Managing Search Results on Your Website

It’s recommended to include a search feature on your website so visitors can quickly find content without needing to manually navigate through menus.

Search can be added to:

• The header (recommended for visibility)

• Navigation areas

• Other prominent locations throughout the site

When used, the search directs users to a results page such as:
https://themes.showoff.asp.events/motif/__search

This page displays content relevant to the search terms entered.

🧱 Adding the Search Tool to Your Website

Composer 2 Websites

If you are using a Composer 2 template, the search tool is pre-built into the Header panel.

• Open Panels → Header

• Within the Header settings, you’ll find the relevant Search tab/widget

• Enabling this places the search tool into a predefined position within the header

This is the recommended and supported way to add search on Composer 2 sites.

Other or Custom Templates

If you are using a different template (for example, Classic Composer or a custom built website) and are unsure how to add or include the search tool:

• Please contact ASP Support for guidance

• They can advise on availability, placement, and next steps

🔎 What Does the Site Search Include?

By default, the site search:

• Searches all content added into the CMS

If you’d like to restrict search results to specific modules (for example, exhibitors, speakers, sessions, or libraries), please contact ASP Support, who can assist with this configuration.

🚫 Excluding Individual Pages or Records from Site Search

If you want to exclude individual pages or records (rather than entire modules) from appearing in site search results, you can do this directly in the CMS.

These steps apply not only to pages, but also to:

• Exhibitor records

• Speakers

• Sessions

• Library uploads (press releases, products, brochures, videos, etc.)

🧭 Steps to Exclude a Page from Site Search

1. Go to Pages and select the page you want to exclude.

2. Open Page Options → Advanced.

3. Locate “Show in search results?”.

   • By default, this is set to Yes.

   • Change this to No to exclude the page.

4. Save the page.

Once saved, the page will no longer appear in search results on pages such as:
https://themes.showoff.asp.events/motif/__search

⚠️ Important: Site Search vs Google Indexing

The steps above only affect your website’s internal search function.

• Hiding content from site search does not prevent Google or other search engines from indexing it

• Preventing Google indexing requires applying a noindex tag

Full guidance on noindexing pages can be found here:
https://support.asp.events/hc/en-us/articles/5642810950301-What-is-a-noIndex-Tag

📝 Key Things to Remember

• Composer 2 includes a built-in search widget in the Header panel

• Custom or alternative templates may require support assistance

• Individual pages and records can be excluded from site search

• Module-level search control requires ASP Support

• Site search visibility does not affect Google indexing