Search keys get variable is in subsequent search pages and so search not returning any more results
You don't need to POST to /search/node as all its parameters are retrieve from query parameters. As such, you can make your basic form use the GET method with your keys input field. For example: 

&lt;form action="/search/node" method="get"&gt;
  &lt;input title="Enter the terms you wish to search for." name="keys" value="" size="15" maxlength="128"&gt;
  &lt;input type="submit"value="Search"&gt;
&lt;/form&gt;


As for the "Your search returned no results" on loading /search/node, that's the default behavior.