Custom search result template custom query

Hi guys,

I’m new to the Theme Converter so this may be an obvious/stupid question but here it is anyway:

I have a custom search page template with a search field above and space of search results underneath.

I added the search field by adding a “Get Search Form” and Show Posts (main loop) WordPress actions.

The page works as expected when I perform a search which is great. I didn’t think I’d get that far.

The problem is that If I go to the searh page without passing a search query via the “s=” parameter, the main loop loads the latest posts. Which I understand is the expected result.

However, what I would like to do is, if someone goes to the search page without passing a query, to only see the search field, and when they seach (upon search form submission) to load the relevant search results.

Is there any way to do this? Again, I’m really new to Pinegrow and I really want to learn, I am just stomped on this.