Returning code in views search tpl but ONLY if user clicked 'search' button and results were returned
This should probably be done in a pre-processor rather than a template file, but I'll stick to the question as asked, for now:

&lt;?php if (!empty($view-&gt;exposed_input) &amp;&amp; !empty($rows)): ?&gt;
 &lt;?php if ($feed_icon): ?&gt;
  &lt;div class="feed-icon"&gt;
   &lt;?php print $feed_icon; ?&gt;
  &lt;/div&gt;
 &lt;?php endif; ?&gt;
&lt;?php endif; ?&gt;