Allowing Visitors to Search for Content on Your Website and Galleries

In addition to being able to search for uploaded content on the backend of your account, you have the option to enable the search feature for visitors on your website, allowing them to search for uploaded content across your website; and enabling the search features for visitors within individual Galleries or Folders, allowing them to search for uploaded content within a specific Gallery or Folder. By default, this search functionality is disabled and needs to be manually enabled or enabled through a Preset applied to Galleries and Folders.

Enabling the Sitewide Search on Your  Website

1. In your Zenfolio account, click on the Website icon on the left-hand side.
2. In your Website Editor select the Navigation Block, or Header, at the top of one of your website pages.
3. With the Navigation Block selected, use the options presented on the left-hand side and switch the Sitewide Search option to ON.
4. Then be sure to Publish these changes to your site so that they can be seen on your live website.

Once the Sitewide Search feature is enabled in the Navigation Block and the changes are published, a magnifying glass icon will be displayed on the right-hand side of the Header section of your website. Visitors will be able to click on this icon to access a search bar, where they can enter keywords or terms to search for specific content within titles or descriptions.

Please note that the Sitewide Search tool will only search for content that has been enabled to be searchable within your Folders and Galleries based on Photo Title, Display Name, Alt-text, Photo Caption, User Comment, Copyright, and Keyword Tags. The search tool will also search for content that has been added to your Blog posts. 

The search results can be further refined by utilizing the dropdown menu located at the top of the search results page. By selecting the appropriate option from the Content Type dropdown, such as Galleries, the search can be narrowed down to display only relevant results. Additionally, the Sort By dropdown menu can be used to modify the order in which the search results are presented.

Allowing Galleries and Folders to be Searchable

As previously mentioned, the Galleries and Folders in your account will only be searchable through the Sitewide Search if you have enabled the search option within the Settings of that item. It is important to note that all Folders and Galleries created before December 22, 2023 will have these search settings disabled by default. You will need to manually enable this option for any existing Galleries or Folders individually if you want to make them searchable.

For new Galleries that you create within your account, the default settings will be determined by the Preset that is selected for the Gallery. If you wish to enable Search settings for certain types of Galleries, you can create a Preset that will have this option enabled by default. Please see this support article HERE for more information about creating and editing Presets.

To enable the Search settings of your Galleries and Folders manually, please follow the steps outlined below:

Manually Enable Searching in Galleries

1. In your Zenfolio account, click on the Galleries icon on the left-hand side of your account. And select the Gallery you want to adjust the settings for.
2. Go to the Gallery's Settings tab.
3. Select the Access & Permissions tab option.
4. Here you can turn ON the Make Your Gallery Searchable option.
   • Once you turn on this option, you can then select where you want to allow searching – Search Engines (Web Crawlers), through Your Zenfolio Website, and/or through a Folder search.

Manually Enable Searching in Folders

Available Exclusively to Advanced Plan Subscribers

1. In your Zenfolio account, click on the Galleries icon on the left-hand side of your account.
2. Select the Folder from the column on the left-hand side.
3. Go to the Folder's Settings tab.
4. Here you can turn ON the Mark Your Folder Searchable option. Please note that this option can only be enabled if the Folder is in a Public or Password Protected access setting.
5. Once you turn on this option, you can then select where you want to allow searching – Through Your Zenfolio Website and/or All Web Crawlers (i.e. The Folder will be searchable through search engines like Google), or you can allow the Folder to be found through other Folder searches.

Allowing Visitors to Search the Contents of a Gallery

The Gallery Keyword Search feature enables visitors to search for specific photos or videos within an individual Gallery. In contrast to the site-wide search, this tool restricts results to the media contained within the Gallery currently being viewed.

This functionality is particularly beneficial for large galleries, sporting events (such as searching by jersey number), or school photography (such as searching by student name). The search utilizes the following data fields to generate results: File Name, Display Name, Photo Title, Caption, User Comment, and Keyword Tags.

1. In your Zenfolio account, go to Galleries.
2. Navigate to the desired Gallery.
3. Select the Settings option.
4. Click on the Content tab.
5. Go to Search Tools.
6. Activate the option to Keyword Search option. Once this option is enabled, a search bar will be added within the Gallery which can then be used by the visitors to search for content in that Gallery.

Utilizing the Auto Tag & Describe feature when creating a new Gallery and uploading your media enables visitors to efficiently search within Galleries and enhances the overall user experience.

An additional and more personalized way to allow searching within a Gallery is to use Face Finder. With the Face Finder tool you can allow clients to search within a Gallery using a selfie of their face or of the individuals they're wanting to locate photos for in the Gallery. Click here for more information about allowing clients to use the Face Finder to search within a Gallery.

Allowing Visitors to Search the Contents of a Folder

Available Exclusively to Advanced Plan Subscribers

Should you wish to allow visitors to conduct searches within the content of a specific Folder, you may activate the search bar for that Folder.

At present, the Folder search bar will only be visible on the shared Folder page that is accessed through the direct Folder link. For further information on how to obtain the direct link to a Folder, click here.

To enable visitors to search the contents of a Folder, please follow to these steps:

1. In your Zenfolio account, go to Galleries.
2. Navigate to the desired Folder.
3. Select the Settings option.
4. Click on the Features tab.
5. Activate the option to Display a Search Bar on the Folder page. Once this option is enabled, a search bar will be visible on the Folder page accessed via the direct Folder link.

Furthermore, you will have additional options to customize how visitors can conduct searches:

• Collapse the Search Bar: If you prefer the search bar to be displayed as an icon instead of fully expanded, select the checkbox for Collapse the Search Bar on Page Load. This will configure the search bar to appear as an icon in the top-right corner.
• Partial Match vs. Exact Match Search: By default, the Folder search operates as a partial match search, which means it will search through Folder, gallery, and image titles, as well as tags, to identify text that closely resembles the search term. If you wish to limit the search to display only results containing the exact keyword entered, which can be advantageous for specific items such as ticket codes, please check the box for Exact Match Search. This option will only present results that precisely match the search term.
• Search Instructions / Placeholder: You may provide your visitors with guidance on how to conduct searches, which is particularly beneficial when utilizing exact match search. For instance, you could include a search tip such as: "Search by last name and jersey number, e.g., Mikaelson13."

Important Note: Regardless of whether you utilize partial match or exact match search, the Folder search will exclusively search items contained within the Folder being queried and its subfolders. Items located outside the Folder or its subfolders will not be included in the search results.

Additionally, for items to appear in Folder search results, they must be configured to allow visibility in Folder searches. For further information, click here.