What does "Search" search?

In this Article

• What does "Search" search?
• What does "Search" not search?

"Search" searches and indexes anything that’s viewable on a page within the domain(s) being searched. “Viewable” is a surprisingly technical concept, but the basic idea is that not all of the information about a page can be seen when a user visits it. Information that users cannot see is not indexed in site searches.

For internal searches, the general rule of thumb is that we need to have someplace to send users when they click on a search result. This is why content that appears exclusively in popups rather than on site pages is not indexed - users cannot be directed to a popup, so that content isn’t “viewable” on a site page.

What does "Search" search?

• Any static page content (element titles, text within content elements.) In order to appear in site searches, content must be displayed on a page.
• Page titles (as defined in Page Settings.) 
• Dynamic content, meaning content that appears in elements based on the element’s settings.
• Details based on a user's clicks from another page. For example, a calendar event whose details appear on a new page.
• Content inside Tabs or Accordion elements is returned in a search result, but the user will be directed to the page containing the content, not the exact tab or accordion. 
• Content displaying in Calendar, Posts or all Athletics elements placed on site pages will be included in search results.
  

  • In Calendar elements whose “Event Settings” options are set to display Event Times, Event Locations and Event Notes will include those pieces of information in site search results.

Note: Events shown in this element are set to open in a page, rather than a popup!

• • In Post elements, content can be displayed from multiple boards. A board’s posts must be displayed in a post element on a site page somewhere in order for those posts to be indexed and included in site searches. All of the posts from a given board are always indexed, as long as that board is set to display on a site page somewhere - the actual posts themselves do not have to be visible at any given moment in time! 

    Note: If a Post URL is showing in search results, but is opening a 404 page, there is most likely a "Single" Post Element on that page set to "Display Specific Post", while also having a board selected. Deselecting the board will remove the broken Post URLs from site search.

What does "Search" not search?

• Media and files that live only in the Resources module but aren't being displayed on a page do not show up in site search.
• Content exclusively displayed in popups is not indexed in search. This includes post body content that is not displayed on a page but only in a popup when clicked upon. 
• SEO tags (Keyword, Description, etc) are not indexed in site search because they determine how your site is displayed when included in results on third-party search engines like Google; they do not apply to internal searches.
• Meta tags are not displayed on a page, so if we returned them as search results users would click on them and be taken to a page that doesn’t actually display the content they clicked on. This leads to users thinking that the search doesn’t work, when actually it works a little too well! 
• Text in page banners is not indexed in site search. Since banners can show up on multiple pages, doing so could fill the results up with pages that do not actually have the content the user was searching for.
• Posts that are "Expired" are not viewable on site pages, and are not included in site search results.