How to display Wordpress search results?

you need to include the Wordpress loop in your search.phpthis is example

search.php template file:

<?php get_header(); ?><?php$s=get_search_query();$args = array(                's' =>$s            );    // The Query$the_query = new WP_Query( $args );if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {        _e("<h2 style='font-weight:bold;color:#000'>Search Results for: ".get_query_var('s')."</h2>");        while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) {           $the_query->the_post();                 ?>                    <li>                        <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>                    </li>                 <?php        }    }else{?>        <h2 style='font-weight:bold;color:#000'>Nothing Found</h2>        <div class="alert alert-info">          <p>Sorry, but nothing matched your search criteria. Please try again with some different keywords.</p>        </div><?php } ?><?php get_sidebar(); ?><?php get_footer(); ?>

Basically, you need to include the Wordpress loop in your search.php template to loop through the search results and show them as part of the template.

Below is a very basic example from The WordPress Theme Search Template and Page Template over at ThemeShaper.

<?php/** * The template for displaying Search Results pages. * * @package Shape * @since Shape 1.0 */get_header(); ?>        <section id="primary" class="content-area">            <div id="content" class="site-content" role="main">            <?php if ( have_posts() ) : ?>                <header class="page-header">                    <h1 class="page-title"><?php printf( __( 'Search Results for: %s', 'shape' ), '<span>' . get_search_query() . '</span>' ); ?></h1>                </header><!-- .page-header -->                <?php shape_content_nav( 'nav-above' ); ?>                <?php /* Start the Loop */ ?>                <?php while ( have_posts() ) : the_post(); ?>                    <?php get_template_part( 'content', 'search' ); ?>                <?php endwhile; ?>                <?php shape_content_nav( 'nav-below' ); ?>            <?php else : ?>                <?php get_template_part( 'no-results', 'search' ); ?>            <?php endif; ?>            </div><!-- #content .site-content -->        </section><!-- #primary .content-area --><?php get_sidebar(); ?><?php get_footer(); ?>

I am using searchform.php and search.php files as already mentioned, but here I provide the actual code.

Creating a Search Page codex page helps here and #Creating_a_Search_Page_Template shows the search query.

In my case I pass the $search_query arguments to the WP_Query Class (which can determine if is search query!). I then run The Loop to display the post information I want to, which in my case is the the_permalink and the_title.

Search box form:

<form class="search" method="get" action="<?php echo home_url(); ?>" role="search">  <input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="<?php echo esc_attr_x( 'Search …', 'placeholder' ) ?>" value="<?php echo get_search_query() ?>" name="s" title="<?php echo esc_attr_x( 'Search for:', 'label' ) ?>" />  <button type="submit" role="button" class="btn btn-default right"/><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-search white"></span></button></form>

search.php template file:

<?php    global $query_string;    $query_args = explode("&", $query_string);    $search_query = array();    foreach($query_args as $key => $string) {      $query_split = explode("=", $string);      $search_query[$query_split[0]] = urldecode($query_split[1]);    } // foreach    $the_query = new WP_Query($search_query);    if ( $the_query->have_posts() ) :     ?>    <!-- the loop -->    <ul>        <?php while ( $the_query->have_posts() ) : $the_query->the_post(); ?>        <li>            <a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a>        </li>       <?php endwhile; ?>    </ul>    <!-- end of the loop -->    <?php wp_reset_postdata(); ?><?php else : ?>    <p><?php _e( 'Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.' ); ?></p><?php endif; ?>