Creating a Custom Search Bar

Creating custom search bars with the search bar builder

Different agencies might require different fields, values or styles for their search bar. To accommodate for this, Siteloft comes with the option to customise your search bar to your unique needs.

Clients using Tyson, Felix, Jasper, Hazel, Alfred, Oscar or Parker also have a search bar on their homepage. For information on doing this, see the bottom of this page.

 

What aspects of my search bar can I change? 

Using our WordPress search bar builder you can change:

  • The fields that are shown. Let’s say you don’t do property management. You work exclusively with property sales. That ‘Buy/Rent’ button is pretty pointless then. Now, you can remove it.
     
  • Values within fields. If your agency exclusively sells properties worth upwards of a million dollars, there’s really not a lot of point having any of the pricing values below ‘$1m’ that we have set as default. You can delete them, and write in whatever increments you please. Alternatively, you can simply change the price search to a text input and allow your visitors to write their minimum and maximum values as they see fit.
     
  • The width of certain fields in the sidebar. You can set the width of fields to a certain fraction of the bar (half or full width), and we’ll organise the other fields around it.
     
  • Change the field’s label. If you’d rather ‘Bedrooms’ be labelled ‘Beds’, or ‘Parking Spaces’ labelled ‘Car Parks’ – you can go right ahead and change the label to whatever you like.
     
  • Change between a drop-down or text input format. If you'd like visitors to type the bedrooms/bathrooms/price range they're looking for, or select an option from a drop-down menu, you can do so.
     
  • The ‘Sort By’ options you’d like to give your visitors. Let’s say you’d prefer visitors to see your newest listings first. Or how about your oldest? Or arrange them from highest price to lowest, or lowest to highest? There are plenty of options you can choose between to give your visitors the best experience possible.

  

Adding/removing fields

  1. Log into WordPress
  2. On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click the Siteloft tab
  3. If not already in the Search tab (along the top), click into this.
  4. Select your desired search layout in the Layout section.
  5. Filters shown by default will appear under the Filters shown by default header (please note you may only have 4 fields at a time in the default search). Filters shown in the more options/advanced search will appear under Additional filters available in advanced search mode header.
  6. Choose which filters you would like to show in each section - filters can be added by clicking the Add another filter button or removed by clicking on the filter you'd like to remove, and deleting it with the blue Remove button at the bottom of the drop-down menu.
  7. Click the blue Save Settings button at the bottom of the Layout section.

  

Changing a field's label

  1. Log into WordPress
  2. On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click the Siteloft tab
  3. If not already in the Search tab (along the top), click into this.
  4. Scroll down to the Fields section of this screen.
  5. You'll see all the fields you have enabled under the Default or Advanced filters headers.
  6. Click the field you would like to relabel.
  7. Under the Label heading, type in your new label.
  8. Click the blue Save Settings button at the bottom of the Fields section.

 

Change the input format for a field

You might like to change the way a visitor enters specifications into the search bar.

  1. Log into WordPress
  2. On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click the Siteloft tab
  3. If not already in the Search tab (along the top), click into this.
  4. Scroll down to the Fields section of this screen.
  5. You'll see all the fields you have enabled under the Default or Advanced filters headers.
  6. Click the field you would like to change the input format of.
  7. Under the Format heading, choose between drop-down and text input.
  8. Click the blue Save Settings button at the bottom of the Fields section.

 

Changing price increments

If you have drop-down increments or the price slider enabled, you can create custom increments to suit your pricing.

  1. Log into WordPress
  2. On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click the Siteloft tab
  3. If not already in the Search tab (along the top), click into this.
  4. Scroll down to the Price filter settings section of this screen.
  5. To change the sales pricing setting, see the Sales section. To change rental pricing settings, see the Rental section. 
  6. Increments you have enabled will show up here. 
  7. You'll notice two columns; Numerical value and Label.

    The Numerical value represents how many dollars the property is worth. The Label represents what will appear in the drop-down menu for this dollar figure. For example, you might like to label a numerical value of 1000 '$1K', or 1250000 '$1.25M' to declutter your drop-down menu.

    Any increments you add will show up in a drop-down menu. Once a visitor clicks the increment, properties priced between this increment and the next in the series will appear. (I.e; you have an increment of $1,000,000 and another directly after it of $1,250,000. Clicking the $1,000,000 option will reveal properties worth between $1,000,000 and $1,250,000).
     
  8. Add your desired increments into these columns.
  9. Click the blue Save Settings button at the bottom of the Price filter settings section.

 

Customising your Homepage property search

Our clients using Tyson, Felix, Jasper, Hazel, Alfred, Oscar or Parker also have a search bar on their homepage. Of course, in true Siteloft spirit, this can also be customised. 

You have two default options to choose between:

  • Suburb selection, listing type, price, beds and baths
  • ‘Buy/Rent’ button, suburb selection, listing type and price 
  1. Log into WordPress
  2. On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click the Siteloft tab
  3. If not already in the Search tab (along the top), click into this.
  4. Scroll down to the Homepage search section at the bottom of this screen.
  5. In the Homepage search options tab, select your desired style. 
  6. Click the blue Save Settings button at the bottom of the Homepage search section.

Of course, if neither of these are your style, you can build your own from scratch. 

  1. Log into WordPress
  2. On the left-hand side of the Dashboard, click the Siteloft tab
  3. If not already in the Search tab (along the top), click into this.
  4. Scroll down to the Homepage search section at the bottom of this screen.
  5. In the Homepage search options tab, select custom.
  6. Choose which set of filters you would like to show on the top row.
  7. Select up to four filters to show on the second row in the same way as you would when customising your property gallery search (see above).
  8. Click the blue Save Settings button at the bottom of the Homepage search section.

 

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