How to Execute WordPress Search Query with Custom Parameters

Other Questions Wordpress
1

I’m trying to create a custom search functionality for my WordPress site’s error page. When visitors land on a 404 page, I want to automatically display search results based on the URL they attempted to access.

Normally, the search template works with URL parameters and uses the standard WordPress loop:

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
  <?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
    <div class="result-item">
      <h3><a href="<?php get_permalink(); ?>"><?php get_the_title(); ?></a></h3>
    </div>
  <?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

I need to figure out how to programmatically set the search query instead of relying on GET parameters. Is there a way to define the search terms directly in PHP code and then run the search loop? Any help would be great!

2

get_posts() is another solid option that works great for custom search implementations. I use this a lot when building custom 404 pages since it returns an array of post objects without messing with the global query.

$search_posts = get_posts(array(
    's' => $your_search_term,
    'numberposts' => 10,
    'post_status' => 'publish'
));

foreach ($search_posts as $post) {
    setup_postdata($post);
    // Display your results
}
wp_reset_postdata();

For extracting search terms from the 404 URL, I usually grab the REQUEST_URI, strip out common words like ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘of’, then combine what’s left. This gives you more control over the search logic without breaking WordPress’s main query loop. Just remember get_posts() doesn’t handle pagination automatically - you’ll need to do that separately if you want it.

3

you can also hook into pre_get_posts to modify the main query on your 404 page. just check if it’s the 404 template, then set your search parameters directly. i’ve done this before - works smoothly and doesn’t need extra queries.

4

Use WP_Query to create a custom search query programmatically. Skip the GET parameters and just instantiate a new WP_Query object with your search terms in the arguments array.

Here’s how I’ve done it in my projects:

$search_term = sanitize_text_field($your_custom_search_term);
$search_query = new WP_Query(array(
    's' => $search_term,
    'post_type' => 'post',
    'posts_per_page' => 10
));

if ($search_query->have_posts()) {
    while ($search_query->have_posts()) {
        $search_query->the_post();
        // Your template code here
    }
    wp_reset_postdata();
}

For the 404 scenario, extract keywords from the requested URL using parse_url() and explode(), then feed those as search terms. Don’t forget to sanitize any user input and call wp_reset_postdata() after your custom loop to restore the global post object.