Restrict back end search to page titles

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterwardleyrepen · Member ·

    It should be possible to restrict a backend search to page titles only.

    Example: I have a 300-page site with one page called “Sitemap” and links to that page in the content/menus on the other 299. If I do a search in the back end (Pages > All Pages) for “Sitemap”, I get 300 results, and the actual Sitemap page is way down the list, making it very difficult to find. All i need to find is that one page.

    This applies to all pages on the site: if a search term (i.e. a page title) appears anywhere on a page – as a link, for example, or in a menu – the page appears in search results. I need to make this stop.

    Surely, given its prevalence on large websites, this should be a basic feature in WordPress?

  • aleone89 · Staff ·

    Hello there,

    Many thanks for reaching out.

    Are you able to confirm the URL of the website that you need assistance with please?

    Also, this request sounds like it might not be possible and non-standard at this stage.

  • Unknown's avatar
    peterwardleyrepen · Member ·

    You’re right – it’s not possible and doesn’t seem to be a feature of WordPress at the moment. That’s why Support asked me to post it in the Ideas forum.

    I’d expect this to be a problem for any users with a large number of pages/posts, where page titles are mentioned in menus or page/post content; it really needs to be core functionality in an upcoming version of WP. At the very least, we need a tickbox to exclude page/post content from a search.

  • staff-mckluskey · Staff ·

    Right, thank you for the feedback. We’ll reach out to our developers with your suggestion.

    In the meantime, if you’re thinking of re-purchasing plan Business, you may want to check if there’s a plugin that would allow you to do what you’re looking for.
    You can also ask for plugin suggestions on https://wordpress.org/support/forums/.

  • Unknown's avatar
    musicdoc1 · Member ·

    @peterwardleyrepen,

    This applies to all pages on the site: if a search term (i.e. a page title) appears anywhere on a page – as a link, for example, or in a menu – the page appears in search results. I need to make this stop.

    Hi! Excellent suggestion. I run into this issue frequently, and on a large site it’s a problem.

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