Do you want to add a search form to a WordPress post?
Adding a search form to your post or page content is a good way to encourage your visitors to find more content and stay on your website longer.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add a search form in your posts and pages using a WordPress search shortcode.
Why Add a Search Form to Your Posts and Pages?
If a visitor has enjoyed reading a post on your WordPress blog, then they will likely want to read more. Offering a search form in the post will help them find more of your content that they are interested in.
Your visitors are also more likely to join your email list, leave a comment, make a purchase, and follow you on social media.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to add the standard WordPress search form to your posts. If you want to add a custom search form, then see our step by step guide on how to create a custom WordPress search form.
We’ll show you two methods to add a search form to your posts, and the first is the simplest. Use the links below to jump to the method you’d like to use.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » SearchWP page and then click on the ‘License’ menu option.
You then need to enter your license key in the License box. You can find this information in your account on the SearchWP website. After that, you should click the Activate button.
Next, you need to click on the Engines menu option. This brings you to a screen where you can choose your search engine settings.
Here you need to create a site-wide search engine. You can adjust your search engine settings by clicking on the Posts, Pages and Media drop downs.
The Attribute Relevance sliders in each section adjust how the search engines value and rank content. For example, if you want to value the post title higher than the content, then you can adjust the sliders accordingly.
After you’ve finished adjusting the settings, make sure to click the ‘Save Engines’ button to save the default search engine.
Adding a Search Form to a Post
Now you need to download the SearchWP shortcodes extension to easily add your new custom post search form to WordPress.
You’ll need to visit the SearchWP Shortcodes Extension website and then click the ‘Download available with active license’ button.
After that, you need to install and activate the extension the same way you installed the plugin above. Now you can add a search form in your posts.
Simply edit the post and place your cursor where you want to add the search form. After that, click the plus ‘Add Block’ icon to bring up the blocks menu.
Next, type ‘html’ into the search box. Then, select the ‘Custom HTML’ block.
Once you’ve added the new block, you can add the following shortcodes and HTML to your page. If you need more help, then see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.
This code will add a search form to the post, create a section to display the search results, show a no results message if necessary, and add pagination if the results go into multiple pages.
Make sure you click Publish or Update to save your post and make it live.
To see the search form in action, simply view the post on your WordPress website. This is how it looks on our demo site running the Twenty Twenty-One theme.
You can also add a search form to your WordPress posts by use of a code snippet. This method is not recommended for beginners, so if you’re not familiar with code, then you should use Method 1 instead.
In this method you will have to edit your theme’s functions.php file.
Do you want to create a custom search form for your WordPress website?
Search is how most users find relevant and interesting content on your site. If they can’t easily find what they’re looking for, then they may move on to a different website.
In this article, we’ll show you how to improve your website search by creating a custom WordPress search form.
Why Create a Custom Search Form for WordPress?
WordPress comes with a built-in search feature. However, it doesn’t search all types of content such as comments, product reviews, or custom post types.
This may stop the visitor from finding what they’re looking for, including products they may want to buy on your online store.
You may also want to prioritize some content over others, so that it appears higher in the search results. For example, you may want to show your site’s latest posts at the top of the search results page, or display your most popular WooCommerce products.
With that in mind, let’s see how you can customize the WordPress search form. We cover a lot of ground in this post, so simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the section you want to read.
The easiest way to improve the built-in WordPress search algorithm is by using SearchWP.
SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin. It’s easy to use and gives you complete control over your site’s search algorithm, so you can help visitors find what they’re looking for, fast. It also searches content that WordPress ignores by default.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, go to SearchWP » Settings and then click on the ‘General’ tab.
After activating the plugin, you can fine-tune how SearchWP indexes, searches, and displays your content. You can think of this as creating a custom Google search algorithm that’s just for your WordPress blog or website.
To start, head over to SearchWP »Algorithm.
Here, you’ll see a section for the different content types that SearchWP searches by default, including pages, posts, and media files.
To include more content types in the search results, click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.
Depending on the WordPress plugins you’ve installed, you may see some extra options. For example, if you’re using WooCommerce then you can include ‘Products’ in the SearchWP search results.
Simply go ahead and check the box next to each content type you want to include in the search results.
You’ll also notice that ‘Keyword Stems’ is selected by default. This means SearchWP may include results that don’t have the same ending as the search term.
For example, if you search for ‘run’ then keyword stemming will include ‘running,’ and ‘runners’ in the results.
This can help show relevant results to visitors, so we recommend leaving the ‘Keyword Stems box checked. However, you can uncheck it if you want to show exact matches only.
When you’re happy with the information you’ve entered into the popup, click on ‘Done.’
You’ll now see a section for all the sources you selected.
Each section has its own ‘Applicable Attribute Relevance’ sliders.
This is the weight that SearchWP will give to each attribute when creating the search results.
Content that matches an attribute with high relevancy will appear higher in the search results. By contrast, content that matches an attribute that has less relevancy will appear lower in the user’s search results.
To give an attribute greater weight, simply move its slider to the right. In the following image, the search engine will place more value on matches that it finds in the post title, compared to matches that it finds in the post’s content.
Every WordPress website is unique, so you may want to try different relevancy settings to see what gives you the most accurate and helpful search results.
For example, if you’ve uploaded your menu as a PDF on your restaurant website, then this is important content and you’ll typically want to show it high in the search results.
You can also create rules that determine whether certain content is included or excluded from the search results. For example, if you have an online marketplace then you may want to exclude the account page, checkout page, and thank you page.
Simply click the ‘Edit Rules’ button in the section where you want to create the rule. For example, in the following image, we’re adding a new rule to the ‘Posts’ section.
This opens a popup where you can edit the search engine rules.
To go ahead and create your first rule, click on the ‘Add Rule’ button.
You can now choose the content you want to include or exclude from relevant search results.
To start, open the first dropdown menu and choose either ‘Only show entries if’ or ‘Exclude entries if’ depending on the kind of rule you want to create.
You can now use the rest of the settings to specify the content you want to exclude or include. For example, if you wanted to include or exclude a specific category then you’d type in the category name.
You can also type in any custom taxonomies you want to exclude or include.
To exclude or include specific post tags from the search results, simply open the dropdown menu and select ‘Tags.’
Then, type in the tag’s name.
To add another rule, just click the ‘Add Rule’ button and repeat the same process described above. When you’re happy with how the rules are set up, click ‘Done.’
You can now create rules for other content types such as media and pages, by scrolling to their sections and clicking on their ‘Add Rule’ buttons.
When you’re happy with how the search algorithm is set up, scroll to the top of the page and click on ‘Save.’
SearchWP will now rebuild the index. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection and your WordPress hosting provider, this may take a few minutes.
As soon as you see ‘Index Status 100%,’ you’ll know that SearchWP has added all your content and rules to the search index.
Create Custom Search Forms For Your WordPress Website
By default, all the search forms on your WordPress website will use the new SearchWP algorithm you created in the previous section. This means that visitors will start seeing more accurate and relevant results straight away.
However, for even better results you may want to create advanced search forms for different kinds of content. For example, you might create a smart WooCommerce product search form that looks at particular product categories only.
Each form will override the default WordPress search algorithm, so you can create as many different forms as you want with unique settings.
How to Create a Custom Search Form
To get started, head over to SearchWP » Search Forms and click the ‘Add New’ button.
This creates a new search form, ready for you to customize. For example, if you run a review website, then you might create a form that searches for product review posts and ignores other content like your blog posts and media. This can help visitors find what they’re looking for, faster.
Now, give the form a unique name by clicking on the small pencil icon next to ‘Search Form 1’.
You now type in a name for the custom search form.
This is just for your reference so you can use anything that helps you identify the form in the WordPress dashboard.
After that, you can choose a layout using the ‘Layout Theme’ thumbnails.
Some of these layouts are designed for specific search forms. For example, if you are creating a form that searches by category in WordPress, then ‘Category Search’ already has many of the settings you need.
Simply click on the different themes to see a preview of how this form will look on your website. After making your decision, scroll to the ‘Custom Styling’ section.
The settings you see may vary depending on your theme layout. For example, if you selected ‘Quick Search’, then the ‘Quick Search’ setting will be enabled by default.
You can disable and enable the different options using their toggles. The preview will update automatically as you make changes, so you can see what works best for your website.
Depending on your layout and the kind of form you want to create, you may need to enable and disable some of the ‘Custom Styling’ settings. For example, if you want to create a form that searches by category, then click to enable the ‘Category Search’ toggle.
After that, find the ‘Select Category’ field and type in each category that you want to include in the search results. For example, if you run an online store, then you may want to create forms that search specific product categories.
If you want to allow visitors to filter their search results using factors like the author, post type, and tag, then you will need to click to enable the ‘Advanced Search’ toggle.
After that, scroll to the ‘Advanced Search Filter/s’ field. By default, SearchWP allows visitors to filter their results using Authors, Post Types, and Tags.
To remove any of these filters, just click on its ‘X’ button. If you want to add more filters, then simply type their names into the field.
Then, when the right option appears in the dropdown, give it a click.
By default, SearchWP will search all the media, pages, and posts on your WordPress website. If you’ve created any custom post types, then you can include them in the search results using the ‘Type of search’ field.
Simply go ahead and type in each custom post type that you want to include. When the right custom post type appears, click to add it to the search.
Do you want to exclude media, pages, or posts from the search results?
Then just click the small ‘X’ next to ‘Media’, ‘Pages’, or ‘Posts’.
By default, SearchWP will show a generic ‘Enter keyword and search’ message before the visitor enters a search query.
You can replace this with your own messaging by typing into ‘Field Label’.
When you are happy with these settings, scroll to the ‘Form Style’ section.
Here, you can choose between different form styles, add a border, and change the font size.
Under ‘Button Style,’ you can customize the ‘Search’ button that appears in the form.
There are more settings that you can use to change how the form looks and acts. However, this is all you need to create an advanced custom search form.
When you’re happy with how the form is set up, you can scroll to the top of the screen and click on ‘Save’ to store your settings.
To create more custom search forms with unique settings, simply repeat the exact same process described above.
Add a Custom Search Form to Any Page, Post, or Widget-Ready Area
You can add an advanced search form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the Search Form block.
As an example, let’s see how you can add a search form to a post. Simply open the post in the WordPress content editor and click on the ‘+’ icon. Then, type in ‘Search Form’.
When the right block appears, give it a click.
You can now open the ‘Select a Form’ dropdown and choose the form you want to use.
When you are ready to make the search form live, just click on either ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’. Now, simply visit this page or post to see the search form in action.
To add a search form to a widget-ready area, head over to Appearance » Widgets. Here, click the ‘+’ block icon in the area where you want to show the search form.
Then, type in ‘Search Form’.
When the right block appears, click to add it to the widget-ready area.
You can now open the dropdown menu and choose the search form that you want to use.
When you are finished, just click the ‘Update’ button to make the search form live.
Many online marketplaces and websites use live Ajax search. This automatically shows possible search results as the user types in the custom form, similar to how search engines such as Google work.
With Ajax live search, you can show relevant results without even reloading the page. This makes it a great choice if you sell digital downloads or physical products online, as shoppers can instantly see products that match their search query.
The easiest way to add Ajax live search to WordPress is by using SearchWP Live Ajax Lite Search. This free plugin automatically adds instant search to your website and works perfectly with any WordPress theme.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the default WordPress search form will automatically use the Ajax live search feature. If you visit your site and start typing into the search bar, then you’ll see instant search in action.
Next, it’s a good idea to enable some advanced settings that will make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for.
To do this, go to SearchWP » Settings and scroll to the ‘General Settings’ section.
Here, you can activate any of the following settings:
Partial matches. With this setting enabled, SearchWP will display results that aren’t an exact match for the visitor’s search query.
Closest match. After enabling partial matches, you can also show the closest matches when a search has no results.
“Quoted” searches. This allows visitors to search for exact phrases using quotes.
Highlight terms. Automatically highlights the search terms to help visitors find what they’re looking for.
Measuring Search Results and Improving Conversions
To help you fine-tune your website’s search, it’s a good idea to monitor how visitors are using the search feature. This allows you to see what’s working and what’s not working on your WordPress blog, so you can constantly improve your site’s search and help visitors find what they are looking for.
This data can even help you generate blog post ideas by showing the content that visitors are already searching for.
To see the search history and most popular search terms, simply select ‘Statistics’ in the left-hand menu.
Do you want to create an advanced search form in WordPress for custom post types?
If you use custom post types, then you may want to create a form that allows visitors to search only that content. This can help people find what they are looking for and keep them on your site for longer.
In this article, we will show you how to create an advanced search form for custom post types in WordPress, step-by-step.
Why Create an Advanced Search Form for Custom Post Types?
Custom post types allow you to go beyond posts and pages and make different content types for your website. For example, we use custom post types here at WPBeginner to organize our Deals and Glossary sections.
However, WordPress doesn’t include custom post types in its search results by default. As a result, visitors may miss out on important content, and you will miss out on pageviews.
Thankfully, you can include custom post types in your search results using a WordPress search plugin. You can even go one step further and create an advanced form that searches custom post types only.
For instance, at WPBeginner, we have created custom post type search forms on our Deals and Glossary pages.
Often, this kind of advanced search form will help visitors find what they are looking for faster, which will improve the visitor experience and reduce the bounce rate.
First, you can see our guide on how to make custom post types in WordPress. Then, you can jump into our tutorial on how to create an advanced WordPress search form for custom post types.
Create a New WordPress Search Algorithm With a WordPress Plugin
The easiest way to create an advanced search form for custom post types is by using the SearchWP plugin. It’s the best search plugin and allows you to search content that WordPress ignores by default.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SearchWP plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you must go to SearchWP » Settings and click on the ‘General’ tab.
Once you are done, make sure to click the ‘Verify Key’ button.
Creating a Custom Search Algorithm
Your next task is creating a custom search algorithm. It allows you to specify the content that SearchWP includes in its search results, like pages, posts, media, and any custom post types.
To get started, you need to go to SearchWP »Algorithm in your WordPress admin dashboard.
Here, you will see a section for every content type that SearchWP includes in its search results.
To add your custom post type, just click the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.
In the popup that appears, check the box next to each custom post type that you want to include in the search results.
After that, click on ‘Done’.
SearchWP will add a new section for each custom post type. Each section shows all the attributes that SearchWP will include in its searches, such as the title, slug, and excerpt.
If you want to add or remove attributes, then simply click on ‘Add/Remove Attributes’.
In the popup, check the box next to each attribute you want to include in the search results.
To remove an attribute, you can uncheck its box instead.
When you are happy with the changes you have made, go ahead and click on ‘Done’.
You will notice that each attribute also has an Application Attribute Relevance slider. This controls how SearchWP ranks the content when building its search results page in WordPress.
If an attribute has high relevancy, then it will have a bigger impact on the search results. By contrast, content that matches an attribute that has less relevancy will appear lower in the search results.
For example, if you move the ‘Title’ slider to the right and the ‘Content’ slider to the left, then a post’s title will carry more weight than the content.
Every WordPress website is unique, so you may want to try different relevancy settings to see what gives you the most accurate and helpful search results.
For example, if you have created a ‘customer reviews’ custom post type for your online store, then this is important content, so you may want to give it a high relevance.
When you are happy with how the search feature is set up, just scroll to the top of the screen and click the ‘Save’ button.
SearchWP will now rebuild the index automatically. Depending on the speed of your Internet connection and your WordPress hosting provider, this may take a few minutes.
As soon as you see ‘Index Status 100%’, you will know that SearchWP has added your custom post types to its search index.
Create an Advanced Search Form for Custom Post Types
With that done, you are ready to make an advanced form that searches your custom post types only.
To get started, head over to SearchWP » Search Forms and click the ‘Add New’ button.
This creates a new form, ready for you to customize.
To give this form a unique name, click on the small pencil icon next to ‘Search Form 1’.
You can now type in a name for the custom search form.
This is just for your reference, so you can use anything that helps you identify the form in your WordPress dashboard. This is particularly important if you plan to create multiple search forms in WordPress.
After that, you can choose the layout you want to use using the ‘Layout Theme’ thumbnails.
Simply click on the different themes to see a preview of how this style will look on your WordPress website.
To create a search form for custom post types, you will typically want to use either ‘Basic’ or ‘Quick Search’.
These styles don’t allow visitors to search by category, which helps to keep them focused on custom post types.
After making your decision, scroll to the ‘Custom Styling’ section.
The settings you see may vary depending on your theme layout. For example, if you selected ‘Quick Search’, then the ‘Quick Search’ setting will be enabled by default.
You can disable and enable the different options using their toggles.
The live preview will update automatically as you make changes, so you can try different settings to see what works the best.
By default, the form will search media, pages, and posts and ignore custom post types. To include custom post types, you need to find the ‘Type of search’ field and give it a click.
You can now type in the name of each custom post type.
When the right post type appears, give it a click to add it to the search.
Do you want to search custom post types only and ignore all other content?
Then just click the small ‘X’ next to ‘Media’, ‘Pages’, and ‘Posts’.
With that done, the form will search your custom post types only.
When you are happy with how the form is set up, scroll to the ‘Form Style’ section. Here, you can choose between different form styles, add a border, change the font size, and more.
Under ‘Button Style’, you can customize the ‘Search’ button that appears in the form.
When you are happy with how the form is set up, scroll to the top of the screen and click on ‘Save’ to store your settings.
How to Add the Custom Post Types to WordPress
Now, you are ready to add the search form to WordPress using either a shortcode or block.
The easiest method is to use a block, so head over to the page or post where you want to add the custom post type form.
You can then click on the ‘+’ icon and type in ‘Search Form’.
When the right block appears, give it a click.
Next, open the ‘Select a Form’ dropdown menu and choose the search form you made during this tutorial.
When you are ready to make the search form live, simply click on either ‘Update’ or ‘Publish’. Now, you can visit your website to see the search form in action.
Another option is to add the search form using a shortcode.
To get the shortcode, you need to head over to SearchWP »Search Forms. Here, find the search form that you want to show and copy the value in the ‘Shortcode’ column.
You can now add the shortcode to any page, post, or widget-ready area. For step-by-step instructions on how to do this, please see our guide on how to add a shortcode in WordPress.
We hope this article helped you learn how to create an advanced search form in WordPress for custom post types. You may also want to see our custom post types tutorials and our expert picks for the best WordPress plugins to grow your website.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Do you want to add live Ajax search to your WordPress site?
Adding instant search to WordPress improves the default site search and makes it easier for your visitors to find the pages and posts they’re looking for.
In this article, we’ll show you how to add live Ajax search to your WordPress site, step by step.
Why Add Live Ajax Search to WordPress?
Live Ajax search, also called instant search, improves the default WordPress search experience by adding the drop down and autocomplete feature that’s common in search engines like Google.
Here’s an example of this in action:
Live search guesses what users are searching for as they type and helps them find relevant content faster. This is a huge improvement from the default WordPress search.
That being said, let’s take a look at how you can simply add live Ajax search to your WordPress blog or website.
Adding Ajax Search to WordPress with a WordPress Plugin
The easiest way to add Ajax live search to WordPress is using the SearchWP plugin. It’s the best WordPress search plugin on the market used by over 30,000 websites.
This plugin goes beyond indexing post content and will index everything on your website, like custom fields, PDF documents, text files, WooCommerce products, and more.
First thing you need to do is install and activate the plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, the default WordPress search form will now automatically include the Ajax live search feature.
Displaying Ajax Live Search on Your WordPress Site
Since any active search bar now has live search, all you have to do is decide where you want them to display.
Below you’ll learn how to add the live search bar to common locations on your WordPress website.
Adding Live Ajax Search to WordPress Sidebar
One of the most popular areas to add a search bar is the WordPress sidebar. This makes it easy for your visitors to do a search no matter where they are on your website.
To add the search widget to WordPress, simply go to Appearance » Widgets to bring up the blocks based widget editor.
Each widget area of your WordPress theme will have a separate tab in the block editor.
On our test site, our sidebar widget area is called ‘Right Sidebar,’ but yours may have a different name depending on your theme.
Simply click the ‘+’ icon underneath the sidebar section.
Then, type ‘SearchWP’ into the search bar and click the ‘SearchWP Live Search’ icon.
This will automatically insert the live Ajax search widget into your sidebar.
You can customize the Title section to change the heading for the search box. When you’re finished, click the Update button to save your changes and make the search bar live.
Now your live search bar will be usable by all of your website visitors.
You can follow the same process to add the live search bar to any other widget area of your website. To add it to your navigation menu area, see our guide on how to add a search bar to your WordPress menu.
Adding Live Ajax Search to WordPress Pages
You may also want to add a live Ajax search box to other pages of your website. For example, you could have an archive page that lets your visitors search through your content.
To do this, you’ll need to navigate to the post or page you want to edit. For this example, we’ll show you how to add the live search bar to a WordPress page.
First, go to Pages » All Pages and then click on the page you want to edit.
Once the page is open, click the ‘+’ icon on the page editor screen.
This will bring up the blocks menu.
Next, type ‘Search’ into the box and then click on the ‘Search’ icon to add it to your page.
It will automatically place the search bar for you.
You can also customize the search title and the placeholder text inside the search box.
After that, make sure to click the ‘Update’ button in the upper right corner of your page.
Now, your visitors can use the live search bar on your website to quickly find what they’re looking for.
You can use the same process to add a search bar to any post or page.
Customizing Instant WordPress Search Results
SearchWP is a very versatile search plugin and goes beyond just the post content and indexes everything on your site including custom fields, ACF fields, text files, PDF document content, custom tables, custom taxonomies, WooCommerce product attributes, and more.
The pro version of the SearchWP plugin lets you completely customize your search results by creating your own relevance scale and adjust the algorithm without writing any code.
You also get the Metrics feature that lets you see what your visitors are searching for, and many other powerful features to further improve your on-site search feature.
Are you looking for the best plugins to improve WordPress comments?
Comments can help boost user engagement and build a community. The default WordPress commenting system is good, but it’s quite basic. Luckily, there are tons of plugins that can help you create a more engaging comment section.
In this article, we will show you some of the best WordPress comment plugins to improve the default comment section and get more interaction on your site.
Why Should You Use WordPress Comment Plugins?
On its own, the native WordPress comment system includes some basic functions for users to leave blog comments and reply to other people’s comments.
While this is helpful, there’s room for improvement. If you are a WordPress blogger looking to build an audience, then you will need additional tools to make commenting on your blog more fun, exciting, and user-friendly.
You may need tools to keep spam comments at bay and prevent malicious links from endangering your users. Or, you may want to redirect the commenter to a relevant page to keep them on your website for longer.
We tested these plugins: When choosing the plugins for this showcase, we installed each tool on our test site to explore its pros, cons, and features. This allowed us to recommend only the very best WordPress comment plugins.
With that in mind, let’s look at the best plugins to improve your WordPress comments and optimize the user experience.
Out of all the comment plugins we’ve tried, Thrive Comments by Thrive Themes is the best. It has everything you need to improve your comments, from an easy moderation feature to post-comment actions that can turn commenters into leads or customers.
Thrive Comments comes with a built-in, keyboard-controlled comment moderation dashboard. With this, you can quickly reply, delete, and even assign comments to other admins, a feature unavailable in the native WordPress commenting system.
When users leave a comment, you can redirect them to a specific URL, show them a related post, or display an email opt-in form using Thrive Leads. It’s a great way to improve your user engagement metrics.
Pros of Thrive Comments:
Keyboard-controlled moderation feature for you to quickly manage comments and even assign them to other admins.
Post-comment actions to make users stay on your website for longer.
Comment engagement features like upvotes/downvotes, likes/dislikes, and reward badges.
Why we chose Thrive Comments: If you are looking for the best, overall WordPress comment plugin, then look no further than Thrive Comments. It has all the features needed to build an engaged and interactive community on your WordPress site.
Any user with this role can log in to your WordPress website and moderate comments without accessing other areas of your admin.
This is perfect if you have a support team or staff members who are responsible for moderating comments, but these people don’t need unrestricted access to your entire WordPress admin area.
Grants access to the WordPress Comments page only and nowhere else to keep your site secure.
Cons of Comment Moderation Role:
This plugin has a very specific function, so it’s not suitable if you are looking for a comment plugin with lots of different features.
Why we chose Comment Moderation Role: If you want a no-frills plugin to add a specific user role for moderating comments, then this plugin is your best solution. Once installed, you can immediately change a user’s role to WPB Comment Moderator.
If your blog posts get tons of comment threads, then that’s great for your user engagement. But at times, users may want to look through these long comments to find the information they need.
Meet SearchWP, a WordPress search engine plugin that can make navigating your website much easier. Besides creating a search function to discover pages or posts, SearchWP can also make blog comments searchable.
SearchWP offers several ways to add a search form through the Modular Search Form add-on: your navigation menu, a Gutenberg block, or a shortcode. You can use the last two to add a search function right above the comment section in your single post template.
Pros of SearchWP:
Multiple ways to add the search engine: using a menu, Gutenberg block, or shortcode.
Multiple search engine support so that you can make one search engine for your entire website and another specifically for your blog post comments.
The applicable attribute relevance feature ensures accurate search results when visitors use the search engine.
Search analytics allows you to see which terms users look for the most when they use your search engine.
Cons of SearchWP:
While the Modular Search Form plugin is free, the SearchWP plugin itself is not.
Why we chose SearchWP: If you want to improve your comment section with a search feature, then SearchWP makes this super easy to do. As you get more blog comments, you may need to make them searchable so that users can easily find the right information.
You will find many plugins on this list that let you optimize your built-in comment section, but what happens after users leave comments? That’s what Uncanny Automator is for.
Maybe besides sending an email notification, you also want to send an SMS notification to users with their comment replies. Or maybe you want to send them a coupon to thank them for leaving comments.
With Uncanny Automator, you can easily create automated workflows for those scenarios on your WordPress site. These workflows can save you time and give the people who visit your website a better experience.
Pros of Uncanny Automator:
Beginner-friendly drag-and-drop workflow builder, making it easy to design your automation.
Hundreds of customization options to tweak your workflow, with 620+ triggers, 430+ actions, and 60+ conditions.
150+ plugin and app integrations so that you can create comment-related workflows for any purpose.
A free plugin is available.
Cons of Uncanny Automator:
If you use a paid Uncanny Automator plan, the cost increases after the first year, which could disadvantage long-term users.
Why we chose Uncanny Automator: We know how important it is to keep commenters coming back and engaging with your website. Uncanny Automator lets you set up automatic post-comment actions, turning occasional visitors into regular ones.
Do you want to send email notifications to your commenters about new replies? If so, then check out Better Notifications for WP.
By default, WordPress only sends comment notifications to site administrators and the article’s author. But with this plugin, you can change which type of notifications are sent out and who gets these comment notification emails.
For example, you can create a new notification for replies. As a result, users can come back and react to the latest responses to their comments, boosting engagement.
Pros of Better Notifications for WordPress:
Easy-to-use interface for setting up notifications and creating email content.
As with other WordPress email features, you may experience email deliverability issues.
Why we chose Better Notifications for WordPress: Notifying users of new replies is a great way to boost user engagement and get more comments, which is why we recommend this plugin. That said, you may also need an SMTP plugin to make sure your emails are received, which brings us to the next plugin.
That said, there may be cases where you still use WordPress to send emails, like notifications about users’ comments. In this case, you will want to use WP Mail SMTP.
WP Mail SMTP is the best WordPress SMTP plugin that allows you to easily send WordPress emails using secure mail transfer protocol or SMTP. This helps ensure all your WordPress emails are delivered successfully, including comment notifications.
Pros of WP Mail SMTP:
The free version is enough to improve email deliverability.
Integrations with top mail service providers like SendLayer, Brevo, Gmail SMTP, and more.
One-click setup for Gmail SMTP, so you won’t need manual configuration, unlike other SMTP plugins.
Premium features to manage emails much more easily, like email resends, email failure alerts, and reports about opens and clicks.
Why we chose WP Mail SMTP: This plugin can ensure that all comment-related emails actually get received and, in turn, your commenters can come back to engage more with your blog posts.
Trusted by 100+ million websites, Akismet is a popular WordPress anti-spam plugin.
The free plugin includes basic spam filtering and spam protection features. It can spot spammy comments off the bat so that they won’t show up in your comment section. You will also get detailed stats to see how much spam Akismet has blocked.
However, the free plugin includes limited API calls, so if you get many comments, then Akismet cannot check them all. We recommend upgrading to the premium version to get more API calls per month.
Pros of Akismet:
Easy to use plugin. Once activated, it will immediately work to mitigate spam.
Automatic spam deletion if you don’t review comments in 15 days, so you won’t have to manually remove them.
Handy analytics to see how much spam has been blocked and how accurately Akismet has spotted it.
Cons of Akismet:
At times, the plugin can mistake genuine comments as spam.
Why we chose Akismet: Spam comments are a common problem in WordPress, and sometimes, WordPress’ moderation feature isn’t enough. Akismet is one of the best comment plugins for easily combatting spam and maintaining a positive user experience.
Anti-spam tools like Akismet are great for filtering out comments left by automated spam bots. However, you can protect your site further by preventing users from inserting spammy or malicious links into their comments.
Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools can help prevent exactly that. It can remove the ‘Website URL’ field from the comment form, as well as the author’s website hyperlink.
This plugin also automatically removes hyperlinks from the existing comments on your WordPress website. So, the URLs will still be displayed in your comments, but they won’t be hyperlinked. This way, visitors can still benefit from any genuine and helpful links.
Pros of Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools:
The premium version includes features to upload files, AI auto-comment replies, comment upvotes/downvotes, and more.
Cons of Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools:
If your WordPress theme modifies the standard core comment functions, then the plugin may not be able to remove the Website URL field.
Why we chose Comment Link Remove and Other Comment Tools: If you are looking to remove the Website URL field and all existing links from your comments without any code, then this plugin can easily get the job done.
Sometimes a user may submit a comment, only to immediately realize they have made a spelling mistake or some other grammatical error. This isn’t your website’s fault, but it is still a bad experience for your visitors.
Comment Edit Core solves this problem by letting users edit their own comments on your website.
You can use this plugin to specify how long visitors can edit or even delete a comment after posting it. This time limit is important, as it protects your website from spammers who might go back and try to add links to comments that you’ve already approved.
Pros of Comment Edit Core:
The timer can be in a Compact format (like 5:00) or a Words format (like 5 minutes). Feel free to choose the one that suits your website best.
Choose between Regular, Light, or Dark comment editor themes.
Some users have reported poor forum support for the free plugin, but the premium version includes email and Slack support.
Why we chose Comment Edit Core: This plugin is simple to use and adds important functionality to improve your commenting experience.For more details on this plugin, check out our guide on how to allow users to edit comments in WordPress.
Comments Extra Fields makes it easy to add custom fields to the standard WordPress comment form.
You can make the information entered in these fields invisible or visible to everyone. Furthermore, you can set rules for when these fields should appear in the comment section, which is great if your blog covers different topics.
Pros of Comment Extra Fields:
Beginner-friendly interface to add the custom fields and configure how they look and behave.
Multiple field options: single-line text, text area, checkbox, color picker, number, radio buttons, URL, file input, and so on.
10-day money-back guarantee for the premium version.
Cons of Comment Extra Fields:
The free version’s field options are limited compared to the premium one.
Why we chose Comment Extra Fields: This plugin offers so many ways to customize your comment section, make it more exciting, and even turn commenters into leads. This can be beneficial if you want to make the most out of your comments.
wpDiscuz is an AJAX-powered WordPress comment plugin.
It has a unique inline commenting feature. With this, you can add a handy button within your blog content to encourage discussion. Visitors can simply click on it to express their thoughts on that post’s particular section.
wpDiscuz also comes with live comment bubble notifications. It works like a real-time social proof notification on your website, letting visitors know about new comments as they are being posted and inviting them to join the conversation.
Pros of wpDiscuz:
Unique engagement features like real-time comment bubble notifications and inline commenting.
Various add-ons to install on top of the core plugin, like comment report and flagging and widgets to display top commenters.
Cons of wpDiscuz:
The live update feature, which automatically displays new comments when visitors are on the blog post, can slow your site down if you are on shared hosting.
Why we chose wpDiscuz: For a free WordPress comment plugin, wpDiscuz is pretty powerful and can be a good option for people looking for a free solution. Just make sure to monitor your site performance if you enable Ajax-powered features like live updates.
At times, users might want to react to your blog post but they hesitate to write a comment. Maybe they are not sure what exactly to say or they are just shy.
Ever since social media existed, users have become familiar with giving reactions to posts using emojis. That’s what WP Reactions is for: adding a reaction feature between your blog post content and your comment section.
This plugin offers over 200 emoji reactions to choose from and add to your comment section. As a result, users who are not used to commenting can easily engage with your blog content without typing a long message.
Pros of WP Reactions:
Easy drag-and-drop editor to arrange the emojis.
Animated emojis are available so the reaction buttons look more interactive than just regular icon images.
User-friendly dashboard analytics to collect user feedback based on their reactions.
Cons of WP Reactions:
The free version only comes with 14 emojis.
Why we chose WP Reactions: This WordPress plugin provides an easy way for users to engage with your blog post with just one simple click. If you want to learn more about using it, check out our article on how to engage readers with post reactions in WordPress.
Do you want to enable social login options in your WordPress comments section? If so, then check out Super Socializer. This feature is a great way to make posting comments faster and easier for users.
With this, users won’t need to manually insert their name and email to leave comments. They just need to click a few buttons and they are logged in to their social network. It also prevents users from using fake names in comments.
Other than that, the plugin includes a social commenting feature. This lets you add extra comment sections like Facebook comments. For Facebook users, this lets them skip the login step entirely and just leave a comment right away.
Pros of Super Socializer:
Multiple social features, like social logins, social commenting, and social sharing allow users to share blog posts on their accounts.
Plenty of social login options, from Facebook and X/Twitter to LinkedIn and Discord.
Some users reported that the plugin has made their websites slow, so be sure to use it with caution.
Why we chose Super Socializer: This plugin provides an easy way to enable social logins and make people less hesitant to leave comments. Our article on how to style the WordPress comment form can give you step-by-step instructions on how to use it.
If you are running an eCommerce website using WooCommerce, then your product pages’ comment sections will be changed to review/testimonial sections.
That said, the built-in review feature is basic. For example, customers can’t add photos to their reviews. Because of this, we recommend installing a WooCommerce review add-on like YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews.
With this WooCommerce plugin, customers can upload photos to their reviews to describe their experience with your product. Potential customers can also mark reviews as helpful to help fellow users make their purchase decisions.
Pros of YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews:
Review upvotes and downvotes to mark which reviews are most helpful.
Separate ‘Most Helpful Reviews’ tab to make it easier for users to find the most relevant testimonials.
Customizable review section, with settings to change the number of displayed reviews and the layout’s colors to suit your WooCommerce WordPress theme.
Cons of YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews:
It is dependent on other YITH plugins. For example, if you want to enable social logins, then you need to purchase a YITH plugin for that purpose, which can be costly.
No free version available, although there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Why we chose YITH WooCommerce Advanced Reviews: While this plugin comes at a cost, it offers all the essentials needed to optimize your product review section. You can think of it as an investment to gain more social proof and build your reputation.
Have you been getting so many comments that your page load time has slowed way down? If so, then check out Lazy Load for Comments.
This simple plugin adds a lazy loading feature inside your WordPress Discussion Settings page (above the Avatars section). You can choose whether to load the comments upon scrolling or when the user clicks on it.
Lazy loading improves performance by only loading necessary elements when they’re needed, reducing the initial page load time.
Pros of Lazy Load for Comments:
Free and simple to use.
Supports popular WordPress themes like Genesis and Divi.
Translation ready.
Cons of Lazy Load for Comments:
Installing this plugin just for its lazy loading feature might feel excessive, especially since there are other comment plugins like Thrive Comments that offer this feature along with other benefits.
Why we chose Lazy Load for Comments: If you just want a simple plugin to lazy load your comments, then this plugin does a great job. However, if you want an all-in-one comment plugin with a lazy loading feature, then consider Thrive Comments instead.
Moderating comments in WordPress can be a bit challenging, especially when there are many comment threads to review. If your readers are aware of and adhere to the commenting rules, then the process can become much simpler.
Comment Hacks is a WordPress comment plugin that lets you enable a comment policy for your website.
Users will have to go to the comment policy page and confirm they’ve read it before they can leave a comment. As a result, you can get more genuine and positive comments on your website.
Pros of Comment Hacks:
Comment policy feature to maintain a positive comment section.
The ability to set a minimum and maximum comment length, which can be great to prevent short, spammy comments.
Redirection feature that leads first-time commenters to a specific page, like a thank you page.
Cons of Comment Hacks:
The plugin only warns that the comment is too long after the user clicks ‘Post,’ not while they are typing. This could lead to unnecessary time spent editing long comments.
Why we chose Comment Hacks: This WordPress comment plugin is really helpful if you get lots of comments, want to keep things positive, and don’t want any spam. It makes your job easier by stopping bad comments before they show up.
What Is the Best WordPress Comment Plugin?
Out of all the plugins we’ve tested, the best WordPress comment plugin is Thrive Comments.
This plugin is a complete package, offering features to moderate your comment section, make it more interactive, and even convert commenters into leads or customers. While it’s a paid plugin, it’s a worthwhile investment for bloggers looking to build an engaged audience.
That said, many plugins on this list serve various purposes, so we encourage you to give them all a try and see which one is best for your needs.
Best Comment Plugins for WordPress: Frequently Asked Questions
Now that we’ve listed all of the best WordPress comment plugins, let’s answer some frequently asked questions.
Are comments important for SEO?
Yes, comments are important for SEO. They can function as signals telling search engines that people like your brand and engage with it. Other than that, the “free” content that comes from the commenters can add additional value to your articles.
Is it ok to disable your comment section?
If you run a blog and your goal is to build a following, then you should enable your comment section. Allowing comments is also good for increasing your user engagement metrics, which can be good for SEO.
Is the Disqus comment system good for SEO?
Any comment system is technically good for SEO, regardless of the platform.
However, in our experience, Disqus inserted affiliate links and sponsored comments without our permission. This can hurt your site’s SEO, as search engines don’t like it when websites don’t disclose their paid content.
For this reason, we did not include Disqus in our list. You can read more about our experience of why we switched away from Disqus.
Read More Guides to Improve Your WordPress Comments
Awesome Motive, the company behind MonsterInsights, OptinMonster, WPForms, and several other popular products, has acquired SearchWP, a commercial plugin that enhances WordPress’ search functionality. No changes have been announced for the plugin and Awesome Motive CEO Syed Balkhi says it will be “business as usual” for current customers.
“We have built a lot of internal tools to improve our website search that I’m really looking forward to sharing with the WordPress community,” Balkhi said.
“We will be combining Jon’s vision with our own experience, so you can literally have the best search plugin in the industry without the high costs.”
In 2013, when Jon Christopher launched SearchWP, he quickly carved out a slice of the WordPress search market among early competitors. The freemium model was already popular in those days with plugins like Relevanssi, but Christopher chose to launch SearchWP as a commercial-only product.
“There was already freemium competition, and I felt that the pricing model (which is the same today) was stronger given the product itself,” Christopher said. “I saw the pricing model as something that would help SearchWP stand out, and I also wanted to avoid opening the doors to overwhelming amounts of support requests right from the start.
“I had no idea if SearchWP would be successful given the landscape, I built it first to scratch my own itch while knowing that even if no one bought it, I would 100% use it in my own work, and use it a lot.”
His gamble paid off and the plugin has been used on more than 30,000 WordPress sites. Christopher had one support contractor but otherwise had been running the business alone for the past eight years. WordPress’ growing market share has made one-person plugin businesses difficult to maintain once they become very popular, as seen in the recent sale of ACF to Delicious Brains.
“I was looking ahead and considering what would be best for SearchWP’s customers,” Christopher said. “I want SearchWP to live as long as it possibly can. If I’m by myself it’s a bit of a risk to continue that way as the business continues to grow. I know that I prefer to build things from the ground up, and I also know that I’m not the guy to build (or manage) a team, it’s not my strong suit. Given all of those pieces it was clear to me that it was a good time to consider selling.”
Christopher described the 2013 WordPress ecosystem as more “scrappy,” as developers launched product businesses and worked to figure it out along the way.
“There are pros and cons to an environment like that, but it was fantastic from my perspective,” he said. “Over time that feeling went away as companies grew, matured, and playbooks began to take shape. That cycle has continued over time and especially in the last 18 months we’re getting a look at where WordPress is headed – lots of big players in a really big space.”
For those who are jumping into the waters with a new product business, Christopher underscored the need for strong marketing.
“I think that a lack of serious marketing will in fact be a limiter in today’s WordPress economy,” he said. “Products that have been around a long time have a natural momentum that’s really tough to beat, but that momentum doesn’t come without friction. In order to keep up with where WordPress is going, I do feel like you need assets (and capital) aimed directly and solely at marketing for the long haul.”
Balkhi did not elaborate on Awesome Motive’s immediate plans for the search plugin but said the company will be executing on a 12-month plan to make it easier for beginners and non-technical business owners to set up in less than 10 minutes.
SearchWP is a powerful WordPress search plugin that helps you improve your site search to deliver more relevant results. Over 30,000 websites use SearchWP to improve their content discoverability, reduce website abandonment, and increase sales.
Introduction to SearchWP – Quick Overview
SearchWP makes it easy for your website visitors to search everything by relevance, so they can quickly find what they’re looking for.
Unlike default WordPress search, SearchWP goes beyond just the post content and indexes everything on your site including custom fields, ACF fields, text files, PDF document content, custom tables, custom taxonomies, WooCommerce product attributes, and more.
It gives you the flexibility to create your own relevance scale and adjust the algorithm without writing any code.
The Metrics feature helps you see what your visitors are searching for, what they’re finding or not finding, so you can leverage these actionable insights to improve your content and grow your business.
SearchWP automatically integrates with every popular WordPress theme and page builder. This means you can instantly activate SearchWP and improve your website search (no coding needed).
Aside from that, SearchWP also integrates with all major WordPress plugins including but not limited to WooCommerce, Advanced Custom Fields (ACF), Meta Box, Toolset, BigCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, bbPress, and more.
If you want to create a AJAX live search for WordPress or WooCommerce, then you can easily do that with SearchWP.
It also comes with dozens of other powerful features like ability to redirect users to a specific page when certain searches are performed, ability to include & exclude specific content from search, keyword stemming, multiple search engines for different areas of your website, ability to index content from PDF, office, and other text documents, and a whole lot more.
And if you’re a developer, SearchWP comes with custom integrations, hooks, and REST API that you can use to build next generation search solutions for your clients.
Background Story – Why SearchWP?
As you already know, I’m a huge fan of WordPress. I believe it’s the most powerful website builder in the world that makes it easy for anyone to build any type of website.
But there’s always been one big drawback … the search functionality is a bit limited.
That’s because search is a really hard problem to solve.
While there are SaaS on-site search solutions in the market, most are either crazy expensive, or they don’t integrate well with WordPress.
When SearchWP was first released in 2013, I wrote a detailed tutorial about it on WPBeginner blog.
Since then, I’ve secretly admired Jon Christopher, founder of SearchWP, and all the amazing work he has done to create the most powerful WordPress search solution. Over the last 8 years, we have recommended SearchWP in dozens of our tutorials.
Just about everyone whom I referred to SearchWP loved how powerful this plugin really is and the impact it had on their business.
So naturally when WPBeginner readers survey showed that y’all wanted me to build a search plugin to help improve WordPress and WooCommerce search, I reached out to Jon with a partnership proposal.
Jon and I have met several times in the past at various WordCamp events, so the conversation progressed quickly.
We are both located in Florida, so he drove down to my house, and shortly after we agreed to an acquisition deal, so SearchWP can join the WPBeginner family of products.
What’s Coming Next?
Our work is just starting.
We will be leveraging the scale and knowledge of the Awesome Motive team to build more innovative solutions to help you maximize the full power of your website search.
We have built a lot of internal tools to improve our website search that I’m really looking forward to sharing with the WordPress community.
We will be combining Jon’s vision with our own experience, so we can make the BEST WordPress search plugin even better.
This is truly going to be a game changer!
Whether you’re a publisher (blogger) or an eCommerce site owner, you should enable SearchWP to improve your website search and grow your business.
If you have suggestions on features you’d like to see in the SearchWP plugin, then please let us know by sending us a message via WPBeginner contact form.
As always, I want to thank you for your continued support of WPBeginner. We look forward to bringing you more amazing solutions to help you grow your business.
Yours Truly,
Syed Balkhi
Founder of WPBeginner
P.S. Want to join our team and work alongside me in helping small businesses grow and compete with the big guys? We’re hiring.
We’re a fully remote team of over 170+ amazingly talented team members across 31 countries.
P.P.S Are you a WordPress product owner looking for an investment or an exit (on fair, founder friendly terms)? Learn more about my WPBeginner Growth Fund.
Do want to improve the product search in your WooCommerce store?
WooCommerce has a built-in search feature, but it is not very good at finding products. Replacing it with a smarter and faster search improves user experience and brings in more sales.
In this article, we will show you how to make a smart WooCommerce product search for your online store.
Why Add a Smart WooCommerce Product Search to Your Store?
By default, WooCommerce comes with a built-in product search feature, but it leaves a lot to be desired.
It does not look for matches in product attributes, reviews, custom fields, or description. It is also very slow and doesn’t offer a good user experience.
This means that users will not be able to find the products they are looking for, and you will lose potential sales.
Luckily, there are some excellent WooCommerce product search plugins that you can use to remedy that. This will allow you to show more helpful product search results, fetch them faster, and get more product sales.
That being said, let’s take a look at how to easily add a smart WooCommerce product search feature to your online store.
Method 1. Make Better WooCommerce Product Search Using Ajax Search for WooCommerce
This method is easier and recommended for most store owners.
For this tutorial, we will be using the pro version of Ajax Search for WooCommerce, which is the best WooCommerce product search plugin on the market.
It looks for the searched keywords in all your products fields including custom fields. The plugin can can also display results without reloading a page, and it is considerably faster than the default WooCommerce search.
Upon activation, you need to click on the ‘Ajax Search for WooCommerce’ menu in the WordPress admin sidebar to enter your license key. You can find this information under your account on the plugin website.
After that, you can visit the WooCommerce » Ajax Search Bar page to configure plugin settings. Simply switch to the ‘Search bar’ tab to get started.
From here, you can choose the appearance of your search box. You can show and hide the button, change the search button label, and replace the placeholder text.
The plugin starts fetching and displaying product results as soon as users start typing. You can customize how many products to show, and how to display instant results.
Simply switch to the ‘Autocomplete’ tab and review the available options. If you are unsure, then you can leave them as they are. The default settings would work for most online stores.
Next, you need to switch to the Search config page. From here, you can tell the plugin which areas to look at when looking for a match.
You can check all the options if you want. You can also select custom fields that you may want to be included in search.
Lastly, the plugin also includes Fuzzy matches. These basically include products that might be close to what users are looking for but not an exact match. We recommend keeping this setting at Normal for more relevant and helpful results.
Finally, don’t forget to click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store all your settings.
Displaying Your WooCommerce Product Search on Your Website
Ajax Search for WooCommerce gives you three ways to add the product search box to your WooCommerce store.
You can add it to your store’s navigation menu.
Display it in the sidebar using a widget
Add it manually to a shop page using the shortcode
Adding WooCommerce Product Search to Navigation Menu
Users are likely to look for the search option near your top navigation menu. The plugin makes it easy to place the product search there.
Simply go to Appearance » Menus page. Make sure that your current navigation menu is selected and then add the ‘AJAX Search Bar’ to your navigation menu.
Don’t forget to click on the Save Menu button to store your settings.
You can now visit your store to see the product search added to your site’s navigation menu.
Adding WooCommerce Product Search to Sidebar Widget
The sidebar is also a popular place to display the product search option.
Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘AJAX search bar’ widget to your sidebar.
Optionally, you can provide a title and choose a layout for your search field from the widget settings.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ button to save your widget settings.
You can now visit your store and you’ll see the search box in your sidebar.
Adding WooCommerce Product Search using Shortcode
If you are using a custom landing page for your shop page or product catalog, then you may want to display a product search on that particular page or post.
The plugin comes with a shortcode that allows you to easily do that. Simply edit the post or page where you want to display the search box.
On the edit screen, click on the add new block button (+) and then insert the shortcode block. Inside the shortcode block, you can simply enter the following shortcode:
[wcas-search-form]
Don’t forget to publish, save, or update your post / page.
You can now visit that particular page or post to see the on-page search box displayed there.
Method 2. Creating a Smarter WooCommerce Search Using SearchWP
This method is for store owners that also have a lot of non-product related content, and they want to make a better search experience for all their content.
SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin on the market and comes with a WooCommerce addon too that helps you improve WooCommerce product search too.
The advantage of SearchWP is that it also indexes your blog posts and landing pages.
The disadvantage is that their instant search feature doesn’t display product thumbnails in the results. As a store owner, you want a more visual search experience to engage your customers instantly.
Note: You’ll need at least the PRO plan to access the WooCommerce integration.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » SearchWP page and switch to the license tab to enter your license key.
Next, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce Integration extension. You can download it from your account area on SearchWP website and install it as you would install any other WordPress plugin.
Now you are ready to set up your SearchWP custom search engine.
Simply go to Settings » SearchWP page and click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you need to make sure that the checkbox next to products is checked.
Next, click on the ‘Done’ button to close the popup and scroll down to the ‘Products’ section.
By default, the plugin will look at the product title, content (description), slug, and excerpt (short description) for matches. You can extend that by clicking on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you can check to include reviews or select custom fields and taxonomies. We have added color and size in the custom fields, and product categories, and product tags in the taxonomies.
You can now go ahead and click on the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your settings. It will then start rebuilding your search index in the background.
SearchWP automatically looks for your WooCommerce or WordPress search forms and replaces them. Your WooCommerce theme may already have an option to display the search option.
You can go to your website to try out the search feature. You’ll notice that it is slower and will reload the page to show the search results.
You can change that behavior by downloading the Live Search extension from SearchWP’s website. After downloading it, you can install and activate it like any other WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the ‘SearchWP Live Search’ widget to your sidebar.
Don’t forget to click on the Save button to save your widget settings.
After that, you can visit your website to see your smart WooCommerce search in action. You’ll notice that SearchWP will display products in live search results but without product thumbnails.
Which is the best WooCommerce Product Search Plugin?
However, Ajax Search for WooCommerce is faster and offers a better user experience. A faster search feature on an eCommerce store ultimately leads to more sales.
It is also easier to use, and you wouldn’t need to install multiple addons to create a better product search on your site.
We hope this article helped you learn how to easily make a smart WooCommerce product search for your online store. You may also want to see our pick of the best WooCommerce plugins that help you grow your store, and our comparison of the best business phone services to add a virtual phone number on your site.
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Are you looking for the best WordPress search plugin to improve your site search?
The default WordPress search feature is quite limited and ignores a lot of the content on your website. Thankfully, there are several WordPress plugins that can help you improve the default search experience.
In this article, we will highlight the best WordPress search plugins to improve your site search.
Why Use a WordPress Search Plugin?
WordPress comes with a built-in search feature that can help visitors easily find what they are looking for.
However, it is quite basic and doesn’t search all your site’s content, including comments, files, and products.
The good news is that there are several search plugins that can help you improve the built-in WordPress search feature. Some of these plugins are built for specific purposes, like searching WooCommerce products, while others improve the search experience across your entire WordPress blog or website.
That being said, let’s take a look at some of the best WordPress search plugins. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the plugin you want to learn more about:
SearchWP is one of the best search plugins for WordPress. It is very easy to use and provides much more accurate search results compared to the built-in WordPress search.
SearchWP can search content that WordPress ignores by default, including custom post types, WooCommerce products, comments, PDFs, and more.
You can create a completely custom search algorithm, similar to the algorithms used by search engines such as Google. This allows you to assign a weight (importance) to each attribute.
Content that matches an attribute with high relevancy will appear higher in the search results. By contrast, content with an attribute that has less relevancy will appear lower in the user’s search results.
For example, if you have uploaded your menu as a PDF on your restaurant website, then this is important content, and you will typically want to show it high in the search results.
With that in mind, you can simply assign this content a higher attribute relevance so that matches appear high in the search results.
You can even include product attributes, tags, reviews, and custom fields and taxonomies in the WooCommerce search results.
In the following image, we have added ‘color’ and ‘size’ as searchable custom fields and added product tags and categories in the taxonomies field.
After creating a custom search algorithm, you can then create an unlimited number of custom search forms.
For example, if you sell digital downloads like eBooks, then you might make a search form that searches content with the ‘ebook’ tag. In this way, you can help shoppers find new books that they may want to buy.
Automatically integrates with the built-in WordPress search.
Looks great with any WordPress theme.
Built-in search statistics.
Integrates with many popular WordPress plugins, including WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and bbPress.
Cons:
Doesn’t include live Ajax search. However, you can add this missing feature by installing the free SearchWP Live Ajax Search plugin.
No free plugin, so you’ll need to purchase a license to try SearchWP.
Why we chose SearchWP: SearchWP is a complete search toolkit that integrates perfectly with the native WordPress search. Simply create a search algorithm, and all the search fields and forms across your website will use SearchWP automatically.
ElasticPress is a hosted WordPress search service built on ElasticSearch.
Instead of running on your WordPress site, it runs the search queries in the cloud and shows results at lightning speed. It is extremely easy to integrate on any WordPress site and works with all the best WordPress hosting providers.
ElasticPress can search content that the default WordPress search ignores, including custom fields, tags, PDF files, Microsoft Office documents, metadata, and more.
ElasticPress has built-in live Ajax search, so you can show instant results as the user is typing. It also works well with WooCommerce, so shoppers can quickly find products they are interested in buying.
You can create your own search algorithm using the Weighting dashboard and can even customize the top search terms to display your most popular WooCommerce products or top-performing content first.
Pros:
Built-in autosuggest.
An advanced connector that can handle almost any search query.
Shows related posts and document content in the search results.
A hosted service, so ElasticPress won’t slow down your WordPress website.
Cons:
ElasticPress is a hosted service and is a lot more expensive than any other search solution on this list. This means it may not be the best choice for beginners, personal blogs, or anyone who is working with a smaller budget.
Why we chose ElasticPress: By offloading search to an external server, you can improve your WordPress search without slowing down your website. This may not be the cheapest search plugin on our list, but it’s a great choice for business websites or enterprise sites that need lightning-fast search.
Ivory Search is another excellent WordPress search plugin that replaces the default WordPress search.
To improve search results, Ivory Search looks at post types, image metadata, custom fields, shortcodes, attachments, and more.
You can also use Ajax to show live search results without reloading the page.
The plugin also integrates with the WordPress theme customizer, so you can change how the search form looks using the tools you are already familiar with.
With Ivory Search, you can create an unlimited number of forms with unique settings.
You can then add these forms to different areas of your site using a shortcode that the plugin creates automatically.
You can also add an advanced search form to any widget-ready area, such as the sidebar, using the Ivory Search block. This makes it easy to show the same form across your entire WordPress website.
Another option is to add the search bar to any navigation menu. In the Ivory Search settings, you can simply enable the toggle for the menu where you want to show the search field.
Studying the way that people use your website’s search can also help you learn more about your users. This includes finding any content gaps where visitors are searching for content that you don’t already have on your website.
To provide this data, Ivory Search integrates with Google Analytics. However, before you can use this feature, you will need to install Google Analytics in WordPress.
Easily change search form colors and messaging using the WordPress Customizer.
Add an advanced search field to any WordPress menu with the click of a button.
Supports multilingual search.
Integrates with popular plugins, including WooCommerce, Weglot, Polylang, and WPML.
Cons:
Ivory Search’s interface can be overwhelming and confusing to navigate, particularly for first-time users.
Why we chose Ivory Search: Although there’s a premium version, the free version is where Ivory Search really shines. If you are looking for a free WordPress search plugin that has everything you need to improve the default search, then the free download is a great option.
Pricing: The base plugin is free, while Ivory Search premium starts at $19.99 per year.
The free Advanced Woo Search plugin can look for matches in the product title, content, excerpt, categories, tags, ID, and SKU.
This can help shoppers find what they are looking for, including products they may not have found using the built-in WordPress search.
Advanced Woo Search has a straightforward settings page where you can toggle the different settings on and off, often with the click of a button. This makes the plugin very easy to set up and use.
Advanced Woo Search also shows some useful extra information inside the search results, including the product image and price. It also integrates the results into your current layout, so it will look great with any WordPress theme.
Once you have set up the plugin, it will synchronize the product data automatically. This means you won’t need to spend time manually re-indexing every time you update the product catalog. You can also add the search form to any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode or widget.
Pros:
Supports stop words, synonyms, and plurals.
Supports multiple currencies and variable products.
Orders search results based on where they were found.
Easy-to-understand settings.
Cons:
The free plugin is missing some of the more advanced search features, including the ability to search product attributes and custom taxonomies.
Why we chose Advanced Woo Search: If you are looking to improve the default WooCommerce search but don’t have the budget for a premium plugin, then this is a great option. It also supports live Ajax search out of the box, so shoppers can see relevant results without waiting for the page to reload.
Pricing: You can download Advanced Woo Search for free from the official WordPress repository.
SearchWP Ajax Live is an addon plugin for SearchWP, but it works with any WordPress search form that uses the built-in WordPress template tags.
This addon enhances your existing WordPress search with live Ajax search results that show up as soon as the user starts typing. This provides a better user experience and can return accurate results without even reloading the page.
Live Ajax search can improve the search experience for all visitors, but it’s particularly useful if you are selling online courses, membership subscriptions, and other digital products. By helping visitors find relevant content faster, you can often get more sales.
After activating the plugin, every search bar on your site will use live Ajax search automatically. You can also add a live Ajax search bar to any page, post, or widget-ready area using a block provided by the plugin.
This includes areas you can’t edit using the standard WordPress content editor, like your site’s 404 page template.
Pros:
Works out of the box with minimal settings to configure.
Adds live Ajax search to your WordPress blog, website, or online store, similar to the live search feature used by search engines like Google.
Works perfectly with the default WordPress search or the SearchWP plugin.
Cons:
This plugin works out of the box with very few settings. While this makes the plugin easy to set up, it may feel limiting if you want more advanced customization options.
Why we chose SearchWP Ajax Lite: Live search can help visitors find what they are looking for, fast. This free plugin works out of the box and automatically adds live Ajax search to all your search fields without you having to configure any complicated settings.
Pricing: Free to download from the official WordPress repository.
YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search is a great WooCommerce product search plugin that helps customers quickly find products in your store.
It allows customers to search products by SKU, search within specific categories, and filter the results without reloading the page.
This plugin can also search content that WordPress ignores by default, including the product excerpt, product categories and tags, and variable products.
YITH WooCommerce Ajax search is highly customizable. You can include thumbnails, badges, prices, and promotions in the live search results. This can provide shoppers with useful information, which will help them decide which product pages they want to visit.
Both the free and premium versions of the plugin also allow you to customize how the search bar looks to better suit your online store.
The plugin works with WooCommerce stores in any language and is fully compatible with multilingual WordPress sites and stores.
Pros:
Shows results in real time.
Filter the results using categories and tags.
Search by SKU, which is perfect for stores with big product catalogs.
Highlight sales and promotions inside the search results.
Cons:
Although there is a free version of the plugin, it’s quite limited compared to other live Ajax plugins. For example, the free version doesn’t look for matches within product tags and categories.
Why we chose YITH WooCommerce Ajax Search: If you run a WooCommerce store, then live search can help customers find interesting products faster. With that being said, a live Ajax search plugin is a must-have, and this plugin integrates perfectly with WooCommerce. It’s also fully compatible with multilingual websites, which is perfect if you sell to an international audience.
FiboSearch is another excellent WooCommerce search plugin. It allows you to instantly fetch search results using Ajax without reloading the page.
FiboSearch can search for matches in the product description, short description, SKU, attributes, custom fields, product categories and tags, and more.
You can also exclude out-of-stock products from the search results. This can get you more sales since you are not distracting shoppers with products they can’t currently purchase.
You can also show more content as part of the live Ajax search. For example, you might add the product image, description, and pricing to provide shoppers with detailed product information without them even having to reload the page.
When the visitor hovers over an item in the live Ajax search, you can show an add to cart button along with a quantity field and extended product description. In this way, visitors can start the purchasing process without even visiting the product’s page.
The live Ajax search bar is also fully customizable, so you can add your own messaging, change the submit button, and choose different search bar layouts.
As you make changes, the plugin will show a preview of how the search bar will look on your online marketplace or store. In this way, you can easily try different settings to see what looks the best.
When you are happy with how the search bar is set up, you can add it to any page, post, or widget-ready area using either a shortcode or block.
Another option is adding the search bar to any menu in your WordPress theme. Simply go to Appearance » Menus and then add the new ‘FiboSearch bar’ item to any navigation menu.
Pros:
Integrates with the default WooCommerce search results page. This means that shoppers will see exactly the same results in both the live Ajax search and the standard search results page.
Support for many popular multilingual plugins, including WPML, Polylang, and qTranslate-XT.
Support for Google Analytics.
Advanced search settings, including synonyms and fuzzy search.
Cons:
Even if you upgrade to pro, FiboSearch doesn’t offer live chat or telephone support.
Why we chose FiboSearch: This plugin allows you to show detailed information in the live Ajax search results and even include an ‘Add to Cart’ button. In this way, you can show helpful, informative results to shoppers without them ever having to reload the page.
Pricing: The base plugin is free. The premium version starts at $49 per year.
It allows your customers to filter products by category, attributes, tags, taxonomies, meta fields, and price.
Husky’s filters generate SEO-friendly links that you can add to your sitemap file. In this way, Husky can help improve your WooCommerce SEO.
The Husky search form is fully customizable, so you can display the different options as radio buttons, checkboxes, multi-dropdown menus, and more.
You can add search and filtering options to any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode that the plugin creates automatically. Even better, Husky supports live Ajax search, so you can show live results anywhere on your online store.
Husky is easy for beginners to set up but also offers tons of customization options for developers who want to use the plugin in custom product templates. For example, you can create a custom woo-products loop template and html-items for the search form.
Pros:
Advanced WooCommerce search.
Built-in live Ajax support.
See the products your customers are looking for with built-in search statistics.
The option for more advanced users to create custom layout templates.
Cons:
Although the plugin offers live Ajax search, according to the WordPress.org listing, this feature isn’t guaranteed to work with all WordPress themes.
Why we chose Husky Products Filter for WooCommerce: This plugin allows you to replace the limited built-in WooCommerce search, no matter what your budget is. Although the live Ajax search isn’t guaranteed to work with all WooCommerce themes, this is still a generous feature to include in a free plugin.
Relevanssi is another popular WordPress search plugin that improves WordPress search by fetching more relevant results.
Relevanssi adds PDF indexing and searching in WordPress, so visitors can search the contents of your site’s PDF files. Relevanssi can also search shortcode outputs, custom fields, user profiles, categories and tags, WooCommerce products, and more.
Relavanssi also supports fuzzy matching and exact matches and can highlight the search terms in the results page.
All of this can help visitors find what they are looking for, faster.
Relevanssi has compatibility issues with some page builder plugins, BuddyPress, NextGen Gallery, and a few more. If you do run into problems, then you can see our step-by-step guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support and get it.
Relevanssi may take up lots of database space. With that in mind, it’s not recommended if your WordPress hosting has limited space for database tables.
Why we chose Relevanssi: Many of the free search plugins on this list are designed for use with online WooCommerce stores. However, Relevanssi is a free plugin that’s a great fit for all kinds of WordPress blogs and websites. If you run a membership website, then Relevanssi also integrates with many of the top membership plugins.
Pricing: The base plugin is free. You can upgrade to the premium version for $109 per year.
WP Extended Search is a lightweight and simple WordPress search plugin that allows you to easily extend the default WordPress search.
You can just go to the plugin settings and select the options you want to include in the search results. For example, you can search in the author name, taxonomies, post types, meta data, and more.
The plugin extends the default WordPress search, so you don’t need to add any shortcodes or widgets. As long as you are using the built-in WordPress search, you simply need to install and activate the plugin, and you are good to go.
If you want to offer a more advanced search, then you can create multiple custom search forms with unique settings. You can then add these search forms to any part of your site using a widget, shortcode, PHP function, or HTML.
Pros:
Automatically improves the default WordPress search.
Create an unlimited number of custom forms.
Optionally exclude old content from search results.
Show partial matches or exact matches only.
Compatible with WooCommerce.
Cons:
Missing some more advanced features, particularly live Ajax search.
Why we chose WP Extended Search: If you are looking for a quick and easy way to enhance the standard WordPress search, then this plugin works out of the box. Although there are some more advanced settings you can explore, this is a very lightweight plugin that’s easy to set up.
Better Search is another free WordPress plugin that automatically replaces the default WordPress search.
This plugin allows you to search across all post types, including custom post types. It will also look for matches in the title, post content, excerpt, meta fields, authors, tags, and comments.
You can also change the weight of either the title or the content based on what better suits your website.
This plugin has a unique search heatmap feature that shows the most popular searches. You can add this widget to an area, such as the sidebar or footer, to encourage visitors to explore your site’s most popular search terms and content.
Pros:
Automatically integrates with the default WordPress search. If your WordPress theme doesn’t have a built-in search form, then you can add one by using widgets in WordPress.
The option to use your own template file or custom CSS.
Create a list of stop words that Better Search will filter out of search queries.
Cons:
No option to search based on category or product attribute.
Doesn’t support live Ajax search.
Why we chose Better Search: Better Search provides a good range of features for a free plugin, plus some unique functionality. In particular, their heatmap is an innovative way to encourage visitors to explore more search terms and content and may make this a stand-out plugin for some website owners.
Sometimes, you don’t want to include all your content in the search results. For example, if you are running an online store, then you may want to hide pages like your account page, custom checkout page, thank you page, and more.
Search Exclude allows you to exclude content that you don’t want to show in the WordPress search results. You can simply check a box to exclude pages, posts, WooCommerce products, and more.
Even better, this plugin doesn’t hide your content from search engine crawlers. This means the hidden content will still show up in search engines like Google.
If you want to hide lots of different pages, posts, and other content, then this plugin also integrates with the bulk edit feature.
You can go to the plugin’s settings at any point to see all the items that you have excluded from the search.
Pros:
A simple plugin that allows you to exclude content from the search results.
Doesn’t affect your WordPress SEO.
Cons:
This plugin simply hides items from the search results. This means you will likely still need to install extra search plugins.
Why we chose Better Search: This plugin does one task, and does it well. If you are happy with the default WordPress search, but simply want to hide a few pages, then this plugin is the perfect solution.
Pricing: Free.
Which Is the Best WordPress Search Plugin?
We believe that SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin for most websites. It allows you to search all the content types that the built-in WordPress search ignores by default and makes it easy to create a custom search algorithm.
After that, you can create an unlimited number of unique search forms and add them to any page, post, or widget-ready area.
Although the core SearchWP plugin doesn’t offer live Ajax search, you can easily add this feature using the SearchWP Live Ajax Search.
FAQs About WordPress Search Plugins
In this guide, we have covered all of the best WordPress search plugins. If you still have questions, then here are our FAQs about improving the built-in WordPress search.
Does WordPress have a search feature?
Most WordPress themes have a built-in search feature. However, the default search is typically quite limited and doesn’t provide accurate search results.
For that reason, we recommend installing an advanced search plugin like SearchWP.
Is the default WordPress search good enough for my website?
Although WordPress has a basic built-in search, we don’t recommend relying on it. By default, WordPress doesn’t search widgets, user comments, categories, tags, WooCommerce products, or PDF documents. It also doesn’t search image gallery titles, captions, or alt text.
When creating the search results page, WordPress will start by displaying any posts that have the search term in the post title, arranged in reverse-chronological order, meaning that the newest entries will be displayed at the top of the results.
After that, it will show any posts that have the matching term in the post content.
This may not be a problem for blogs that only have small amounts of content. However, this ordering logic can often show inaccurate or confusing results when you have lots of content.
The best way to improve the default WordPress search is by using an advanced search plugin like SearchWP. These plugins allow you to search content types that WordPress ignores by default and may even add useful features such as live Ajax search.
How do I add live search to my WordPress website?
The best way to add live search to your website is by using SearchWP Live Ajax Search. This free plugin instantly adds live search to all the forms and search bars across your entire WordPress website.
How do I make my WordPress website a search engine like Google?
You can create your own custom search algorithm using SearchWP. This allows you to assign weights to different attributes, such as the post’s title or its tags. In this way, you can control exactly where your content appears in the WordPress search results.
After that, you can add live search to your site using SearchWP Live Ajax Search. This plugin suggests results as the visitor is typing, just like search engines such as Google.
