How can i add a span element within the search form using hook_form_alter? I’m trying to customize a search box that appears in the global header, using hook_form_alter. I’ve succeeded in changing the submit button to an image but still need to do the following 2 things:

add placeholder text that reads ‘Enter search terms here….’ 
and then add a  

&lt;span class="sb-icon-search"&gt;&lt;/span&gt; 


within the form itself. This is for future use, i’ll be coding the field to hide/show when mousing over a search icon. 

my hook_form_alter code is as follows:

function mytheme_form_alter(&amp;$form, &amp;$form_state, $form_id){
  if($form_id == 'search_block_form'){
  //dsm($form);
  $form[actions][submit]['#type'] = 'image_button';
  $form[actions][submit]['#src'] = drupal_get_path('theme', ‘mytheme’). '/images/search_trans.png';
  }
}
For the placeholder just add this line to the hook_form_alter 

$form['FIELD_I_WANT_TO_ALTER']['#attributes']['placeholder'] = 'placeholder text'; 


The span can be done in a few ways but the shortest is 

$form['hover_toggle']['#markup'] = '&lt;span class="sb-icon-search"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;';