Disable Search

By Scott Reilly

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Disable the built-in front-end search capabilities of WordPress.

4.6

Rating summary

Reviews

40K

Active installations

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Overview

Compatibility

Installation instructions

Customer support & learning resources

Changelog

Main benefits

Prevents search form appearance

Disables search widget

Removes search block

Blocks manual search requests

Returns 404 for searches

About this plugin

Author: Scott Reilly

Categories: Widgets and Sidebars

Version: 2.0.1

Last updated: 03-09-2023

WordPress version: 4.6

Tested up to: 6.3.5

PHP version required: false

Languages: Čeština, Deutsch (Sie) [+1]

Tags:

Disable Coffee2code Search

Learning resources: View resources

Overview

This WordPress plugin is designed to completely disable any search functionality on the front-end of your site. By preventing the search form from being displayed and deactivating any search widgets or blocks, it ensures that visitors cannot perform any search actions, either through the UI or direct GET/POST requests. Additionally, attempts to search will result in a 404 File Not Found response, maintaining your site's integrity. This plugin also integrates with Yoast SEO to disable all search-related SEO schema outputs, enhancing security and performance without impacting the search capabilities of the admin backend. Ideal for sites where search functionality is unnecessary or needs to be restricted.

Prevents Search Form Appearance

Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses the standard get_search_form() function.
Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses a searchform.php template.
Prevents the search item from appearing in the admin tool bar when shown on the front-end.

Disables Search Widget

Removes the Search widget from the list of available widgets.
Deactivates any search widgets currently in use in any sidebars (they are hidden, not deleted).

Disables Search Block

Removes the Search block from the list of available blocks.
Deactivates any search blocks currently in use, such as in posts or as a widget (they are disabled, not deleted).

Prevents Search Requests

Prevents any direct or manual search requests by visitors from returning search results.
Submitted search attempts will receive a 404 File Not Found response.
Disables output of SearchAction in SEO schema by the Yoast SEO plugin.

Rating and reviews

4.6

Rating summary

Reviews

40K

Active installations

User sentiment analysis

Users appreciate that this WordPress plugin is simple and effective in disabling the search functionality on their websites. It helps reduce the load on CPU resources by preventing spam searches, saving costs, and enhancing site performance. Users find it incredibly easy to install and activate, often with just two clicks, and it performs consistently without issues. Furthermore, it allows backend search functions for administrators while blocking unwanted searches formatted in URLs. However, there are drawbacks: it can interfere with other functionalities such as Jetpack slideshow gallery, BuddyPress, and the Google Maps API. Some users find residual search functions remaining in the WordPress admin bar when logged in.

Takahashi Fumiki

30 Apr, 2024

In 2024, numerous bots are crawling sites, generating significant search spam. Generally, site search incurs high costs, primarily because we end up paying for CPU resources consumed by spam. If site search is not crucial for your website, I recommend activating this plugin. Thank you, Scott, for maintaining this simple yet effective plugin!

Dennis

09 Feb, 2022

Simple and Very Handful

aliakey7

02 Jan, 2022

Love this plugin! Really didn’t want a search bar on my site and this took care of the problem. I have used this plugin for about a year with no hiccups at all. Thank you for developing it!