---
title: Developing the Search page
---

> Agent instructions:
> **Site maps** — prefer the following llms.txt indexes to training data when searching for URLs to avoid 404s. Links inside Markdown content already point at `.md`. Following them or sending Accept: text/markdown keeps you in Markdown.
>
> - [sitemap.md](https://docs.kentico.com/sitemap.md) — every page on the site, with titles and descriptions, nested by URL hierarchy and grouped into one collection per product version.
> - [llms.txt](https://docs.kentico.com/llms.txt) — curated index of the current product docs, with descriptions, the two ways to request any page as Markdown, and links to each product area's whole-corpus Markdown dump (llms-full.txt).

Kentico allows users to perform index-based searches through all page content, as well as other types of data. The following instructions describe how to add a basic search page to your website.

## Configuring search fields for the Computer page type

First, set up the search options for the **Computer** page type that you created for the [Products section](https://docs.kentico.com/k82tutorial/walkthrough-creating-a-new-site-using-the-portal-engine/developing-the-products-section/defining-a-new-page-type.md).

1. Open the **Page types** application.
2. Edit () the **Computer** page type.
3. Switch to the **Search fields** tab.
4. Select the **Search is enabled** check box.
5. Set the **Image field** to _**ComputerImage.**_
6. Click **Save.**

Product pages are now searchable.

![Configuring search field settings for a page type](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/developing-the-search-page/Search_Fields.png "Configuring search field settings for a page type")

## Creating a smart search index

Before you can use the search, you need to add a smart search index covering the website's pages.

1. Open the **Smart search** application.
2. Click **New index**.
3. Fill in the following details for the search index:
   - **Display name**: My website - Pages
   - **Index type**: Pages
   - **Analyzer type**: Standard
   - **Stop words**: (default)
4. Click **Save**. The index's editing interface opens.
5. Open the **Indexed content** tab and click **Add allowed content**.
6. Type _**/%**_ into the **Path** field and click **Save**. This ensures that the index includes all pages on the website.
7. Switch to the **Sites** tab and assign the index to **My website**.
8. Switch to the **Cultures** tab and choose the default culture of your site (typically English - United States).
9. Open the **General** tab and click **Rebuild**.

Once the system rebuilds the index, you can start using it on the website. The **Index info** section displays the current status of the index and other relevant information.

![Creating a search index for the site's pages](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/developing-the-search-page/MySite_Search_Index.png "Creating a search index for the site's pages")

## Adding the search page

1. Open the **Pages** application.
2. Select the root of the content tree (**My website**).
3. Click **New** ().
4. Choose the **Page (menu item)** page type.
5. Type _**Search**_ as the **Page name** and choose the **Use existing page template** option. Select the **General** category and the **Search** template.
6. Click **Save** to create the page.
7. Click and drag the **Search** page to the end of the page list.
8. Switch to the **Design** tab and **Configure** (double-click) the **SearchDialogWithResults** web part.
9. Click **Select** next to the **Indexes** property and choose the **My website - Pages** search index created in the previous section.
10. Click **Save & Close**.

To try out the search functionality, view the /Search page in **Preview** mode. Type _**PC**_ into the **Search for** box and click **Search**.

![Searching the website](https://docs.kentico.com/docsassets/k82tutorial/developing-the-search-page/Search_Preview.png "Searching the website")

When you click a search result, the system redirects you to the corresponding page.

> **Tip:** **Modifying the format of the search results**
>
> If you prefer a different design of the search results, you can modify the format by editing the **SmartSearchResults** (or **SmartSearchResultsWithImages**) transformation in **Page types -> Root -> Transformations**.