Frequently Asked Questions
How SiteSearch finds your pages – and what it leaves out
Everything you might want to know about SiteSearch – how it reads your site, which pages it finds and how to fine-tune the results. Can't find your answer here? Type your question into the search above – that's what it's there for.
Does SiteSearch Need PHP or a Database?
No. SiteSearch runs entirely in the visitor's browser. It reads the pages of your published site, builds a small search index and keeps it in the browser's local storage for the next visit. There is no server script, no database, no license key and no account – it works on any host that serves your Rapidweaver Elements site.
Which Pages Does SiteSearch Find?
Every page listed in your sitemap.xml, except pages set to noindex. If your site has no sitemap, SiteSearch falls back to the navigation of your project. To leave out a page, turn off Include in Sitemap in the page settings or add its address to Exclude Pages, for example /imprint/. End an address with an asterisk to leave out a whole folder.
Are CMS Posts Included?
Yes. CMS posts that are linked from your pages – for example through the Read More links of a blog overview – are found automatically. If you prefer, you can also add the sitemap of a CMS collection under Extra Sitemaps, and SiteSearch reads those posts as well. The empty template page of a CMS item is skipped.
How Fast Is SiteSearch?
The first search on a visit reads your pages in the background – on a site with twenty pages, this takes about one to two seconds, and the results fill in while the pages arrive. After that, the index is stored in the browser and every further search is instant, even on the next visit. When your sitemap shows that pages have changed, the index is refreshed automatically.
How Are the Results Sorted?
Pages that contain all search words come first. A match in the page title counts more than a match in the text, a whole word more than part of a word, and an exact phrase like cms summary ranks above the same words spread across the page. The excerpt below each title shows the most meaningful passage with every search word highlighted.
What Does Jump to Match Do?
With Jump to Match turned on, a click on a result opens the page right at the first place where the search words appear and highlights them – modern browsers support this with so-called text fragments. Turn it off in the Search group if results should always open at the top of the page.
Why Is My Menu Not in the Results?
SiteSearch leaves out text that repeats on almost every page – the navigation, the footer, a cookie note. Otherwise every search for Contact or Blog would list every page of your site. To hide anything else, add the class sitesearch-exclude to it in Advanced → Classes, or limit the search to one container with Search Only In.
Does It Work on Phones and Tablets?
Yes. The result list always stays inside the screen, and with Icon Only the search field turns into a magnifying glass on smaller screens. The search window then uses almost the full width of the phone, and the page behind it stops scrolling while the window is open.
Can Visitors Use the Keyboard?
Yes. The arrow keys move through the results, Enter opens the active one, and Escape closes the list or the search window. Screen readers announce the number of results, and the clear and close buttons have their own labels in the Language group.
Can I Change the Texts and the Look?
Every text a visitor sees can be changed in the Inspector – the placeholder in the Search group, everything else in the Language group. The look follows your theme: fonts, colors, borders, radius and shadow for the search field and the results, plus width, gap and a blurred backdrop for the search window. Light and dark mode are supported out of the box.
Is SiteSearch AI Ready?
Yes. Every setting carries a description that the Elements AI Assistant and connected AI tools can read, so they set up SiteSearch correctly instead of guessing – just like ShortCodes and the other WeaverPixel components.
Instant Site-Wide Search for Rapidweaver Elements