McGarrah Technical Blog

Adding Google Custom Search to Jekyll Website

By · 8 min read

As my Jekyll blog has grown to over 100 posts, finding specific content has become challenging for both me and my readers. While Jekyll has built-in tag and category systems, a proper search function was missing. Here’s how I implemented Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) to solve this problem.

For Jekyll sites hosted on GitHub Pages, search options are limited since we can’t run server-side code. Google Custom Search Engine provides:

Prerequisites

Before implementing, ensure you have:

  1. A Jekyll website with content indexed by Google
  2. Google account for accessing Google Custom Search
  3. Your site verified in Google Search Console (recommended)

Implementation Steps

Step 1: Create Google Custom Search Engine

  1. Visit Google Custom Search
  2. Click “Add” to create a new search engine
  3. Enter your site URL: yourdomain.com or username.github.io
  4. Name your search engine (e.g., “My Blog Search”)
  5. Click “Create” and copy the search engine ID

The search engine ID looks like: 012345678901234567890:abcdefghijk

Step 2: Create Search Page

Create search.html in your Jekyll root:

---
title: "Search"
layout: default
permalink: /search/
sitemap: false
---

<article>
  <header><h1>Search</h1></header>
  
  <div class="gcse-search"></div>
  
  {% if site.google_cse_id %}
  <script async src="https://cse.google.com/cse.js?cx={{ site.google_cse_id }}"></script>
  {% endif %}
</article>

Step 3: Add Configuration

Update _config.yml to include your search engine ID:

# Google Custom Search
google_cse_id: "YOUR_SEARCH_ENGINE_ID"  # Replace with actual ID

Step 4: Add to Navigation

Add search to your navigation menu in _config.yml:

navigation:
  - {file: "index.html", icon: blog}
  - {file: "archive.html", icon: list}
  - {file: "tags.html", title: Tags, icon: tags}
  - {file: "categories.html", title: Categories, icon: th-list}
  - {file: "search.html", title: Search, icon: search}  # New search page
  - {file: "README.md", icon: user}

Customization Options

Appearance Customization

In the Google CSE console:

  1. Go to “Look and feel” section
  2. Choose layout (Overlay, Two page, Results only)
  3. Customize colors to match your theme
  4. Set font family and sizes

For Jekyll integration, “Results only” layout works best.

Dark/Light Theme Integration

To make Google Custom Search match your site’s automatic dark/light theme, add comprehensive styles to your main SASS file. Google’s CSS has high specificity, so we need multiple selectors and !important declarations:

// Add to _sass/main.sass

// Google Custom Search styling with high specificity
.gcse-search,
.gsc-control-cse,
.gsc-control-cse .gsc-control-cse
  background-color: transparent !important
  border: none !important

.gcse-search .gsc-input-box,
.gsc-input-box,
.gsc-input-box-hover,
.gsc-input-box-focus
  background: $light !important
  border: 1px solid reduce(20) !important
  border-radius: 4px !important
  box-shadow: none !important

.gcse-search .gsc-search-button,
.gsc-search-button,
.gsc-search-button-v2
  background: $link-color !important
  border: 1px solid $link-color !important
  border-radius: 4px !important

.gcse-search input.gsc-input,
.gsc-input
  background: transparent !important
  color: $dark !important
  border: none !important

// Dark theme with higher specificity
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark)
  .gcse-search,
  .gsc-control-cse,
  .gsc-control-cse .gsc-control-cse
    background-color: $dark !important
    
  .gcse-search .gsc-input-box,
  .gsc-input-box,
  .gsc-input-box-hover,
  .gsc-input-box-focus
    background: $dark !important
    border: 1px solid reduce(80) !important
    color: $light !important
  
  .gcse-search input.gsc-input,
  .gsc-input,
  input.gsc-input
    background: transparent !important
    color: $light !important
    border: none !important
  
  .gcse-search .gs-title a,
  .gs-title a,
  .gs-title a:link,
  .gs-title a:visited
    color: $link-color !important
    
  .gcse-search .gs-snippet,
  .gs-snippet
    color: $light !important

Important Notes:

This approach successfully styles the search input and basic elements to match your site’s theme, though some result formatting may remain in Google’s default styling.

Advanced Features

Enable additional features in CSE console:

Testing and Validation

  1. Build your site locally:

    bundle exec jekyll serve

  2. Navigate to /search/ and test various queries

  3. Verify search results include your recent posts

  4. Check mobile responsiveness

Troubleshooting Custom Domains

If you’re using a custom domain (like yourdomain.com instead of username.github.io), you need to ensure Google Custom Search is configured for the correct domain.

Common Issue: Domain Mismatch

Your Jekyll site might be served from a custom domain, but Google CSE is configured for the GitHub domain. This results in no search results.

Example scenario:

Fix Custom Domain Configuration

  1. Check your CNAME file in your repository root:

    www.yourdomain.com

  2. Update Google Custom Search Engine:

    • Go to Google CSE Console
    • Select your search engine
    • Click “Setup” → “Sites to search”
    • Remove: username.github.io
    • Add: www.yourdomain.com (matching your CNAME)
    • Or use: *.yourdomain.com for subdomain support

  3. Verify Google indexing of your custom domain:

    site:www.yourdomain.com
site:yourdomain.com

  4. Add fallback search for immediate testing:

    <form action="https://www.google.com/search" method="get" target="_blank">
  <input type="hidden" name="sitesearch" value="yourdomain.com">
  <input type="text" name="q" placeholder="Search this site...">
  <input type="submit" value="Search">
</form>

Google Search Console Setup

Ensure both domain variants are added to Google Search Console:

This helps Google properly index and understand your site’s canonical domain.

Wait Time

After updating CSE configuration for a custom domain, allow 24-48 hours for Google to recognize the change and start returning results from the correct domain.

Performance Considerations

Limitations

Alternative Solutions

For comparison, other Jekyll search options include:

Results

After implementation, the search functionality provides:

Next Steps

Future enhancements could include:

Conclusion

Google Custom Search Engine provides an effective, zero-maintenance search solution for Jekyll websites. While it has limitations compared to dedicated search services, it’s perfect for personal blogs and small sites that need basic search functionality without server-side complexity.

The implementation took less than 30 minutes and immediately improved the site’s usability. For Jekyll sites hosted on GitHub Pages, it’s an excellent balance of functionality and simplicity.

This feature has been added to my website as part of ongoing improvements. You can see the search functionality in action at the Search page.

Tags: google, search, jekyll, github-pages, feature, web-development
Categories: web-development, technical
About the Author: Michael McGarrah is a Cloud Architect with 25+ years in enterprise infrastructure, machine learning, and system administration. He holds an M.S. in Computer Science (AI/ML) from Georgia Tech and a B.S. in Computer Science from NC State University, and is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at UNC Wilmington. LinkedIn · GitHub · ORCID · Google Scholar · Resume