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Search Exclude

By quadlayers

Site Administration & Utilities / URL Redirects & 301 Management

Search Exclude Review - In-Depth Analysis

Easily hide specific posts or pages from WordPress search results. Supports bulk editing.

Performance Overview

WPS Score

7.36/10

User Rating

4.8/5 (based on 217+ reviews)

Active Installations

50,000+

Update Frequency

Average It is calculated using the weighted average of same category plugins.

Security Score

5.6 / 10 (Medium Risk) It is calculated using the weighted average of all versions.

What It Does

This plugin allows you to exclude any page, post, or content from appearing in the WordPress search results. You can do this by simply checking off the corresponding checkbox on the post or page edit screen.

It also supports quick and bulk editing, making it easy to manage multiple items at once. Additionally, the plugin settings page provides a list of all the items that are currently hidden from search results.

Comparing to Alternatives

Search Exclude stands out as a straightforward solution for excluding content from WordPress search results, focusing solely on this functionality without additional complexity.

Top alternatives

Search Exclude

Strengths

Simple and easy to use with minimal setup required.
Allows bulk exclusion of pages and posts from search results.
Effectively prevents selected content from appearing in site search.
Lightweight plugin that does not impact site performance.

Weaknesses

Limited to excluding content from search; lacks advanced filtering options.
No integration with external search engines or SEO tools.
No premium version with extended features or support.

User Sentiment Analysis

Users appreciate the plugin's simplicity and reliability, often highlighting its effectiveness in managing search results without hassle.

Positive highlights

"Nice to see a plugin work without any guess work or troubleshooting." - unleashedfinancial
"Works perfectly." - Michael Kavanagh
"This plugin is a must have." - stanleyboise
"Really great if you don’t want (part of) your site indexed by search engines." - manjas
"Very helpful plugin." - onestudioteam

Common complaints

Weaknesses

Lacks advanced customization options for search exclusion.
No premium support or additional features beyond the free version.

Who Should Use This?

Best for

Website owners who need a simple and effective way to exclude specific pages or posts from WordPress search results without complicated settings.

Not ideal for

Users looking for advanced search customization, integration with SEO tools, or premium support features may find this plugin limited.

Pricing & Value

Free version includes

The free version includes all core features needed to exclude content from search results, offering excellent value for users seeking straightforward functionality.

Final Verdict

Search Exclude is a reliable and user-friendly plugin that fulfills its purpose of excluding content from WordPress search results efficiently.

While it lacks advanced features and a premium version, its simplicity and effectiveness make it a valuable tool for users needing basic search exclusion capabilities.

Other Notable Features

Here are a few other notable features of this free Search Exclude plugin.

Exclude Page

Exclude Post

Search Exclude

Screenshots

FAQ

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).

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'); }