Site Search | Frequently Asked Questions

Site search lets visitors enter keywords and receive a list of relevant pages on your website. Below find answers to common questions about how search result order is determined, how to troubleshoot missing or unexpected results, and more.

How are site search results ordered?

Search results are ordered based on how relevant each page's content is to the visitor’s query. Page content is separated out into comparison fields with varying weights based on where the content lives within the HTML of your pages. Comparison fields are grouped in order of weight:

1. HTML title
2. Meta description
3. H1 HTML elements
4. H2 HTML elements
5. H3 HTML elements
6. Other HTML elements

When will updates and new pages appear in site search results?

Updates to existing pages and newly published pages typically appear in site search results within six hours.

• If updates don’t show after that window, contact HubSpot Support.
• If a new page doesn’t appear, confirm whether the new page meets any of the criteria below that could prevent indexing.

Is site search predictive?

Yes. By default, the search field module displays a typeahead dropdown menu of relevant results as a visitor types in their query. Visitors can select a suggested result or finish typing their query to view the full results page.

Can I track what visitors are searching for on my site?

Track visitor search terms by turning on site search reporting in Google Analytics and configuring your search query parameter.

1. Navigate to your HubSpot-hosted search results page and find the query parameter used for search terms in the URL. For example, the URL https://www.example.com/search-results?term=keyword, the term is the query parameter, followed by the search term keyword.
2. Turn on site search reporting in Google Analytics.
3. Enter the query parameter in your Google Analytics site search settings.
4. After configuring your site’s search query parameter, Google Analytics will record the terms visitors enter into your search input field.

Will my site's search results page appear in search engines?

No. Search results pages are automatically blocked from being indexed by search engines. This is because of their dynamically generated content, and individual pages are intended to be indexed based on their own unique content.

Why's a specific page not appearing in my search results?

A page may not appear in your site's search results if it doesn’t meet the indexing requirements. Review the common reasons below to identify what may be preventing the page from being indexed.

• The page is blocked in your robots.txt file. If pages are blocked from being crawled, it can't be indexed. Confirm that your robots.txt file allows the HubSpotContentSearchBot user-agent to crawl your content.
• The page has content loaded with JavaScript. Any content brought into a page with JavaScript won't be crawled by HubSpot’s indexing service.
• The page is on a different subdomain. The search field only returns results for pages hosted on the same subdomain as the search results page.
• The page is a landing page. Landing pages are excluded from site search by default to avoid disrupting conversion flows. To include landing pages in your search results:
  • Navigate to the page that has the Site Search Input module.
  • Click the Site Search Input module.
  • In the sidebar editor, click to expand the Results section.
  • In the Search results include section, select the Landing pages checkbox. Then, click Apply changes.
  • In the top right, click Publish changes.

Why aren't any search results appearing?

Search results may not appear if the search results module isn’t included in your template, if your pages can’t be crawled, or if the content is hosted on an unsupported domain. Review the common reasons below to identify what may be preventing search results from loading.

• The search results module isn't included in your search results page template. Confirm the selected search results page template has the Site search results module.
• Pages are blocked from being crawled. If pages are disallowed in your robots.txt file, HubSpot can't index them for search. Confirm that your robots.txt file allows the HubSpotContentSearchBot user-agent.
• The content is hosted on the default hubspotpagebuilder domain. Site search results won't load on this default domain. Host the content on a connected custom domain to allow site search.

How do I set the path for my search results page?

To set the path of your search results page:

1. In your HubSpot account, click the settings settings icon in the top navigation bar.
2. In the left sidebar, navigate to Content > Pages. 
3. Click the System Pages tab.
4. At the top of the page, click the domains dropdown menu and select the domain that you want to edit.
5. In the Search results section, enter text in the Search results page URL field.
6. When finished, click Save. 

How do I create a new search results template?

To create a new search results template, learn how to create a search results template.

Why isn't my new template appearing in the Search results page dropdown menu in settings?

Only search results page system templates appear in the Search results page dropdown menu in Settings. If your new template isn’t showing, confirm that it was created as a system template.

What's the best way to preview a search template?

To preview how the search field module and search results page will work, add the module to a test page or test template before using it on live pages. After reviewing the search behavior and layout, add the search field module to your live templates.

Why isn't specific text or data being detected during search?

Certain types of text such as serial numbers, code samples, or other structured data may not be indexed by the site search text analyzer. To ensure this content appears in search results, wrap the HTML element in the hs-search-keyword class. For example:

<p class="hs-search-keyword">Serial No: 5592001</p>

How can I boost keywords on my page for site search?

To boost specific keyword for site search results, wrap the HTML element in the hs-search-keyword class. For example:

<p class="hs-search-keyword">pricing</p>