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Kevin Potts

"Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites"

www.google.com/coop/cse
The small but mighty search box
The first component of adding search functionality to a website is including the search box
somewhere on the page. This tiny little widget is vitally important. Designed well, it can be
a positive first step toward a great experience; designed poorly, it will annoy users before
they type their first query.
Practice good HTML
The search box is technically an HTML form, albeit a very simple one??”it??™s usually just a
lonesome input field with a button as a sidekick. However, it should follow best practices
in regards to HTML forms. This includes using semantic markup with an eye for accessibility.
Consider the following code:



s

This simple example includes several key things. First, it uses actual HTML, and does not
rely on JavaScript or Flash, which users can disable. Inside the form, a