Google sitelink search box with Google custom search

Question

We want to implement Google sitelink search box with Google custom search. In the Google documentation, I found that we need to include the below code to enable sitelink search box

    <script type="application/ld+json">
{
   "@context": "http://schema.org",
   "@type": "WebSite",
   "url": "https://www.example-petstore.com/",
   "potentialAction": {
     "@type": "SearchAction",
     "target": "https://query.example-petstore.com/search?q={search_term_string}",
     "query-input": "required name=search_term_string"
   }
}
</script>

But we are stuck at "target" node in the above properties. Since we dont have any own search page, we want to use Google custom searh, so what value should I fill in this "target" node.

We have already created a Google custom search engine for our site. And found below code there

<script>
  (function() {
    var cx = 'CX_ID';
    var gcse = document.createElement('script');
    gcse.type = 'text/javascript';
    gcse.async = true;
    gcse.src = (document.location.protocol == 'https:' ? 'https:' : 'http:') +
        '//www.google.com/cse/cse.js?cx=' + cx;
    var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0];
    s.parentNode.insertBefore(gcse, s);
  })();
</script>
<gcse:search></gcse:search>

We want to implement sitelink search box like Mashable, Imdb

Please suggest, how to point Google custom search in sitelink search box code.

Thanks

Answer 1

The only solution:

For this you need a search page on your own website.

For the "target" parameter, do a search on your site and take that URL and replace the search term you used to do the search with "{search_term_string}"

If you make a search page on your website where you use a custom Google Search, you should be able to take that link for the target-property.

The reason for this is that Google does not supply the search functiop

will send the user directly to your website's own search pages.

Sources:

• http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.ro/2014/09/improved-sitelinks-search-box.html
• http://www.seocandy.co.uk/seo/setup-google-sitelink-search/

Answer 2

Shishdem's links do not identify what the write for the target either, after some guess work this works

https://example.com/index.html?q={search_term_string}

for a search box included as a part of the index.html page

if you search box is on the sitemap page use

https://examples.com/sitemap.html?q={search_term_string}

I was only able to find this because the 404 page included the search box, so it returned 404 then results appeared, so I tweaked the code.

This ignores anything else on that page and appears to come up with the right results, so should fit into the JSON-LD (or microdata if you prefer). JSON-LD might be better since google recommends it but states microdata is accepted. Reference to link in original question documentation.