If your website has a search function, it’s powered by Webflow’s built-in Site Search. It automatically scans your content and returns results based on relevance - but you can control what gets indexed and how it’s displayed.
Here’s how it works and what you can manage.
How Site Search works
Webflow indexes all your published pages, CMS items, and content. When someone types in a search term, Webflow looks at:
- Page titles
- Meta descriptions
- On-page text
- CMS content
- URL slugs
It then ranks and returns the best matches.
You don’t need to manage this manually - but you can fine-tune it.
Excluding pages from search
If there are pages you don’t want showing up in search (like thank-you pages or hidden landing pages):
- Open the page in the Designer
- Go to Page Settings
- Scroll down to Search Settings
- Toggle off “Index this page”
This keeps the page live but removes it from search results.
Managing CMS search visibility
For CMS content (like blog posts or team members):
- You can add a Search Override in the CMS template
- This lets you define a custom search title or summary
- You can also exclude CMS items from search if needed (ask us if you want to do this)
Styling the search results page
Your search results page is a template - meaning it applies the same layout to all search queries. We’ve already styled this for you, but let us know if you want:
- Results grouped or filtered
- Tags or categories to appear
- Custom messages when no results are found
Reindexing your site
If you’ve made major content changes and want to refresh your search index:
- Open Site Settings in Webflow
- Go to the Search tab
- Click “Index Now”
This tells Webflow to rescan your content for fresh results.
