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.

This plugin provides the functions <code>c2c_if_file_exists()</code>, <code>c2c_if_theme_file_exists()</code>, <code>c2c_if_plugin_file_exists()</code> that check if a file exists and either return true/false or display a string containing information about the file.
<ul>
<li>If a format string is not passed to it, the functions returns a simple boolean (true or false) indicating if the specified file exists.</li>
<li>Otherwise, the format string provided to it will be used to construct a response string, which can be customized to display information about the file (such as directory, extension, name, path, size, or url). If the <code>$echo</code> argument is true, that string is displayed on the page. Regardless of the value of <code>$echo</code>, the response string is returned by the function.</li>
</ul>
By default, <code>c2c_if_file_exists()</code> assumes you are looking for the file relative to the default WordPress upload directory. If you wish to search another directory, specify it as the <code>$dir</code> argument. <code>c2c_if_theme_file_exists()</code> assumes you are looking for a file relative to the currently active theme’s home directory. <code>c2c_if_plugin_file_exists()</code> assumes you are looking for a file relative to the directory that contains WordPress plugins.
Links: <a href="https://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/if-file-exists/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a> | <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/if-file-exists/" rel="ugc">Plugin Directory Page</a> | <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/if-file-exists/" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a> | <a href="https://coffee2code.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Author Homepage</a>
<h3>Developer Documentation</h3>
Developer documentation can be found in <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/if-file-exists/blob/master/DEVELOPER-DOCS.md" rel="nofollow ugc">DEVELOPER-DOCS.md</a>. That documentation covers the template tags and hooks provided by the plugin.
As an overview, these are the template tags provided by the plugin:
<ul>
<li><code>c2c_if_file_exists()</code> : Checks if a file exists and returns true/false or displays a string containing information about the file.</li>
<li><code>c2c_if_plugin_file_exists()</code> : Checks if a file exists (relative to the plugins directory) and returns true/false or displays a string containing information about the file.</li>
<li><code>c2c_if_theme_file_exists()</code> : Checks if a file exists (relative to the current theme’s directory) and returns true/false or displays a string containing information about the file. If the current theme is a child theme, then the function will check if the file exists first in the child theme’s directory, and if not there, then it will check the parent theme’s directory.</li>
</ul>
These are the hooks provided by the plugin:
<ul>
<li><code>c2c_if_file_exists</code> : Filter that allows use of an alternative approach to safely invoke <code>c2c_if_file_exists()</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.</li>
<li><code>c2c_if_plugin_file_exists</code> : Filter that allows use of an alternative approach to safely invoke <code>c2c_if_plugin_file_exists()</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.</li>
<li><code>c2c_if_theme_file_exists</code> : Filter that allows use of an alternative approach to safely invoke <code>c2c_if_theme_file_exists()</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.</li>
</ul>

If File Exists

Check if a file exists and return true/false or display a string containing information about the file.

Disable Search vs If File Exists