A Shopify store owner using the Empire 12 theme encountered duplicate search boxes appearing on search results pages—one in the header (desired) and another in the body content (unwanted).
Initial Solutions Attempted:
Adding CSS to hide the duplicate via theme.css file was suggested but didn’t work for the user
Direct theme code editing was discouraged as it complicates future theme updates
Working Solution:
A CSS-based fix was provided to be added through the theme customizer rather than code files:
Navigate to the search page in “Customize” mode
Add CSS to the search section’s “Custom CSS” setting:
Resolution:
The issue was successfully resolved using the breadcrumbs CSS code, which eliminated the unwanted search box while preserving the header search functionality.
Summarized with AI on October 23.
AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
When you search for something on your Shopify store, two search boxes appear one in the header (which you want) and another in the middle of the page (which you don’t want). This happens because the Empire 12 theme adds an extra search form on the search results page.
To fix this easily, you can hide the second search box using CSS. It’s safe, simple, and reversible.
Here’s what to do:
1. In your Shopify admin, go to Online Store → Themes.
2. On your active theme, click the three dots (⋯) and choose Edit code.
3. Open the file named theme.css (or base.css) under the Assets folder.
4. Scroll to the bottom and paste this code:
/* Hide duplicate search box on search results page */
.template-search .search-form,
.search-page__form {
display: none !important;
}
5. Click Save, then refresh your website.
Now the search bar in the header will stay visible, and the one in the body will disappear.
If you ever want it back, just remove that CSS code. This method is the easiest and safest way to keep your search bar only in the header.