Search doesn't provide all relevant results

I have a search on the home page that should be searching the entire site. (Under the Content tab, "Search Specific Page" is not selected.) However, the results are not always pulling from the entire site. For instance, a search for "laundry soap" should pull one page from the public section (https://teamvitalityconnect.com/thieves) and one from the members area, but only the member one is coming up. On the other hand, a search for "greens" shows results from both the public and members sections.

Why would the search not be working consistently?

16 hours ago, LDC said:

I have a search on the home page...However, the results are not always pulling from the entire site.

A search for "laundry soap" should pull one page from the public section and one from the members area, but only the member one is coming up.

Member content can be found using built-in search

This is normal when you are using a third party membership product. When I first read your post, I was concerned that Squarespace Member Areas content was appearing in search results, but this wasn't the case.  You were referring to member content that is protected by Memberspace which, like any third-party membership product, cannot truly protect Squarespace content. (It's not a fault with that particular product - it is a limitation imposed by Squarespace. These products can only place a "veil" over the content and this is very easy for anyone to remove, revealing the content underneath. This is why the member-only content can appear in search results and be viewed by ordinary visitors. There isn't a way to stop this, other than using Squarespace's own Member Areas product.

Built-in search does not find all content

There are also known issues with site search on Squarespace 7.1 😢 and it's particularly unfortunate that these issues are hiding the public product pages whilst indexing the member-only products. The issues with the built-in search tool go back a number of years and, whilst I wish I had a better answer, it is not possible to guarantee that content will be included in internal search results (this doesn't affect search engine results). Search can be a very useful tool (if it works!) so I encourage you - and anyone affected - to send your feedback to Squarespace. You can do this by contacting Customer Care using a support ticket. 

Until the built-in search tool has been fixed, you may want to consider using a third party sort/filter tool, like Universal Filter, to improve discoverability of your public products. This is an amazing product, written by fellow Squarespace Circle Leader, that can be game changing when a site has more than a few products. 

If it helps, this thread contains a further discussion of the built-in search issues:

Whilst I appreciate this post doesn't solve the search issues, I hope it provides you with the information you need to move forward with your project. 

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It's dreadful to me that Squarespace doesn't prioritize this issue. Broken search is terribly frustrating.

Thanks for replying! I'm also wondering if there's a way to add a thumbnail to search result items that are just showing up as text. (Pages set up as store pages, for instance, include a thumbnail on the search results, but other pages do not, and I would like them to be consistent so it's easier for users to know that each one is a unique result -- preferably all having thumbnails.)

Search on squarespace sites has been broken for a couple years now and even though I've reached out many times to inquire on some kind of fix, as of today my site still doesn't show results when I search for a topic unless I try 2-3+ times. Highly considering leaving Squarespace unless they fix this.