How to replace Headway Search with Google Search?

Once your blog grows bigger and with more posts or pages added, Headway search may not be powerful and accurate enough for the search. You can try replacing it with Google Search instead. It is not as intimidating as one thought; you can either install a Google search custom wordpress plugin or manually add in the Google search code.

I prefer to add in the Google search code manually since there might be a risk of compatibility issue with the Google search custom wordpress plugin when Headway upgrades.

The following manual steps assume you have already got your Google search unit set up in your Google Adsense account. If you have none then set it up first in your Google Adsense account before you proceed.

1. First, create a new page in wordpress and name it "Search Results".
   
2. View the Search results page (do not use Preview as the URL may not be accurate) and copy the URL.
   
3. Log into your Adsense account and click on "Adsense Setup" and then "Manage Ads".
   
4. Under “Manage Ads” page, look for your Google Adsense Search Unit which usually should be the last one on the page.
   
5. Once you locate it, click on the "Edit settings" at your Google Search Unit.
   
6. On the “AdSense for Search” page, edit or fill in the necessary details then click on the "Continue" button to proceed.
   
7. On the next page, make changes if you want the search button to appear differently otherwise click on the "Continue" button to proceed.
   
8. At the "Opening of search results page ", paste the URL you have copied just now into the text box. This will make the search result to appear at your blog/site, then click on "Continue" button to go to the last step.
   
9. Click on the “Submit and Get Code” button and copy the first Google code at "Search Box Code".
   
10. Go back to wordpress and locate the Headway search code.
    
11. My Headway search code is located at “Before Header Link” under Easy Hook. (Note: this may different for individual as I had customized my search bar to appear at the top of the header, your Headway search code could be at other places.)
    
12. Replace your Headway search code with Google search box code.
    
13. Then go back to your Google account and copy the second code - "Search Results Code".
    
14. Paste this code into the html mode of the Search Results Page and save.
    
15. You can now try your Google search to see whether it works correctly otherwise go back to Google Adsense account to fine tune the settings.

Hope the above helps. Please feel free to leave any comment below.