Disable Search Slug

Hi, @lauratraveler!

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

WordPress’ default search URL is in this format – https://example.com/?s=search-term. To confirm, are you using another plugin to rewrite the search URL? There are multiple ways to change this and you can refer to this post so you could see if you did the one of them.

If you’re using a third-party SEO plugin, I would recommend reaching out to them as well to see if this slug can be included in the search.

I hope this helps and let us know if we can assist you further.

Kind Regards,
Karla

Hi @karlalevelup,

The search box on my site uses https://example.com/?s=search-term but the search function works just the same if I type https://example.com/search/search-term So basically, both formats work on my site. I don’t use a plugin for this and never changed the search URL.

I’d like to make valid this format alone https://example.com/?s=search-term and completely disable this format https://example.com/search/search-term since I get a lot of search spam (or whatever it’s called) at https://example.com/search/search-term (the URLs are listed in Google Search Console).

Thanks!

Hi, @lauratraveler.

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.

So basically, both formats work on my site. I don’t use a plugin for this and never changed the search URL.

This is quite odd, I haven’t encountered the same behavior yet. For us to better see how the search works on your website, could you please send us a URL?

Additionally, if you have website caching and you purge them, will the /search/a-random-string-or-words URLs still be listed in your Google Search Console?

Kind Regards,
Karla