How to disable the WordPress search from your WordPress site?
The WordPress search can take up a lot of resources on the server as it uses your site’s database when making queries. If this feature is not something you particularly need for your site, I would recommend that you simply remove the feature.
To disable or remove the WordPress search functionality, you can simply install a plugin called “Disable Search” This plugin will disable, as well as remove, the WordPress search form from your site entirely and all you will need to do is install and activate it via your admin control panel. I have personally tested the plugin running WordPress 4.2.2 and it works as expected.
Should you still want to use a search functionality on your site, you may want to consider using Google Search instead. Using Google Search is a better option as it will allow you to offload the search functionality you require over to Google which will be less taxing on your servers and, besides, who is more equipped with resources to handle search than Google?!
You’ll be pleased to know that there is no need for you to know how to code in order to achieve this as there are a number of plugins available to get the job done. Should you wish to make use of Google Search within your WordPress site, you will need to install the “Google Search” plugin Once installed, you will need to activate and configure it under “Settings -> WP Google Search” located within your WordPress Admin.
The Google Search plugin requires that you have setup your own custom search engine through Google which can be done via this link. You can then setup the widget for your Google search under “Appearance -> Widgets” within your WordPress Admin.
And voila! You now have a search functionality within your WordPress site that is powered by Google!
Here are a few more articles we have written about WordPress:
Click here to chat