diff --git a/kernel/model/virutalref.go b/kernel/model/virutalref.go
index 5c1c8698c..29a893e52 100644
--- a/kernel/model/virutalref.go
+++ b/kernel/model/virutalref.go
@@ -232,6 +232,14 @@ func getVirtualRefKeywords(docName string) (ret []string) {
 
 func prepareMarkKeywords(keywords []string) (ret []string) {
 	ret = gulu.Str.RemoveDuplicatedElem(keywords)
+	var tmp []string
+	for _, k := range ret {
+		if "" != k {
+			tmp = append(tmp, k)
+		}
+	}
+	ret = tmp
+
 	sort.SliceStable(ret, func(i, j int) bool {
 		return len(ret[i]) > len(ret[j])
 	})
diff --git a/kernel/search/mark.go b/kernel/search/mark.go
index 5e0498564..a9f0c5a00 100644
--- a/kernel/search/mark.go
+++ b/kernel/search/mark.go
@@ -88,6 +88,10 @@ func EncloseHighlighting(text string, keywords []string, openMark, closeMark str
 	}
 	re := ic + "("
 	for i, k := range keywords {
+		if "" == k {
+			continue
+		}
+
 		wordBoundary := false
 		if splitWords {
 			wordBoundary = lex.IsASCIILetterNums(gulu.Str.ToBytes(k)) // Improve virtual reference split words https://github.com/siyuan-note/siyuan/issues/7833