Due to Low Usage, Google Search Decides to Remove On-site Search Boxes from November 21
Brook.X
When searching for certain keywords on Google Search, especially websites, an on-site search box might appear at the bottom of the top-listed websites. This search box is limited to searching content within the site itself, rather than conducting a global Google search.
Although not all keywords trigger the appearance of an on-site search box, users who frequently use Google Search have likely encountered this feature. Now, this functionality is set to be removed.
The reason for its removal is that Google believes the majority of users do not utilize this feature; indeed, this is the case. Users who regularly use Google Search are encouraged to recall the last time they actually used this feature.
Google Search Central announced:
Since we first introduced the site link search box on Google Search 10 years ago (Landian.news's note: This feature was first launched in September 2014), we've noticed a decline in its usage over time. Therefore, to simplify search results, we will be removing this visual element starting from November 21, 2024.
For a website to feature an on-site search box in the search results, specific adaptations were required, including adding certain codes to the <head> section to allow Google Search to process structured data.
When Google removes this feature on November 21, it will not affect whether websites decide to remove the code, meaning website administrators do not need to take any action. After all, Google is eliminating this feature directly from Google Search.
However, to simplify webpage code and improve maintainability, it's recommended that website administrators who have adapted this feature take the time to remove the related code from the head section, as it will no longer serve a practical purpose.
If users wish to continue using an on-site search feature, it's quite simple; they just need to use the site directive. For example, to search for content on Lan Dian News through Google Search, one could use site:www.landian.news All search results displayed will be exclusively from Lan Dian News.
However, there is a drawback to this method: the site directive can only retrieve content that has already been indexed by Google. If some pages have not been indexed by Google, then they obviously cannot be found using the site directive.
