Using pre_get_posts hook we can modify the WordPress query. Add the following code to your theme’s functions.php file to exclude some categories from the search results. Update the terms array with your own category terms.
function wpdm_exclude_category_terms_from_search($query) {
if ($query->is_search && ! is_admin() ) {
$taxquery = array(
array(
'taxonomy' ► 'wpdmcategory',
'field' ► 'slug',
'terms' ► array( 'term','another' ), // exclude these terms from search
'operator'► 'NOT IN'
)
);
$query->set( 'tax_query', $taxquery );
}
return $query;
}
add_filter('pre_get_posts','wpdm_exclude_category_terms_from_search');
