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 template tags that allow you to retrieve the name, path (relative or absolute), url, or fully marked-up link to a randomly chosen file or files in a specified directory.
Arguments to the functions permit you to limit what file(s) can be randomly selected based on a given set of file extensions. You can also explicitly specify files that should not be randomly selected.
This functionality can be useful for displaying random images/logos or including text from random files onto your site (writing excerpts, multi-line quotes, etc). Other ideas: random ads, random CSS files, random theme template selection.
Notes:
<ul>
<li>
If you want to actually display the name of the random file, be sure to ‘echo’ the results:

</li>
<li>
Unless you limit the file search to only include a particular extension (via <code>$extensions</code> argument), all files in the specified <code>$dir</code> will be under consideration for random selection
</li>
<li>
Can be run inside or outside of “the loop”
</li>
</ul>
Links: <a href="https://coffee2code.com/wp-plugins/random-file/" rel="nofollow ugc">Plugin Homepage</a> | <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/random-file/" rel="ugc">Plugin Directory Page</a> | <a href="https://github.com/coffee2code/random-file/" 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/random-file/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_random_file()</code> : Retrieves the name of a random file from a specified directory and returns information based on the file.</li>
<li><code>c2c_random_files()</code> : Retrieves the name, path, or link to a specified number of randomly chosen files in a specified directory.</li>
</ul>
These are the hooks provided by the plugin:
<ul>
<li><code>c2c_random_file</code> : Filter to safely invoke <code>c2c_random_file()</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_random_files</code> : Filter to safely invoke <code>c2c_random_files()</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>

Random File

Retrieve the name, path, or link to a randomly chosen file or files in a specified directory.

Disable Search vs Random File