diff --git a/.github/workflows/test.yml b/.github/workflows/test.yml
index b46f29bbda..0d6db808d3 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/test.yml
@@ -23,6 +23,9 @@ env:
   # Setting this will activate the jest tests that depend on actually
   # sending real search queries to Elasticsearch
   ELASTICSEARCH_URL: http://localhost:9200/
+  # Hopefully the name is clear enough. By enabling this, we're testing
+  # the future code.
+  ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE: true
 
 jobs:
   test:
diff --git a/middleware/redirects/handle-redirects.js b/middleware/redirects/handle-redirects.js
index 3395554e6a..48eea18472 100644
--- a/middleware/redirects/handle-redirects.js
+++ b/middleware/redirects/handle-redirects.js
@@ -39,11 +39,11 @@ export default function handleRedirects(req, res, next) {
   let redirect = req.path
   let queryParams = req._parsedUrl.query
 
-  // If process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL isn't set, you can't go to the
+  // If process.env.ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE isn't set, you can't go to the
   // dedicated search results page.
   // If that's the case, use the "old redirect" where all it does is
   // "correcting" the old query string 'q' to 'query'.
-  if (!process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL && 'q' in req.query && !('query' in req.query)) {
+  if (!process.env.ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE && 'q' in req.query && !('query' in req.query)) {
     // update old-style query params (#9467)
     const newQueryParams = new URLSearchParams(queryParams)
     newQueryParams.set('query', newQueryParams.get('q'))
@@ -51,19 +51,19 @@ export default function handleRedirects(req, res, next) {
     return res.redirect(301, `${req.path}?${newQueryParams.toString()}`)
   }
 
-  // If process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL is set, the dedicated search
+  // If process.env.ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE is set, the dedicated search
   // result page is ready. If that's the case, we can redirect to
   // `/$locale/search?query=...` from `/foo/bar?query=...` or from
   // (the old style) `/foo/bar/?q=...`
   if (
-    process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL &&
+    process.env.ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE &&
     ('q' in req.query ||
       ('query' in req.query &&
         !(req.path.endsWith('/search') || req.path.startsWith('/api/search'))))
   ) {
     // If you had the old legacy format of /some/uri?q=stuff
     // it needs to redirect to /en/search?query=stuff or
-    // /some/uri?query=stuff depending on if ELASTICSEARCH_URL has been
+    // /some/uri?query=stuff depending on if ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE has been
     // set up.
     // If you have the new format of /some/uri?query=stuff it too needs
     // to redirect to /en/search?query=stuff
diff --git a/pages/search.tsx b/pages/search.tsx
index fa6281d615..67703ae44b 100644
--- a/pages/search.tsx
+++ b/pages/search.tsx
@@ -26,7 +26,10 @@ export const getServerSideProps: GetServerSideProps<Props> = async (context) =>
   // So if that's the case, which might be true in production (Aug 2022)
   // or on an engineers local development, we basically pretend the
   // page doesn't exist.
-  if (!process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL) {
+  // By depending conditionally on these two environment variables we're
+  // able to carefully launch the dedicated search results page
+  // separately from the JSON API endpoint.
+  if (!process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL || !process.env.ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE) {
     return { notFound: true }
   }
 
diff --git a/tests/helpers/conditional-runs.js b/tests/helpers/conditional-runs.js
index da762a1397..2e1951358b 100644
--- a/tests/helpers/conditional-runs.js
+++ b/tests/helpers/conditional-runs.js
@@ -4,9 +4,13 @@ const runningActionsOnInternalRepo =
 export const testViaActionsOnly = runningActionsOnInternalRepo ? test : test.skip
 export const describeViaActionsOnly = runningActionsOnInternalRepo ? describe : describe.skip
 export const describeIfElasticsearchURL = process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL ? describe : describe.skip
+export const describeIfDedicatedSearchResultsPage = process.env.ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE
+  ? describe
+  : describe.skip
 
 export default {
   testViaActionsOnly,
   describeViaActionsOnly,
   describeIfElasticsearchURL,
+  describeIfDedicatedSearchResultsPage,
 }
diff --git a/tests/rendering/search.js b/tests/rendering/search.js
index eafe42ee75..c2b4899293 100644
--- a/tests/rendering/search.js
+++ b/tests/rendering/search.js
@@ -1,8 +1,9 @@
 import { expect, jest } from '@jest/globals'
 
 import { getDOM } from '../helpers/e2etest.js'
+import { describeIfDedicatedSearchResultsPage } from '../helpers/conditional-runs.js'
 
-describe('search results page', () => {
+describeIfDedicatedSearchResultsPage('search results page', () => {
   jest.setTimeout(5 * 60 * 1000)
 
   test('says something if no query is provided', async () => {
diff --git a/tests/routing/redirects.js b/tests/routing/redirects.js
index 47a5e12f60..cd4e4baa9a 100644
--- a/tests/routing/redirects.js
+++ b/tests/routing/redirects.js
@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@ const __dirname = path.dirname(fileURLToPath(import.meta.url))
 // dedicated search results page works.
 // In a near future, we won't be needing this and assume it's always
 // true.
-const USE_DEDICATED_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE = Boolean(process.env.ELASTICSEARCH_URL)
+const USE_DEDICATED_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE = Boolean(
+  JSON.parse(process.env.ENABLE_SEARCH_RESULTS_PAGE || 'false')
+)
 
 describe('redirects', () => {
   jest.setTimeout(5 * 60 * 1000)