[Resolved] Trying to filter all searches on website by a specific category

[Jen]

I am trying to filter all searches on our site by a specific category. i.e. This is a teaching site so we only want the Courses category to display results.

I am struggling to find a working solution for this – although I am certain it is an easy fix. My preference would be to do this with only code but I am not the greatest php developer so having challenges there.

I have also tried enabling Relevannsi and GP’s results overrode it and I do not know enough about php to follow their solution.

Help?

[Tom]

Hi there,

Relevanssi should work, but if not, try this filter:

add_action( 'pre_get_posts', function( $query ) {
    if ( is_admin() || ! $query->is_main_query() ) {
        return;
    }

    if ( $query->is_search ) {
        $query->set( 'cat', '123' );
    }
} );

Just replace 123 with the ID of your category.

Let me know 🙂

[Jen]

Tom,

I popped the code in and it didn’t work. After a few minutes of playing with it, I realized the issue I was having with the Relevannsi plugin was actually with the Elementor SERP page I had created. It was overriding everything else.

Argh. Thank you for your time and assistance on this.

[Tom]

No problem! Glad you got it working 🙂

[Author]

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