How do I add site search in Webflow?

Add the search box and the results page

Open the Add panel and place the Search element where people should type. It includes a wrapper, a search input, and a submit button. You can hide the button if Enter should submit the search. Style it like any other element, and set the placeholder text. Autofocus puts the cursor in the field on load. Use that only on a dedicated search page, not in a navbar on every page, or the page opens with the keyboard already inside the box.

Adding search creates a Search results page under Utility pages. Its slug is reserved as /search. You can rename the page. You cannot change that slug. The page lists a title, the page URL, and a snippet. You can style that list, set how many results to show (up to 60), and turn on a no-results state in the Search Results wrapper settings. Search results do not paginate across extra pages.

There is one search index for the site. Extra search boxes still search the same content.

Publish on a plan that builds a real index

On a Starter or Basic Site plan, the results page shows sample hits so you can design the layout. Those are not your pages. Real results need a Premium Site plan, or a legacy CMS Site plan or higher. After that plan is on the site, the index is created when you publish.

Until then, the Designer preview of results is sample data. To style real hits, publish, then use Preview results on the results wrapper with a term you know is on the site.

Site search only returns content from the locale the visitor is in. If that locale does not have the page, they see a no-matching-results message. Content that only a logged-in User Account can open is not indexed.

Keep repeated text out of the index

By default, Webflow indexes the site except components, randomized Collection lists, utility pages, and password-protected content. A navbar that says Blog on every page makes a search for Blog match the whole site. Exclude that kind of chrome.

Select the navbar, footer, or form. In the element settings, under Search index settings, check Exclude content from site search results. The same exclusion applies to elements inside that parent. Components and randomized Collection lists are already excluded. You can turn that back on for a main component if you truly want its text in the index.

To drop a static page or a Collection template, open Page settings, Site search settings, and check Exclude this page from site search results. Save. A reindex removes it. Excluding a Collection template removes those item pages. It does not remove the same words where a Collection list prints them on another page. You cannot exclude one Collection item by itself. For that list, exclude the list element, or accept that the card text is searchable.

This checkbox does not change Google. A page can be in Google and hidden from on-site search, or the reverse.

Reindex after the content changes

The index is not the CMS. Publishing one Collection item does not trigger an automatic reindex. A full-site publish does, on a timer. On a legacy CMS Site plan, automatic reindex runs 72 hours after a full-site publish, and manual reindex is available once every 24 hours. On a Premium Site plan, or a legacy Business Site plan, automatic reindex runs 12 hours after a full-site publish, and manual reindex is available every 12 hours.

To reindex yourself, open the Designer settings (the gear), click Search, and choose Index now. Large sites can take up to 24 hours to finish. Check that same Search panel for the last update and the next automatic run.

For example: you publish a new guide with a full-site publish and expect it in search the same hour. It may not be there until the plan's reindex window passes. Style and exclusions also wait for a reindex.

Try a query you can predict

Publish, wait until the index exists, then search a word that appears in one article and should not appear in the navbar. You want that article, not every page. Search a word you excluded and confirm it is gone after the reindex, not merely after you checked the box.

Also submit an empty or nonsense query and read the no-results state. If it is blank, turn on the no-results state and write a sentence that points people to Contact or the main sections. Site search will not survive an export of the site, so this check only counts on the published Webflow domain.