diff --git a/templates/frontend/components/searchForm_simple.tpl b/templates/frontend/components/searchForm_simple.tpl
index 9354f987571..b62f59cb709 100644
--- a/templates/frontend/components/searchForm_simple.tpl
+++ b/templates/frontend/components/searchForm_simple.tpl
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@
 {if !$currentJournal || $currentJournal->getData('publishingMode') != $smarty.const.PUBLISHING_MODE_NONE}
 	{capture name="searchFormUrl"}{url page="search" op="search" escape=false}{/capture}
 	{assign var=formUrlParameters value=[]}{* Prevent Smarty warning *}
-	{$smarty.capture.searchFormUrl|parse_url:$smarty.const.PHP_URL_QUERY|parse_str:$formUrlParameters}
+	{$smarty.capture.searchFormUrl|parse_url:$smarty.const.PHP_URL_QUERY|default:""|parse_str:$formUrlParameters}
 	<form class="pkp_search {$className|escape}" action="{$smarty.capture.searchFormUrl|strtok:"?"|escape}" method="get" role="search" aria-label="{translate|escape key="submission.search"}">
 		{foreach from=$formUrlParameters key=paramKey item=paramValue}
 			<input type="hidden" name="{$paramKey|escape}" value="{$paramValue|escape}"/>