.

How to Create an Advanced Search Bar in Elementor Websites?

So, let’s move to the main part. The first thing we’ll do here is go for a popular page builder, and we prefer the Elementora page builder. Then, we will also go for an advanced Elementor Addon – Zestaw elementów.

Here, we would like to clarify one thing: Elementor Page Builder supports a search widget with some basic features. But, in this WordPress tutorial, we really want to create a website search panel with state-of-the-art functionalities. 

So, we opt for the ElementsKit Advanced Search widget, which ships with the necessary parameters for a personalized search experience and a handful of customization options for a modern look.

With that agreed, let’s move forward by installing the free Elementor version and the ElementsKit Pro addon.

Step 1: Activate & Add ElementsKit Advanced Search Widget

Start from your WordPress dashboard and navigate to ElementsKit > Widżety. Look for the ElementsKit Advanced Search widget and activate it by clicking the toggle button. Then, hit the Zapisz zmiany button at the top right. 

Create a new page or post, or edit an existing one, and start designing with the Elementor builder. In the Elementor interface, search for the “ElementsKit Advanced Search” widget, then drag and drop it into the editor. A search panel will instantly appear in the container. 

Step 2: Add & Configure Elementor Search Box Style

Now, enter the widget settings and start from the Zakładka Treść. Within this tab, you can configure how all the components of your website search box work. Let’s see it in action.

First, come under the “Search Field” option, here you can select a search box style from Default, Modern, & Click Expand^.. So choose your preferred one. Then, dpending on your content type, you can write your own Placeholder Text for the search box. 

Further, you can show an icon before or after the main placeholder text. You can also change the placeholder text for other components like Categories, Tags, I guziki. There’s an option to add & choose an icon for the button as well. 

Now, one of my favorite features here is the “Order by Position” setting, which allows you to place each search box element exactly where you want it. Then, there are two different sliders to determine the gap between search box items i height of the search panel. 

Step 3:  Add Filters For Personalized Search Results

Within the Content Tab, you’ll see the Wynik wyszukiwania option. From here, you can decide what to show on the live search result panel. To satisfy your visitors, ElementsKit can empower you to show a Thumbnail, Content, I an icon. It will help searchers to get a gist about the result they are going to navigate. 

Then, you’ll also have the ability to give a professional look to the search result panel. You can show the footer, load more button, and copyright option for a better searching experience. 

Configuring the search results panel components is one thing, but setting up filters for a personalized search experience is another. To do this, go under the Ustawienia option. Here you can set things like: 

• Post Type: Determine the source for the search results. This allows you to place a search box on a specific page where you already know visitors will be looking for a particular type of content.

• Show Per Page Result: Define the number of results that will appear against a query. 
• Pokaż kategorię: Enable this option to let visitors choose a category and search for content within it. You can also use the include and exclude fields to display relevant categories and hide the irrelevant ones.

• Tag & Buttons: The next two options are to enable or disable the tag and button options.
• Popular Keywords: This option lets you take a smart move for your search box experience. From here, you can determine the number of popular keywords and how to measure a popular keyword. In the Keyword Rank option, enter a number to define a popular keyword. 
• The last two settings in the widget content tab are Enable Blur I Show Loader opcje.  

Now that we’re done with the Content tab, it’s time to move on to the next step, where we’ll discuss styling the entire search box.

Step 4: Customize Search Box & Live Search Panel

With ElementsKit, every part of your Elementor website’s search box is fully customizable. Head to the zakładka Styl, and you’ll find options tailored to each element, whether it’s the search box area, categories, tags, dropdowns, or buttons.

You can style typography, colors, backgrounds, borders, icons, and more, with settings for Normal, Hover, I Centrum states. And, when it comes to styling the result panel, the ElementsKit Advanced Search widget has you covered, too. 

You can completely change its look and feel, not just the basics like background colors, borders, padding, and margins, but also finer details such as page count display, thumbnails, search result titles, and content formatting.

Step 5: Test & Troubleshoot Your Elementor Search Box

Once you’ve finished styling the search box, it’s time to test it. For best results, use incognito mode or a different device. Try a few queries and check if the search results are accurate.

If you’ve enabled categories and tags, test them as well, make sure searches within those filters work correctly, and that the popular keywords bar displays properly. If the results are relevant and meet user expectations, move on to reviewing the search results’ appearance.

Preview the results panel and ensure the layout matches your intended organization. Finally, test the search box across different devices to ensure responsiveness and in multiple browsers, to ensure consistent performance.

And, this was my tutorial on how to add an advanced search bar to Elementor websites. Now, we would like to give some industry-standard ideas that will help to make a modern and beneficial search box for your WordPress website.

Best Practices for Modern Search Box on WordPress Websites

Here are some of the best practices you can follow for making an effective search experience in Elemetnor websites.

Key Search Box Elements

Using strategic search box components like tags or buttons transforms a simple search field into an advanced, content-discovery tool. This not only makes finding information easier for users but also increases dwell time and lowers bounce rates by keeping visitors engaged and satisfied.

Popular Keywords or Search Suggestions

Display popular search terms and smart suggestions to help visitors enter the right queries and find the most relevant results, saving both their time and effort.

Show Error Message Or Page

A professional touch is to display a clear error message or a no-results page when no matches are found. Enhance it further by suggesting alternative keywords, related search terms, or directly showing relevant content.

Ensure Accessibility

Make sure that the search box is accessible to everyone. You can add audio search functionality to help visually challenged visitors. Overall, you should go for a clean and intuitive search box.

Better Navigation with Icons

An icon is the crisp item we mostly overlook, but it can be the tiny item to indicate something without using long text. So, using icons sparingly in the search bar and results

Responsive Search Bar

It’s equally important to ensure your Elementor website’s search bar is fully responsive. In mobile view, it should neatly accommodate all search box components. If you’re on WordPress, consider using an advanced plugin like ElementsKit, which automatically optimizes your search bar for all devices.

WordPress Search Bar Optimization for Mobile Devices

On mobile, a search bar that works perfectly on a desktop can often become annoying to tap, too narrow to type on, search results can overflow the screen, or dropdowns can fall out of frame. Here’s how to do it correctly.

Set 100% width on mobile. Inside the ElementsKit Advanced Search widget, switch to the mobile view in Elementor’s responsive toolbar and set the search bar width to 100%. This ensures it uses the full screen width rather than inheriting a constrained desktop value.

Use Click Expand on smaller screens. Full-width persistent search bars consume valuable header space on mobile. The Click Expand layout style keeps the header tidy, showing just a search icon and expands to a full-width bar when tapped. This is the recommended layout style for mobile-first sites.

Simplify the result panel on mobile. In the Style tab, reduce thumbnail size or disable thumbnails entirely for the mobile breakpoint. Large result cards on a small screen force users to scroll through results before finding what they want, a minimal text-first result layout performs better on mobile.

Increase tap target size. Set the Search button’s top and bottom padding to at least 12–14px on mobile. This ensures the button is comfortably tappable without accidentally triggering adjacent elements.

Test in a real browser, not just the Elementor preview. Mobile rendering inside the Elementor editor doesn’t always match real device behavior, especially for dropdown positioning and keyboard behavior. Always test your search bar on an actual phone after publishing.

Best Practices for WooCommerce Search Result Page Optimization

A well-configured search bar is only half the equation. If the search results page is slow, cluttered, or irrelevant, visitors leave,  regardless of how polished your search bar looks.

Set your search source to Products only. In the ElementsKit Advanced Search widget, go to Settings > Search Source and select Produkt as the post type. This prevents blog posts, pages, and attachments from appearing in product search results, one of the most common complaints on WooCommerce stores with default search behavior.

Enable category filters for large catalogs. If your store has more than 20–30 product categories, adding a Category dropdown to the search bar significantly reduces the number of irrelevant results a customer has to scroll through. A shopper searching “black” in a fashion store can first select “Jackets” and get exactly what they need in the first result.

Show product thumbnails and prices in the live result panel. In the ElementsKit Advanced Search Style tab, enable thumbnails and configure the result panel to show product titles and prices inline. This lets shoppers evaluate products directly in the dropdown without clicking through to a results page, reducing friction and increasing add-to-cart intent.

Limit the number of live results. Showing 10+ products in a live dropdown overwhelms users. Set the live result count to 4–6 items maximum, with a “See all results” link at the bottom that takes shoppers to the full search results page for deeper browsing.

Optimize your search results page layout with ShopEngine. The live search dropdown is a preview. But, the full results page is where purchase decisions happen. Use ShopEngine’s WooCommerce template builder to design a custom search results page with product filtering, sorting, and grid/list toggle. A custom results page dramatically outperforms WooCommerce’s default search output in both usability and conversion.

Exclude out-of-stock products from results. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Products > Inventory and enable Hide out of stock items from the catalog. This prevents shoppers from clicking through to products they can’t buy. Doing all these results for a subtle but meaningful improvement to search experience quality.

FAQs on Advanced Search Functionality

Zamotać!

Now you know how to create an advanced search bar in Elementor website and the best industry practices to follow. With Zestaw elementów, you get powerful features for building a search panel that delivers real-time results, without writing a single line of code. Just drag, drop, and design with its intuitive builder interface.

So, go ahead and create your own advanced search bar. And if you have any questions, feel free to reach out. We’re here to help.