Table of Contents
- Google Custom Search Doesn’t Work Without Cookie Consent—Here’s How to Fix It
- Why Google Custom Search Breaks Before Consent
- Why This Is a Bigger Problem Than It Looks
- How to Fix It
- 1. Reclassify It as “Strictly Necessary” (If Applicable)
- 2. Load It Only After Consent (Controlled Loading)
- 3. Switch to a Privacy-First Search Alternative
- How to Diagnose the Exact Issue
- Important Compliance Note (Especially for EU Sites)
- The Real Question
If your search function is not available on your website until the user opts into accepting cookies, you are not completely alone. The majority of other websites using the Google Custom Search (sometimes referred to as the Programmable Search Engine) notice the same thing. When the user does not provide marketing or analytical consent, the search input box does not load.
This can be a very poor experience for the visitor and decreases your conversion potential.
Why Google Custom Search Breaks Before Consent
The following details explain why this occurs and how to enable Google Custom Search for those visitors who have yet to provide consent approval.
- Google Custom Search relies on loading an external file from Google.
- Most consent management platforms automatically list all Google-hosted domains as part of:
Because of this classification, any visitor who arrives at your website without first consenting to cookies will not be able to load the Google search script and therefore not be able to use Google Custom Search.
No script = no search box = no results
This is true even if your website does not display paid advertisements.
Why This Is a Bigger Problem Than It Looks
Search is not just another feature of marketing; it is an essential part of navigation. When search is disabled:
- Users cannot locate items.
- Blog readers cannot access material.
- Bounce rates will be elevated.
- Lower conversion rates
- First-time user experiences will be compromised.
Even worse, if users reject cookies permanently, they may never see your searching ability again.
How to Fix It
There are three practical approaches.
1. Reclassify It as “Strictly Necessary” (If Applicable)
If you are:
- Not running advertising
- Not enabling personalized ads
- Not using Google Ads or Google Analytics
- Simply using search functionality
Then, you may be able to redesignate the script as Necessary or Functional in your consent data application; most consent managers will allow it.
- Domain allow listing
- Exempt scripts
- Override functional categories
Caution: Only make this change if you are sure that your script will not depend on ads or tracking. If you enable ads, then this change may not be compliant according to stringent requirements.
2. Load It Only After Consent (Controlled Loading)
If your attorney requires marketing to have a classification, then load the following script dynamically after you have received consent to do so. Also then trigger the loading of that script when your consent tool has verified that you have consent (by the user). This will help prevent the script from breaking. However, if a user does not allow cookies, they will not be able to search.
This is the trade-off for this method.
3. Switch to a Privacy-First Search Alternative
If you want:
- Instant search capabilities
- A search engine that does not use marketing scripts provided by 3rd party advertising companies
- No conflict with any cookie consent banner (cookie consent banners are required for compliance with GDPR) present on the webpages
- Clear evidence for compliance with GDPR
Search engines without advertising technologies (like ExpertRec for instance) or self-hosted/search-engine tools (first-party hosted) do not use 3rd party cookies to gather tracking data from users when obtaining sites for new content being indexed into your search engine.
The result of the above property:
- No blocking of the script (meaning that it will never be blocked by a restricted or uncontrollable resource).
- No dependency on any other factors for the search engine to operate (search engine works independently of any consent/banner overlays on pages).
- No risk of the search engine failing because there will be no system malfunction directly caused by an external resource blocking the search script.
The search engine will process results similarly to all other functional components on your website.
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How to Diagnose the Exact Issue
- Using Dev Tools during page reload, go to Network Tab and reload page without accepting cookies.
- Examine the following:
- Is the search engine blocked by the cookie consent script?;
- Do you have “Blocked by Client” error remaining on the browser window?;
- Has the request for the script failed?
If you can answer yes to any the above questions? Then you can easily be enforced by a consent manager blocking requests from being made to the search engine creating a problem for executing content requests.
Important Compliance Note (Especially for EU Sites)
- Only those functions that are absolutely necessary can be loaded without obtaining consent beforehand
- Those functions that are to be used for marketing purposes or for tracking cannot be loaded without user consent.
The classification of your Google Custom Search Engine will be based upon how you set it up.
If you have enabled any kind of advertisement or behavioural tracking on your search engine, it will most likely fall into a marketing category.
If you use a purely functional search engine that does not collect any identifiable information from users (or, for that matter, any type of information at all), it would correctly fall into the “necessary” category. You should seek the advice of a legal counsel if your business is located in a regulated area.
The Real Question
The question to answer is, can users be required to accept marketing cookies in order to use your search engine?
The answer to this question is, if you respond with no there are two possibilities:
- Either, you are not set up correctly with your search engine or,
- You should find a new search engine that is not reliant on marketing infrastructure.
A search engine should operate without requiring the consent of the user.
