HeaderHunt Search Bar automatically places an accessible search bar directly below your website header. It works after activation — no shortcodes, no theme editing, no PHP required.
Customize the search bar from the WordPress admin area with flexible styling, layouts, icons, colors, shadows, buttons, placement options, and responsive settings.
The plugin also provides AJAX live search, optional category filtering, keyboard shortcuts, WooCommerce support, and developer hooks.
Key Features
- Automatic Header Placement — Adds the search bar below your site header without requiring theme file changes.
- Flexible Placement — Multiple placement strategies help position the search bar across different WordPress theme structures.
- Live Search — Display search suggestions while visitors type.
- Responsive Layouts — Designed to adapt to desktop, tablet, and mobile screen sizes.
- 8 Search Bar Shapes — Choose from multiple border-radius styles.
- 6 Icon Styles — Select a search icon style for your design.
- Custom Colors — Configure search, focus, icon, button, and other interface colors.
- 5 Shadow Styles — Add optional shadow effects to the search bar.
- 5 Button Styles — Choose from different search button appearances.
- Keyboard Shortcut Badge — Optionally display a keyboard shortcut indicator.
- 96 Templates — Choose from a collection of predefined search bar configurations.
- Live Preview — Preview styling changes before saving.
- Sticky Search Bar — Optionally keep the search bar visible while scrolling.
- AJAX Live Search — Search results can be loaded dynamically without a full page reload.
- Category Filter — Allow visitors to filter search results by category.
- Clear Button — Provide an easy way to clear the current search query.
- Admin Settings — Configure the search bar through the WordPress dashboard.
- WooCommerce Support — Suitable for WooCommerce-powered stores and product searches.
- Accessibility Features — Includes keyboard-friendly controls and accessible search functionality.
- Responsive Design — Settings and layouts are designed for different screen sizes.
- Lightweight — Uses focused assets and functionality to keep the plugin simple.
- Developer Hooks — Provides prefixed hooks for customization and integration.
- Translation Ready — Plugin strings are prepared for translation.
How It Works
HeaderHunt Search Bar uses multiple placement strategies to locate an appropriate position below the site header.
Depending on the theme structure, the plugin can use:
- Theme-specific WordPress hooks.
- Block/FSE header template-part detection.
- Header structure detection.
- CSS selector detection.
- DOM-based header detection.
- Configurable fallback placement.
This allows the search bar to be used with a variety of classic and block-based WordPress themes.
Supported Themes
HeaderHunt Search Bar is designed to work with a wide range of WordPress themes, including classic and block themes.
Supported theme examples include:
- Astra
- GeneratePress
- Kadence
- Neve
- OceanWP
- Twenty Twenty-Five
- Twenty Twenty-Four
- Twenty Twenty-Three
- Default WordPress themes
- Other compatible classic and block themes
Theme structures can vary, so placement options are provided when automatic placement needs adjustment.
Shortcode
You can manually display the search bar using:
[headerhunt_search_bar]
Add the shortcode to a post, page, widget area, template, or other location that supports WordPress shortcodes.
Gutenberg Block
HeaderHunt Search Bar also provides a HeaderHunt Search Bar block for supported block editor workflows.
Add the block from the WordPress block inserter and configure the available settings.
WooCommerce
HeaderHunt Search Bar can be used on WooCommerce websites and can provide search functionality for product-focused websites.
The plugin does not require WooCommerce to be installed.
Customization
The settings page provides options for customizing:
- Search bar width and dimensions.
- Border radius.
- Search icon.
- Icon size.
- Colors.
- Focus colors.
- Button appearance.
- Shadows.
- Spacing.
- Responsive behavior.
- Sticky behavior.
- Live search.
- Category filtering.
- Keyboard shortcut display.
- Search placement.
Developer Hooks
HeaderHunt Search Bar provides developer hooks using the headerhunt_ prefix.
Developers can use the available filters and actions to customize plugin behavior and integrate the search bar with other functionality.
Refer to the plugin source code for the available hooks and their parameters.
Privacy
HeaderHunt Search Bar does not require visitors to create an account or submit personal information to use the search bar.
Search functionality uses the WordPress site’s own search system. Site administrators should review their site’s privacy configuration and any third-party services used alongside WordPress.