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Keep your search box when you go static

Visitors see matching pages as they type in your WordPress search box. Staatic updates the search index every time you publish, so there’s no search service to set up.

Start your free trial Try the search box

Matching pages as visitors type

Each letter brings up the pages that match, with the typed words highlighted. Picking one opens that page.

Try:

Live suggestions from this site’s pages, from the same widget your visitors get. Press Enter to see every match.

  • Title, text and image

    Each suggestion shows the page’s title, a short piece of its text with the typed words highlighted, and its featured image when it has one.

  • In the box you already have

    Staatic adds suggestions to your theme’s WordPress search box. A custom search field needs one attribute.

  • Keyboard and screen readers

    Arrow keys move through the suggestions and Enter opens one. Screen readers hear the list and the suggestion you move to.

This site’s documentation search and its results page run on Staatic Search. See the documentation

Indexed when you publish

Switch search on once, in Staatic’s settings in WordPress. From then on, publishing updates the search index along with the pages, so search shows what visitors can open.

  1. You edit in WordPress

    Saving a post changes nothing for visitors yet.

  2. You publish

    Staatic builds the pages, adds new and changed posts to the index and removes unpublished ones.

  3. Visitors search

    Suggestions match the site that is live.

What you choose

What’s searchable
Posts, pages and your own public post types, or just the ones you pick. Drafts stay out.
How many suggestions
Set how many suggestions appear.
A results page
Pick one of your pages to list every match, and how many results each page of it shows.
A fresh index
Rebuild the whole index with the next publication, for example when results look out of date. Changing what’s searchable does this for you.

Every search setting, and how indexing runs.

Search docs

Searches never reach your WordPress

Visitors’ searches go to Staatic Search, which holds a copy of what you published. Your WordPress is never asked, so search opens no way into it.

A visitor’s browser

Opens pages and types searches

Opens
Searches

Your static pages

Finished files

Staatic Search

A copy of what you published

Publish
Publish

Your WordPress

On Staatic Cloud: private, and paused when idle

Pages and searches are both answered without WordPress. It only sends them updates when you publish.

What a scanner finds on a Staatic site.

Security

Made for finding a page

Search on a static site works a little differently from WordPress search. These are the choices it makes.

Straight to the page, or every match
Each suggestion opens its page in one step. Press Enter in your site’s search instead and a results page you choose lists every match, with page numbers. See this site’s results page
Titles and content
Search matches each page’s title and text. A theme can choose that text, for example to add a page’s custom fields.
One index, every search box
All search boxes on the site use the same index, and each can be limited to some content, such as only your documentation.
Your theme’s look
The suggestion list suits most themes as it is, and you can restyle it with CSS. See the widget’s HTML

What works on a static site, search included.

Compatibility

Before you switch on search

How many searches are included?
1,000 search requests a month for the whole account, shared by all its sites. Each lookup as a visitor types counts as one, and so does each page of results. We email you at 80% and 100% of the allowance; use beyond it is billed at the pricing-page rate. See pricing
Do I need a separate search service?
No. Staatic indexes your site and answers the searches, as part of Cloud and Premium plans. The free plugin doesn’t include search.
Does it work on my own hosting?
Yes, with a Premium license and your Staatic account connected. Suggestions load in the visitor’s browser, wherever you publish the static site. See self-hosted plans
Will it work with my theme’s search box?
Yes, if it’s the standard WordPress search field. A custom field needs one attribute, data-staatic-search, and each field can search only some content, such as just your documentation. See how to set it up
Can visitors see every match?
Yes. Pick one of your pages as the results page and add the Staatic Search results block to it. Your site’s search forms then list every match there, and old /?s= search links land there too. The page stays out of search engines and out of your own search. See how to set it up
Does the preview site have its own search?
Yes, on Staatic Cloud. A preview publication gets its own results that link to the preview site, so live visitors only find live pages.
Can I see what visitors search for?
The Staatic dashboard shows how many searches your sites get each day. It doesn’t track which suggestions visitors open.

Add search to your static site, free for 14 days

The trial includes one Cloud site with its own WordPress. Import your site, switch search on and publish.

Start your free trial Read the search docs
  • No payment details needed
  • The trial ends automatically
  • You keep editing in WordPress

Everything else Staatic adds to a static site.

Features