Scott Reilly

This plugin prevents WordPress from allowing and handling any search requests from the front-end of the site. Specifically, this plugin:
<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>
The plugin only affects search on the front-end of the site. It does not disable searching in the admin section of the site.
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>

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.

Even though you may add two spaces after each sentence when writing a post (assuming you subscribe to a writing style that suggests such spacing) web browsers will collapse consecutive blank spaces into a single space when viewed. This plugin adds a <code>&nbsp;</code> (non-breaking space) after sentence-ending punctuation to retain the appearance of your two-space intent.
NOTE: The plugin will only enforce the two-space gap in places where two or more spaces actually separate sentences in your posts. It will NOT insert a second space if only one space is present.
Links: <a href="http://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/extra-sentence-space/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a> | <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/extra-sentence-space/" rel="ugc">Plugin Directory Page</a> | <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/extra-sentence-space/" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a> | <a href="http://coffee2code.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Author Homepage</a>
<h3>Hooks</h3>
The plugin is further customizable via two filters. Typically, these customizations would be put into your active theme’s functions.php file, or used by another plugin.
c2c_extra_sentence_space
The ‘c2c_extra_sentence_space’ filter allows you to use an alternative approach to safely invoke <code>c2c_extra_sentence_space()</code> in such a way that if the plugin were deactivated or deleted, then your calls to the function won’t cause errors in your site. This only applies if you use the function directly, which is not typical usage for most users.
Example:
Instead of:
<pre><code><?php echo c2c_extra_sentence_space( $mytext ); ?>
</code></pre>
Do:
<pre><code><?php echo apply_filters( 'c2c_extra_sentence_space', $mytext ); ?>
</code></pre>
c2c_extra_sentence_space_punctuation
The ‘c2c_extra_sentence_space_punctuation’ filter allows you to customize the punctuation, characters, and/or symbols after which double-spacing (when present) is preserved. By default these are ‘.!?’.
Arguments:
<ul>
<li>$punctuation (string): The default characters after which double-spacing should be preserved. Default is ‘.!?’.</li>
</ul>
Example:
<pre><code>/**
 * Modifies the list of characters after which two spaces should be preserved
 * to include a forward slash.
 *
 * @param string $punctuation The punctuation.
 * @return string
 */
function more_extra_space_punctuation( $punctuation ) {
 // Add the '/' and ')' characters to the list of characters
 return $punctuation . '/)';
}
add_filter( 'c2c_extra_sentence_space_punctuation', 'more_extra_space_punctuation' );
</code></pre>

Extra Sentence Space

Excellent

Force browsers to display two spaces (when present) between sentences.

Disable Search vs Extra Sentence Space