Scott Reilly

<p>This plugin prevents WordPress from allowing and handling any search requests from the front-end of the site. Specifically, this plugin:</p>
<ul>
<li>Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses the standard <code>get_search_form()</code> function to display the search form.</li>
<li>Prevents the search form from appearing if the theme uses a <code>searchform.php</code> template</li>
<li>Prevents the search item from appearing in the admin tool bar when shown on the front-end.</li>
<li>Disables the search widget.
<ul>
<li>Removes the Search widget from the list of available widgets</li>
<li>Deactivates any search widgets currently in use in any sidebars (they are hidden, not deleted; they’ll reappear in their original locations if this plugin gets deactivated)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Disables the search block.
<ul>
<li>Removes the Search block from the list of available blocks</li>
<li>Deactivates any search blocks currently in use, such as in posts or as a widget (they are disabled, not deleted; they’ll reappear if this plugin gets deactivated and the associated placeholder block doesn’t get deleted)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>With or without a search form, the plugin prevents any direct or manual requests by visitors, via either GET or POST requests, from actually returning any search results.</li>
<li>Submitted attempts at a search will be given a 404 File Not Found response, rendered by your site’s 404.php template, if present.</li>
<li>Disables output of <code>SearchAction</code> in SEO schema by the <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-seo/" rel="ugc">Yoast SEO</a> plugin.</li>
</ul>
<p>The plugin only affects search on the front-end of the site. It does not disable searching in the admin section of the site.</p>
<p>Links: <a href="https://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/disable-search/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a> | <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/disable-search/" rel="ugc">Plugin Directory Page</a> | <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/disable-search/" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a> | <a href="https://coffee2code.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Author Homepage</a></p>


Disable Search


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!


The most effective way to avoid search spam

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

<p>A widget that can act as a duplicate of another widget (for synchronized use in another sidebar)</p>
<p>Define a widget once, use it in multiple sidebars.  This saves you from having to manually configure each copy of the widget and later having to worry about keeping them in sync should you ever need to make any changes.  Particularly useful for those who define logic in their themes to conditionally include different versions of a sidebar depending on what template is being shown. Depending on use, it is an alternative to plugins that introduce in-widget logic to determine when widgets should be visible (Widget Logic, Section Widget, Conditional Widgets, etc).</p>
<p>Quick overview of what this plugin does:</p>
<ul>
<li>Adds a widget called “Duplicate”. The widget’s only setting is a dropdown listing all active widgets.  The selected widget will be the widget duplicated by the duplicate widget.</li>
<li>A duplicate widget shows the same title and content as its source widget, even if those values later get changed in the source widget.</li>
<li>A widget can be duplicated any number of times and can appear multiple times within the same page. (Yes, even within the same sidebar, though why would you do that?)</li>
<li>A duplicate widget will abide by the configuration of the sidebar it is placed in, not the configuration of the sidebar containing the source widget.  So it uses ‘before_widget’, ‘after_widget’, ‘before_title’, ‘after_title’ values of its own sidebar.</li>
<li>Widgets that are duplicated will have “[D]” prepended to their name in the widget titlebar in the admin to denote they have duplicates.  Also, at the bottom of the widget’s configuration form (when the widget is expanded), a short blurb also explains that the widget has duplicate(s) and a count of how many duplicates it has.</li>
<li>If a widget is deactivated or deleted, if it has any duplicates, they get deleted as well.</li>
<li>The widget id and widget type of the source widget are included as HTML classes in the duplicate widget’s markup.</li>
</ul>
<p>Links: <a href="http://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/duplicate-widget/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a> | <a href="https://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/duplicate-widget/" rel="ugc">Plugin Directory Page</a> | <a href="http://coffee2code.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Author Homepage</a></p>
<h3>Filters</h3>
<p>The plugin exposes four actions for hooking.  Typically, customizations utilizing these hooks would be put into your active theme’s functions.php file, or used by another plugin.</p>
<h4>c2c_before_duplicate_widget (action)</h4>
<p>The ‘c2c_before_duplicate_widget’ hook allows you to output text, or perform some sort of action, just before the output of the duplicate widget.</p>
<p>Arguments:</p>
<ul>
<li>$instance (array) : The settings for the widget instance (namely: title and widget_to_duplicate)</li>
<li>$args (array) : The configuration for the widget and sidebar</li>
</ul>
<p>Example:</p>
<pre><code>// Output an opening <div> before duplicate widget content
add_action( 'c2c_before_duplicate_widget', 'my_c2c_before_duplicate_widget', 10, 2 );
function my_c2c_before_duplicate_widget( $instance, $args ) {
    echo '<div class="a_duplicate_widget">;
}
</code></pre>
<h4>c2c_after_duplicate_widget (action)</h4>
<p>The ‘c2c_after_duplicate_widget’ hook allows you to output text, or perform some sort of action, just after the output of the duplicate widget.</p>
<p>Arguments:</p>
<ul>
<li>$instance (array) : The settings for the widget instance (namely: title and widget_to_duplicate)</li>
<li>$args (array) : The configuration for the widget and sidebar</li>
</ul>
<p>Example:</p>
<pre><code>// Output an closing </div> after duplicate widget content
add_action( 'c2c_after_duplicate_widget', 'my_c2c_after_duplicate_widget', 10, 2 );
function my_c2c_after_duplicate_widget( $instance, $args ) {
    echo '</div>;
}
</code></pre>
<h4>c2c_before_duplicate_widget_form (action)</h4>
<p>The ‘c2c_before_duplicate_widget_form’ hook allows you to output text, or perform some sort of action, just before the output of the duplicate widget’s configuration form (in the WP admin).</p>
<p>Arguments:</p>
<ul>
<li>$instance (array) : The settings for the widget instance (namely: title and widget_to_duplicate)</li>
</ul>
<p>Example:</p>
<pre><code>// Display a message just before the duplicate widget settings form
add_action( 'c2c_before_duplicate_widget_form', 'my_c2c_before_duplicate_widget_form' );
function my_c2c_before_duplicate_widget_form( $instance ) {
    echo '<p>Note: this is a note above the widget settings form.</p>';
}
</code></pre>
<h4>c2c_after_duplicate_widget_form (action)</h4>
<p>The ‘c2c_after_duplicate_widget_form’ hook allows you to output text, or perform some sort of action, just after the output of the duplicate widget’s configuration form (in the WP admin).</p>
<p>Arguments:</p>
<ul>
<li>$instance (array) : The settings for the widget instance (namely: title and widget_to_duplicate)</li>
</ul>
<p>Example:</p>
<pre><code>// Display a message just after the duplicate widget settings form
add_action( 'c2c_after_duplicate_widget_form', 'my_c2c_after_duplicate_widget_form' );
function my_c2c_after_duplicate_widget_form( $instance ) {
    echo '<p>Note: this is a note below the widget settings form.</p>';
}
</code></pre>


Duplicate Widget

A widget that can act as a duplicate of another widget (for synchronized use in another sidebar)

Disable Search vs Duplicate Widget