diff --git a/src/pydata_sphinx_theme/theme/pydata_sphinx_theme/layout.html b/src/pydata_sphinx_theme/theme/pydata_sphinx_theme/layout.html
index ed4ffc8f5..9b3e6466e 100644
--- a/src/pydata_sphinx_theme/theme/pydata_sphinx_theme/layout.html
+++ b/src/pydata_sphinx_theme/theme/pydata_sphinx_theme/layout.html
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@
         {% include "sections/sidebar-primary.html" %}
       </div>
       {# Using an ID here so that the skip-link works #}
-      <main id="main-content" class="bd-main">
+      <main id="main-content" class="bd-main" role="main">
         {# Main content area #}
         {% block docs_main %}
           <div class="bd-content">
diff --git a/tests/test_build.py b/tests/test_build.py
index 1a2a623aa..60c95e308 100644
--- a/tests/test_build.py
+++ b/tests/test_build.py
@@ -1164,3 +1164,12 @@ def test_render_secondary_sidebar_dict_multiple_glob_matches(
     assert not sphinx_build.html_tree("section1/index.html").select("div.sourcelink")
     assert sphinx_build.html_tree("section2/index.html").select("div.sourcelink")
     assert sphinx_build.html_tree("section2/page1.html").select("div.sourcelink")
+
+
+def test_role_main_for_search_highlights(sphinx_build_factory):
+    """Sphinx searchtools.js looks for [role="main"], so make sure it's there.
+
+    This is a regression test. See #1676.
+    """
+    sphinx_build = sphinx_build_factory("base").build()
+    assert sphinx_build.html_tree("index.html").select_one('[role="main"]')