Over time, people got used to looking at a web page – usually in the upper-right corner – and seeing a search box there. Good website navigation isn’t always easy to achieve, and features like the search bar can be very helpful.
Does this mean that every website should have a search bar? Of course not. This feature is welcomed on websites when useful. But if that’s not the case, why not remove it completely?
In this article, we will show you:
There are many different types of websites that benefit from having a search bar. The more complex the website and the more content it has, the more valuable the search feature becomes. An online store, for example, would greatly benefit from a search bar. So is a blog or magazine.
The search feature is an essential part of website navigation – as long as there is a place to go. Some websites have no more than a page or two. This practice is somewhat common when creating commercial websites. On such websites, it is not so much missed if the search bar disappears.
You may also encounter another type of issue with the default search on your WordPress website – it may be too inadequate for your needs. But in this case, you don’t want to remove the search feature.as it may break some of the best search plugins you can use to improve your website. Only remove it if you don’t want a search feature on your website. – otherwise, try a different search provider such as Google, or try to solve your website’s problems in another way, such as excluding certain results from the search.
The easiest option you can use to deal with the search bar is not to add it in the first place or to locate and remove it. So, if you’ve added it to the menu, as you can with our Bridge theme, simply go back and remove it.
The way the WordPress search bar works is via a widget – that’s how you add the bar to your website. If you don’t want your website visitors to see the search box, go to: Appearance > Widget. Find all areas where the widget is placed, be it a sidebar, footer, or header, and remove the search widget.
If you need to do more than just display the search widget, you should try: Disable search plugin. It’s available from the WordPress.org repository, has no post-installation options to bother you, and does much more than just block widgets from displaying.
For example, the search box is available from the admin toolbar even if you are viewing the front end of the website while logged in.
This plugin will take care of that. It also disables the search widget completely – it doesn’t even appear in the list of available widgets. It is also not deleted. so you can always bring it back by removing the plugin, because all it does is hide it.
The plugin also does not cause any problems when searching in the backend. It does not interfere with the search engine’s ability to search your website. It prevents any GET or POST requests from returning search results.
If you’re feeling particularly adventurous, you can add your code to function.php and disable the search functionality that way. And even if you don’t mess around with function.php, there are some great and easy ways to add custom code to WordPress. So why don’t you grab Code Snippets plugin and install and activate?
After activating the plugin, Add the following lines of code as a snippet:
if ( is_search() ) {
$query->is_search = false;
$query->query_vars[s] = false;
$query->query[s] = false;
if ( $error == true )
$query->is_404 = true;
}
}
add_action( 'parse_query', 'filter_query' );
add_filter( 'get_search_form', create_function( '$a', "return null;" ) );
function remove_search_widget() {
unregister_widget('WP_Widget_Search');
}
add_action( 'widgets_init', 'remove_search_widget' );
This will remove the widget from the website and the list, and as a result any existing query will return a 404 error.
Let’s wrap it up!
When creating a website, it’s important to avoid stuffing it with unnecessary features. Not only can it confuse the visitor, but it can also slow down the loading of the website or pose potential security risks.
For a website that has one or two pages and usually aims to provide all information to the visitor in one place, the search bar is of little use. As useful as this feature may be for some types of websites, it is best to remove it when there is no clear reason to use it. There are a few different ways to do this, but none of them should take too much time or effort.
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