How Searching Posts Actually Works in WordPress
GET /wp-json/wp/v2/posts?search={term} matches the term against post titles and content, returning matching posts with standard pagination.
Real API Details
This is a basic keyword match, not a weighted relevance search -- WordPress's core search (both this REST endpoint and the native site search) does a straightforward match rather than ranking results by relevance the way a dedicated search plugin would.
Practical Considerations
For anything beyond simple keyword lookup -- fuzzy matching, relevance ranking, or searching custom fields -- a dedicated search plugin or service is typically layered on top, since the core search endpoint doesn't provide that out of the box.
Use cases
Practical use cases:
- Synchronize blog lists for external analysis.
- Power content discovery UIs with live search results.
- Automate recommended content sections by keyword similarity.
- Audit post coverage for topics across sites.