# Only Recent Blog Posts in Search Results

> Leaves blog posts older than three years out of search results, while pages and other content types stay searchable, which suits news sites and fast-moving topics.

- Type: PHP
- Runs: Run everywhere
- Category: [Search](https://wpide.com/library/category/search/)
- Tags: search, dates, relevance
- Author: WPIDE Team
- Installs: 0
- Updated: 2026-10-28
- Page: https://wpide.com/library/search-recent-posts-only/

## Code

```php
// Blog posts older than this many months are left out of search results. Pages and other content types are not affected.
$wpide_search_max_age_months = 36;

add_filter( 'posts_where', function ( $where, $query ) use ( $wpide_search_max_age_months ) {
    global $wpdb;

    if ( $wpide_search_max_age_months < 1 || is_admin() || ! $query->is_main_query() || ! $query->is_search() ) {
        return $where;
    }

    $cutoff = wp_date( 'Y-m-d H:i:s', strtotime( '-' . absint( $wpide_search_max_age_months ) . ' months' ) );

    return $where . $wpdb->prepare( " AND ( {$wpdb->posts}.post_type <> 'post' OR {$wpdb->posts}.post_date >= %s )", $cutoff );
}, 10, 2 );
```

## Notes

Change the number of months at the top; old posts remain reachable through archives and links.

## How to use it

Install the free WPIDE plugin (https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpide/), find "Only Recent Blog Posts in Search Results" in its snippet library and add it in one click; or create a new PHP snippet in WPIDE (or any code snippets plugin) and paste the code above. More snippets: https://wpide.com/library/