Choosing the right Search Implementation
When implementing Cludo search on your website, you have three primary approaches:
- Rich Inline Template: Use Cludo’s ready-made search template and implement it yourself.
- API or React Storybook: Build your own search interface, in-house or with an agency.
- Custom SERP: Cludo designs, builds, and hosts the search page for you.
All three will deliver search results from your Cludo engine, but they differ in setup time, flexibility, and maintenance. Here are the key differences and considerations for each path.
Rich Inline Template
Cludo provides a pre-built front-end template which you can implement yourself. It renders the SERP (search engine result page) on a dedicated page on your site (you typically link to a “search results” page).
Using a template is straightforward. MyCludo can generate the script and HTML snippet for you to place on your site. You can read more about implementing the Rich Inline Template in this article. To design and preview your Rich Inline results before implementing, use Cludo Studio.
Advantages of the Rich Inline Template:
- Easy to implement: No advanced coding required. Copy-paste the provided code into your site’s HTML. This means that you can have a very fast launch.
- Safe and Supported: The functionality of the templates is maintained by Cludo. They are tested across devices and browsers, and Cludo will update them for improvements or browser changes. This means less upkeep on your end. You are only responsible for styling them.
- Includes Standard Features: Cludo’s templates support common features like filters (facets), language selection, result sorting, etc. These can be configured directly in MyCludo when generating your template snippet, or further customized in your implementation by adjusting the search script. To learn more about customizing your search script, please read this article.
- Basic Customization via CSS: You can override the default styling (fonts, colors) by adding CSS to your site. The template’s HTML structure is known, so you can target its elements. For instance, if you want the results titles to use your brand font or color, you can include a stylesheet after the template code to adjust that.
API or React
With these approaches, you’ll use Cludo’s search API or search libraries to fetch results and then render them on your site with your own code. Essentially, you’re building the search results page from scratch or with a framework of your choice.
This gives you full control, but require development skills, ongoing maintenance, and manual setup for analytics tracking. Expect a steeper learning curve compared to using Cludo’s templates.
Advantages of Custom Development:
- Total Control Over UI/UX: You can design the search experience exactly as you want. The placement of elements, the animations and the way results are displayed are all up to you. This is ideal if you need to integrate search into an existing application or follow the same strict style guidelines.
- A head start with React: You may prefer to use frameworks like React. Cludo offers a React component library to simplify building a custom SERP in React (complete with pre-built components for search box, results list, pagination, etc.). If you’re using React, you can take advantage of that library for faster development while still keeping it “your own”.
- Custom Features: If you want to implement features that the Rich Inline Template doesn’t support, custom is the way. You may want to include specific crawler fields in the result that the Rich Inline Template doesn’t support. Perhaps, after each search, you want to log something to an internal analytics system, which is also only possible with custom code.
Custom SERP built by Cludo
In Cludo’s context, a Custom SERP refers specifically to a fully custom search interface that our implementation team designs and builds for you, as a paid service. It’s a tailor-made solution created to match your branding, functional needs, and user experience goals.
Unlike using Cludo’s out-of-the-box templates or building your own search integration, a Custom SERP is handled entirely by Cludo. We build the frontend, set up the crawlers and engines and host and maintain the search script for you. When something needs to change, you come to us instead of adding it to your dev team’s queue. Maintenance and updates are covered for as long as you subscribe.
Where the Rich Inline Template gives you a set structure to style yourself, a Custom SERP has no set structure. The layout, the interactions, and how results are presented are built for your site specifically.
Implementation Comparison
This table provides an overview of the major features available across the different implementation options. It does not include all configuration settings. For more detail, see the Rich Inline Template documentation.
| Feature | Rich Inline Template | Custom SERP / API / React |
| SAYT (search-as-you-type) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pre-Search Suggestions (formerly Instant Suggestions) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Voice Search | ✓ | ✓ |
| Additional facets – list and/or dropdown view | ✓ | ✓ |
| Additional facet – range (e.g. price or date range) | X | ✓ |
| Sub facets | X | ✓ |
| Display selected filters | X | ✓ |
| Sort by – buttons or dropdown | X | ✓ |
| Categorized results | ✓ | ✓ |
| Display fields | Title, Description, Image, URL, MetaDescription, Breadcrumb, Date, Badge | Custom |
| Banner | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Summary | Set up with Experience Builder | Set up with Experience Builder |
| Related Searches | X | ✓ |
| Pre-search filters (setting a default filter to be applied on the search) | ✓ | ✓ |
Which Implementation Should You Choose?
Rich Inline Template
Choose this if:
- You want to launch search in days (rather than months)
- You can handle pasting a few snippets and writing CSS
- You need a solution that can look like an integrated part of your website
- You would like to have some customization options without going through Cludo
API or React
Choose this if:
- You want full control over the design and behavior of your search experience.
- You have in-house developers or a partner agency, now and ongoing.
- You need to deeply integrate search into a complex site or app.
- Your team can own analytics tracking, accessibility testing, and a rebuild at your next redesign
Custom SERP build by Cludo
Choose this if:
- You want Cludo to fully manage the frontend implementation and hosting.
- You want a custom, professionally designed search interface tailored to your needs.
- You don’t have the time or resources to build and host it yourself.
- You want changes and updates to be managed by Cludo