Search Exclude

Description

With this plugin you can exclude any page, post or whatever from the WordPress search results by checking off the corresponding checkbox on post/page edit page.
Supports quick and bulk edit.

On the plugin settings page you can also see the list of all the items that are hidden from search.

Presentation

QuadLayers | Community

Screenshots

Installation

1. Upload search-exclude directory to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Go to any post/page edit page and check off the checkbox Exclude from Search Results if you don’t want the post/page to be shown in the search results

FAQ

Does this plugin affect SEO?

No, it does not affect crawling and indexing by search engines.
The ONLY thing it does is hiding selected post/pages from your site search page. Not altering SEO indexing.

If you want posts/pages to be hidden from search engines you may add the following snippet to your functions.php:

function add_meta_for_search_excluded()
{
    global $post;
    if (false !== array_search($post->ID, get_option('sep_exclude', array()))) {
        echo '<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow" />', "\n";
    }
}
add_action('wp_head', 'add_meta_for_search_excluded');

Note: already indexed pages will remain indexed for quite a while. In order to remove them from Google index, you may use Google Search Console (or similar tool for other engines).

Are there any hooks or actions available to customize plugin behaviour?

Yes.
There is an action searchexclude_hide_from_search.
You can pass any post/page/custom_post ids as an array in the first parameter.
The second parameter specifies state of visibility in search. Pass true if you want to hide posts/pages,
or false – if you want show them in the search results.

Example:
Let’s say you want “Exclude from Search Results” checkbox to be checked off by default
for newly created posts, but not pages. In this case you can add following code
to your theme’s function.php:

add_filter('default_content', 'exclude_new_post_by_default', 10, 2);
function exclude_new_post_by_default($content, $post)
{
    if ('post' === $post->post_type) {
        do_action('searchexclude_hide_from_search', array($post->ID), true);
    }
}

Also there is a filter searchexclude_filter_search.
With this filter you can turn on/off search filtering dynamically.
Parameters:
$exclude – current search filtering state (specifies whether to filter search or not)
$query – current WP_Query object

By returning true or false you can turn search filtering respectively.

Example:
Let’s say you need to disable search filtering if searching by specific post_type.
In this case you could add following code to you functions.php:

add_filter('searchexclude_filter_search', 'filterForProducts', 10, 2);
function filterForProducts($exclude, $query)
{
    return $exclude && 'product' !== $query->get('post_type');
}

Reviews

Great plugin, easy to manage

Matt Rock November 15, 2024 1 reply

The plugin I was using previously seems to have been abandoned by it’s author, which brought me here. And I couldn’t be happier! Some thoughtful touches make managing excluded posts a breeze. As well as listing all posts on the plugin dashboard page (with handy check boxes), having a visible/hidden admin column with the ability to manage via Quick Edit is incredibly appreciated. (If only the plugin I was using previously had been as well thought out. Would’ve saved me some time deactivating following the move… ?? ) Thanks for your work on this! Much appreciated.

Perfect Job!

Sara May November 9, 2024 1 reply

Does exactly what I want it to!

It does what it needs to do!

MCMarco November 5, 2024 1 reply

Really handy plugin for excluding posts, pages or custom post type!

Love it!

jelena1401 November 2, 2024 1 reply

Works like magic!

Just What I Needed

sheepmonkey3 November 1, 2024 1 reply

Works very well and solved my problem seamlessly. Thank you!

Works as expected

October 23, 2024 1 reply

This plugin is easy to install and easy to use.

Contributors & Developers

Changelog

2.1.7

• Fix WordPress 6.1.3 compatibility
• Fix big queries
• Remove notification

2.1.6

• Refactor update

2.1.5

• Refactor

2.1.4

• WordPress compatibility

2.1.3

• WordPress compatibility

2.1.2

• WordPress compatibility

2.1.1

• Packages update

2.1.0

• WordPress compatibility

2.0.9

• Fix PHP errors

2.0.8

• Translation strings

2.0.7

• WordPress compatibility

2.0.6

• WordPress compatibility

2.0.5

• Update portfolio link

2.0.4

• WordPress compatibility

2.0.3

• Fix strings translations

2.0.2

• Fix strings translations

2.0.1

• Fix strings translations

2.0.0

• i18n implemented
• Composer implemented
• Autoload implemented
• Rename files to fit WordPress Development rules
• Rename classes to fit WordPress Development rules
• Rename variables to fit WordPress Development rules

1.3.1

• Author update.

1.3.0

• Fix and rework bulk edit: The Bulk actions dropdown now offers hide/show actions.

1.2.7

• This is a security release. All users are encouraged to upgrade.
• Fix possible XSS vulnerability.

1.2.6

• Fix compatibility with WordPress 5.5

1.2.5

• Security release. More protection added.

1.2.4

• Security release. All users are encouraged to update.
• Added filter searchexclude_filter_permissions.

1.2.2

• Added action searchexclude_hide_from_search
• Added filter searchexclude_filter_search
• Fixed Bulk actions for Firefox

1.2.1

• Fixed bug when unable to save post on PHP <5.5 because of boolval() usage

1.2.0

• Added quick and bulk edit support
• Tested up to WP 4.1

1.1.0

• Tested up to WP 4.0
• Do not show Plugin on some service pages in Admin
• Fixed conflict with bbPress
• Fixed deprecation warning when DEBUG is on

1.0.6

• Fixed search filtering for AJAX requests

1.0.5

• Not excluding items from search results on admin interface

1.0.4

• Fixed links on settings page with list of excluded items
• Tested up to WP 3.9

1.0.3

• Added support for excluding attachments from search results
• Tested up to WP 3.8

1.0.2

• Fixed: Conflict with Yoast WordPress SEO plugin

1.0.1

• Fixed: PHP 5.2 compatibility

1.0

• Initial release