diff --git a/includes/api/ApiQuerySearch.php b/includes/api/ApiQuerySearch.php
index dc50bd7a5e5..753c0dd2ebe 100644
--- a/includes/api/ApiQuerySearch.php
+++ b/includes/api/ApiQuerySearch.php
@@ -133,13 +133,13 @@ class ApiQuerySearch extends ApiQueryGeneratorBase {
 				$apiResult->addValue( [ 'query', 'searchinfo' ],
 					'suggestion', $matches->getSuggestionQuery() );
 				$apiResult->addValue( [ 'query', 'searchinfo' ],
-					'suggestionsnippet', $matches->getSuggestionSnippet() );
+					'suggestionsnippet', HtmlArmor::getHtml( $matches->getSuggestionSnippet() ) );
 			}
 			if ( isset( $searchInfo['rewrittenquery'] ) && $matches->hasRewrittenQuery() ) {
 				$apiResult->addValue( [ 'query', 'searchinfo' ],
 					'rewrittenquery', $matches->getQueryAfterRewrite() );
 				$apiResult->addValue( [ 'query', 'searchinfo' ],
-					'rewrittenquerysnippet', $matches->getQueryAfterRewriteSnippet() );
+					'rewrittenquerysnippet', HtmlArmor::getHtml( $matches->getQueryAfterRewriteSnippet() ) );
 			}
 		}
 
diff --git a/includes/search/ISearchResultSet.php b/includes/search/ISearchResultSet.php
index 5faa4451cdd..79337b04d93 100644
--- a/includes/search/ISearchResultSet.php
+++ b/includes/search/ISearchResultSet.php
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ interface ISearchResultSet extends \Countable, \IteratorAggregate {
 	public function getQueryAfterRewrite();
 
 	/**
-	 * @return string|null Same as self::getQueryAfterRewrite(), but in HTML
+	 * @return HtmlArmor|string|null Same as self::getQueryAfterRewrite(), but in HTML
 	 *  and with changes highlighted. Null when the query was not rewritten.
 	 */
 	public function getQueryAfterRewriteSnippet();
@@ -73,7 +73,7 @@ interface ISearchResultSet extends \Countable, \IteratorAggregate {
 	public function getSuggestionQuery();
 
 	/**
-	 * @return string HTML highlighted suggested query, '' if none
+	 * @return HtmlArmor|string HTML highlighted suggested query, '' if none
 	 */
 	public function getSuggestionSnippet();
 
diff --git a/includes/search/SearchResultSet.php b/includes/search/SearchResultSet.php
index d759db9853b..692e55105cf 100644
--- a/includes/search/SearchResultSet.php
+++ b/includes/search/SearchResultSet.php
@@ -107,8 +107,9 @@ class SearchResultSet extends BaseSearchResultSet {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * @return string|null Same as self::getQueryAfterRewrite(), but in HTML
-	 *  and with changes highlighted. Null when the query was not rewritten.
+	 * @return HtmlArmor|string|null Same as self::getQueryAfterRewrite(), but
+	 *  with changes highlighted if HtmlArmor is returned. Null when the query
+	 *  was not rewritten.
 	 */
 	public function getQueryAfterRewriteSnippet() {
 		return null;
@@ -132,7 +133,7 @@ class SearchResultSet extends BaseSearchResultSet {
 	}
 
 	/**
-	 * @return string HTML highlighted suggested query, '' if none
+	 * @return HtmlArmor|string HTML highlighted suggested query, '' if none
 	 */
 	public function getSuggestionSnippet() {
 		return '';
diff --git a/includes/widget/search/DidYouMeanWidget.php b/includes/widget/search/DidYouMeanWidget.php
index a8f57e2b629..414b96d632f 100644
--- a/includes/widget/search/DidYouMeanWidget.php
+++ b/includes/widget/search/DidYouMeanWidget.php
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 
 namespace MediaWiki\Widget\Search;
 
-use HtmlArmor;
 use ISearchResultSet;
 use SpecialSearch;
 
@@ -55,9 +54,21 @@ class DidYouMeanWidget {
 
 		$linkRenderer = $this->specialSearch->getLinkRenderer();
 		$snippet = $resultSet->getQueryAfterRewriteSnippet();
+		if ( $snippet === '' || $snippet === null ) {
+			// This should never happen. But if it did happen we would render
+			// links as `Special:Search` which is even more useless. Since this
+			// was only documented but not enforced previously emit a
+			// deprecation warning and in the future we can simply fail on bad
+			// inputs
+			wfDeprecated(
+				get_class( $resultSet ) . '::getQueryAfterRewriteSnippet returning empty snippet',
+				'1.34'
+			);
+			$snippet = $resultSet->getQueryAfterRewrite();
+		}
 		$rewritten = $linkRenderer->makeKnownLink(
 			$this->specialSearch->getPageTitle(),
-			$snippet ? new HtmlArmor( $snippet ) : null,
+			$snippet,
 			[ 'id' => 'mw-search-DYM-rewritten' ],
 			$stParams
 		);
@@ -92,9 +103,21 @@ class DidYouMeanWidget {
 		$stParams = array_merge( $params, $this->specialSearch->powerSearchOptions() );
 
 		$snippet = $resultSet->getSuggestionSnippet();
+		if ( $snippet === '' || $snippet === null ) {
+			// This should never happen. But if it did happen we would render
+			// links as `Special:Search` which is even more useless. Since this
+			// was only documented but not enforced previously emit a
+			// deprecation warning and in the future we can simply fail on bad
+			// inputs
+			wfDeprecated(
+				get_class( $resultSet ) . '::getSuggestionSnippet returning empty snippet',
+				'1.34'
+			);
+			$snippet = $resultSet->getSuggestionSnippet();
+		}
 		$suggest = $this->specialSearch->getLinkRenderer()->makeKnownLink(
 			$this->specialSearch->getPageTitle(),
-			$snippet ? new HtmlArmor( $snippet ) : null,
+			$snippet,
 			[ 'id' => 'mw-search-DYM-suggestion' ],
 			$stParams
 		);