Do you want to add a taxonomies filter to your WordPress search?
Allowing users to search based on categories, tags, custom fields, and post types offers a great user experience. However, the default WordPress search is not very good or advanced enough to offer this feature.
In this article, we will show you how to add an Ajax powered taxonomies filter in WordPress search.
Why Use Ajax Taxonomies Filter in WordPress Search?
Ajax-powered search is faster and provides a better user experience than the default WordPress search function.
For example, a car dealership website may have custom taxonomies for different vehicle types, price ranges, models, and more. Ajax filters can help users find exactly what they need.
You can add similar search filters in WordPress and improve the user experience of your site. It also helps website administrators to organize their content, so that it could be easily found by users.
However, the default WordPress search is not that powerful and doesn’t offer filter content based on categories, tags, post types, product details, and more. If you use custom taxonomies on your site, the default search performs even worse.
This is where you’ll need a WordPress plugin to help you out. Let’s see how to add an Ajax taxonomies filter to WordPress search.
We’ll cover 2 methods in this article. The first method will help you show filters on the front end of your WordPress website. The second method will help you improve the default WordPress search and include taxonomies when searching posts and pages on your site.
Simply click the links below to jump ahead to your preferred section:
Method 1: Add Ajax Taxonomies to WordPress Search using SearchWP
You can add Ajax taxonomies to WordPress search by using SearchWP. It is the best search plugin for WordPress and makes it easy for users to find what they’re looking for on your website.
It goes beyond using just the content on your blog posts and pages to look up things. SearchWP uses custom fields, taxonomies, WooCommerce product attributes, text files, custom tables, and more.
Do note that SearchWP won’t show the taxonomies filters on the frontend of your website. However, it will include them in the search process and improve the default WordPress search.
First, you’ll need to visit the SearchWP website and sign up for an account. After that, you can download and install the plugin on your site. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you will need to go to SearchWP » Settings from the WordPress admin panel. From here, simply enter the license key, which you can easily find in your account area.
After that, you can go to SearchWP » Algorithm page from the WordPress dashboard.
Here, you can edit the search relevance for your website. For instance, you can increase weights for title, content, slug, and excerpt to help users find what they’re looking for.
To add taxonomies to the search relevance, you can click the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.
Next, a new popup window will open.
You can click the Taxonomies dropdown menu and select whether you’d like to include categories, tags, formats, or all of them in the WordPress search.
After selecting the taxonomies, don’t forget to click the ‘Done’ button.
You should now see the taxonomies for your WordPress blog post search algorithm. You can use the slider to increase their relevance in WordPress searches.
You can also click the ‘Edit Rule’ button to determine what content can and cannot show up in the search results.
For instance, SearchWP will include all the categories on your website. You can remove categories from which you don’t want the content to show up or add multiple conditions to customize the search results.
Don’t forget to click the ‘Done’ button when finished.
You can now edit the search algorithm for your pages, media files, WooCommerce products, and more to show up in SearchWP.
Now, whenever a visitor searches for pages and posts on your website, SearchWP will include taxonomies during the search process.
You can use a free WordPress plugin like Search & Filter to add an Ajax taxonomies filter to your website. It is very easy to use and allows your users to search based on category, tag, custom taxonomy, post type, and more.
First, you will need to install and activate the Search & Filter WordPress plugin. For more details, please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can add a shortcode to show the Ajax taxonomies filter anywhere on your website.
For instance, you can enter the following shortcode to show the category and post-type dropdown filter:
In the screenshot above, you can see the taxonomies filter as checkboxes. Users can simply select categories from which they want to view posts and pages.
Do you want to create a mobile-ready responsive WordPress menu?
More than half of all website traffic comes from mobile devices. If your navigation menu doesn’t work well on smartphone and tablets, then a big chunk of your audience may struggle to find their way around your site.
In this guide, we will show you how to create a mobile-ready responsive WordPress menu.
Why Create a Mobile-Ready Responsive WordPress Menu?
A well-designed navigation menu will help visitors find their way around your website. However, just because you menu looks great on desktop computers, doesn’t automatically mean it will look good on smartphones and tablets too.
Mobile users make up around 58% of all internet traffic. That said, if your menu doesn’t look good or work correctly on mobile devices, then you risk losing half your audience. This will make it difficult to achieve key goals such as growing your email list, getting sales, and growing your business.
With that being said, let’s see how you can create a mobile-ready responsive menu that will look great on smartphones and tablets. Simply use the quick links below to jump straight to the method you want to use.
Method 1: Create a Mobile-Ready Responsive Slide Panel Menu
A responsive slide panel is a navigation menu that slides onscreen when a visitor taps or clicks on a toggle.
In this way, the menu is always within easy reach but doesn’t take up any onscreen space by default. This is particularly important since smartphones and tablets have much smaller screens compared to desktop computers.
If the menu is constantly expanded, then a mobile user may trigger its links by accident using their device’s touchscreen. This makes slide panels a good choice for a mobile-responsive menu.
The easiest way to add a mobile-ready slide panel is by using Responsive Menu.
Note: There is a premium version of Responsive Menu with extra themes and additional features such as conditional logic. However, in this guide, we’ll use the free plugin since it has everything you need to create a mobile-ready menu.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Responsive Menu plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you can use the plugin to customize any WordPress menu you’ve previously created. If you need to create a new menu, then please see our guide on how to add a navigation menu in WordPress.
If your WordPress theme already has a built-in mobile menu, then you’ll need to know that menu’s CSS class so you can hide it. If you skip this step, then mobile users will see two overlapping menus on your website. For step-by-step instructions, please see our guide on how to hide a mobile menu in WordPress.
With that done, go to the Responsive Menu » Menus page and click on the ‘Create New Menu’ button.
You will now see a few different themes that you can use for your menu.
We’re using the ‘Default Theme’ in our images but you can use any theme you want. After making your decision, click on ‘Next.’
You can now type in a name for the menu. This is just for your reference so you can use anything you want.
With that done, click on ‘Link WordPress Menu’ and choose the menu that you want to use.
As already mentioned, if your theme already has a built-in mobile menu, then you’ll need to add its CSS class to the ‘Hide Theme Menu’ field.
If you upgrade to the premium plugin, then you’ll get a few additional settings. For example, Pro users can hide the menu on particular pages or devices.
When you’re happy with how the menu is set up, click on ‘Create Menu.’
You’ll now see a preview of your WordPress website on the right of the screen, and some settings on the left.
To see how your site looks on mobile, click on either the mobile or tablet icon towards the bottom left of the screen.
To customize how the menu looks and acts on mobile devices, select ‘Mobile Menu.’
Then, click on ‘Container.’
Here, you’ll find lots of different settings.
As you make changes, the live preview will often update automatically. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to expand the menu so you can monitor how your mobile menu will look. To do this, simply click on the menu toggle button.
By default, the plugin adds a title and some ‘Add more content…’ text.
You can replace this with your own messaging, or even remove the text completely. To edit the title, click to expand the ‘Title’ section.
You can now type your own messaging into the ‘Title Text’ field.
You can also add a link to the title, or add icon fonts and images.
To customize how the title looks, click on the ‘Styles’ tab.
If you don’t want to show any title text, then click to deactivate the toggle next to ‘Title.’
If the title isn’t essential, then removing it will create more space for the links and other content in your mobile navigation menu.
To replace the ‘Add more content here….’ text with your own messaging, click to expand the ‘Additional Content’ area.
You can now type in your own text, change the text color, change the text alignment, and more by using the settings in the left-hand menu.
To remove the text completely, simply click to deactivate the toggle.
Once again, this can create more room for the rest of the menu’s content. This is particularly useful on smartphones and tablets, which typically have smaller screens.
By default, Responsive Menu will show all your menu items as a single list. However, you may prefer to show these links in multiple columns. This can work well if your menu labels are shorter, as it allows you to show more items in a smaller amount of space without the menu looking cluttered.
To try different column layouts, click to expand the ‘Menu’ section.
You can now open the ‘Menu container columns’ dropdown and choose the number of columns you want to use.
At this point, you may see some ‘Update Required’ text. If you see this message, then give it a click to update the live preview with your new column settings.
By default, Responsive Menu adds a search bar to your WordPress menu. This can help visitors find interesting content, but it can also take up precious onscreen space.
If you prefer, then you can remove the search bar for mobile users by deactivating the toggle next to ‘Search.’
There are lots more settings that you can configure, so you may want to spend some time looking through the other options. However, this is enough to create a well-designed mobile-ready menu.
When you’re happy with how the navigation menu is set up, click on ‘Update.’
Method 2. Create a Mobile-Ready Fullscreen Responsive Menu
Another option is to add a fullscreen responsive menu. This is a menu that automatically adjusts to different screen sizes, so the navigation menu will always look good no matter what device the visitor is using.
Since the menu takes up all the available space, it is easier to navigate on smartphones and tablets, no matter how small the screen.
The easiest way to create a fullscreen menu is by using FullScreen Menu – Mobile Friendly and Responsive. This plugin allows you to create a fullscreen menu for mobile devices only, or you can show the same menu across smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers, so all visitors have the same experience.
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the FullScreen Menu plugin. You can check our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin for more details.
Upon activation, select Fullscreen Menu Options from the WordPress menu and check the following box: ‘Activate Animated Fullscreen Menu.’
We also recommend checking the ‘Show the menu only for Admin users’ box. This allows you to see the changes as you’re configuring the menu, but visitors won’t see the mobile menu until you make it live.
By default, the plugin will show the fullscreen menu on all devices. If you want to show the fullscreen menu on smartphones and tablets only, then check the box next to ‘Mobile only.’
With that done, you’re ready to fine-tune how the menu looks by clicking on the ‘Design / Appearance’ tab.
Here, you can choose the colors, font, and animation settings for the fullscreen menu.
When making these changes, just be aware that ‘Initial Background Menu’ is the menu’s toggle icon. Meanwhile, ‘Opened Background Menu’ is the color of the expanded, fullscreen mobile menu.
After choosing the menu colors, scroll to the ‘Menu Appearance’ section. Here you can change the menu’s font color, font family, and font size.
Just be aware that loading additional fonts could affect your WordPress site performance and speed. This isn’t always a good choice for mobile devices, which typically have less processing power compared to desktop computers. Some visitors may also have a poor mobile internet connection, which will make your site load even more slowly.
With that done, scroll to ‘Animation Settings.’.
To start, you can choose how the menu will expand when a visitor clicks the toggle icon. Simply open the ‘Animation Type’ dropdown menu and choose an option from the list, such as From Top to Bottom or From Left to Right.
When you’re happy with how the menu is set up, it’s time to add some content by clicking on the ‘Menu Content’ tab.
Here, go ahead and open the ‘Select Menu’ dropdown and choose the menu that you want to show fullscreen.
If you want to show additional content in the menu, then you can add it in the ‘Free HTML / Shortcodes’ box. This acts as a mini page editor so you can type in text, change the formatting, add bullet points and numbered lists, and more.
To add these icons, simply click to expand the ‘Social Icon 1’ box.
You can now type in a title for the icon, such as ‘Facebook.’
After that, click on the arrow next to ‘Social Icon’ and choose the icon that you want to show to mobile visitors.
Finally, type the address you want to use into the ‘Social URL’ field.
To add more icons, simply click the ‘Add Another Icon’ button.
Finally, you may want to add a WordPress search bar to help visitors find what they’re looking for. To do this, simply check the box next to ‘Add Search Bar.’
By default, the plugin will show a ‘Search something…’ message. However, you can replace this with your own custom messaging by typing into the ‘Search input placeholder’ field.
For example, if you run a WooCommerce store then you may want to use text such as ‘Start shopping’ or ‘Search for products.’
When you’re happy with how the menu is set up, click on the ‘Save Changes’ button.
Now, simply visit your website using a mobile device to see the fullscreen menu in action.
Bonus: How to Add a Mobile-Responsive Menu to Landing Pages
If you’re creating a landing page or sales page, then you’ll want the design to look just as good on mobile devices as it does on desktop.
With that in mind, we recommend creating the page using SeedProd. SeedProd is the best page builder plugin and comes with more than 180 professionally-designed templates.
After creating a design using SeedProd, you can add a mobile-responsive menu to the page using SeedProd’s ready-made Nav Menu block. This block allows you to create separate menus for both menu devices and desktop.
In this way, you can use a different layout and even show different links depending on the user’s device.
Do you want to learn how WordPress search works, and how you can make it better?
By understanding and improving the built-in WordPress search, you can help visitors find what they’re looking for. This can get you more conversions while keeping people on your site for longer.
In this article, we’ll look at how the default WordPress search works, and share tips on how to make it better.
How Does WordPress Search Work?
WordPress comes with a search system that will look for content within your website.
How the search bar looks and where it appears will vary depending on your WordPress theme, but most themes show the search bar in the top right corner.
Note: If your theme doesn’t show the WordPress search bar by default, then skip ahead to our FAQs, where we’ll show you how to add it.
Visitors can type a search query into this field, and WordPress will search:
As you can see, it 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, although you can search this content using a search engine plugin like SearchWP.
WordPress performs this search using the WP_Query class. It 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’ll show any posts that have the matching term in the post content.
For example, imagine you’ve just published a post about cats titled ‘My Favorite Pet’, and you also have an older post titled ‘Best Cat Photos.’ In this case, searching for ‘Cat’ will display the older ‘Best Cat Photos’ post first, since it has the search term in the title.
This may not a problem for WordPress blogs or websites that only have small amounts of content. However, this ordering logic will often show inaccurate or confusing results for bigger blogs, online stores, or business websites.
The built-in system is also missing some of the features that people expect from modern search engines. This includes autocomplete, live Ajax search, filtering, and spellcheck.
Why Improve the Default WordPress Search?
An advanced, fast, and accurate on-site search can help visitors find interesting and relevant content, which will keep them on your website for longer. This can increase pageviews and reduce bounce rate in WordPress.
Since visitors are spending more time on your site, this will send positive signals to the search engines. This can improve your WordPress SEO, which means search engines like Google will show your content to more people and drive more visitors to your website.
People who are using your site’s internal search are already highly engaged. They’re actively looking for specific content, which may mean they’re ready to take actions such as buying a product, signing up to your WordPress membership site, or booking an appointment.
If these people can’t find what they’re looking for, they may give up and go to a different website. This means you’re losing out on visitors who were ready to convert.
A search results page is also an example of personalized content since you’re showing the visitor results that match their unique search query. By providing personalized content that’s accurate and helpful, you can improve the visitor experience. Once again, this can encourage them to convert.
Performance is another reason why it’s a good idea to replace the default WordPress search with a better alternative.
The larger your WordPress website gets, the longer it’ll take WP_Query to scan your database and get the results. This means your site’s search will get slower, as your website gets bigger.
How to Make the WordPress Native Search Better
On-site search helps visitors find what they’re looking for, including products to buy and interesting blogs to read. Since it’s such an important part of your site, it’s a bad idea to rely on the limited built-in WordPress search.
With that being said, let’s see how you can improve the native WordPress search.
Show Instant Results With Live Ajax Search
Live Ajax search adds a dropdown and autocomplete feature that’s common in search engines like Google.
As the user types, live search guesses what they want to search for and then shows them results without even reloading the page.
This can help visitors find the right content, without having to manually press the ‘Search’ button or wait for the page to reload.
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 the instant search in action.
Change the Default Search URL Slug
By default, WordPress search URLs typically look something like this:
http://example.com/?s=search-term
The extra ?s= characters make this URL more difficult to read and understand, which can confuse visitors who are trying to find their way around your site.
Even worse, these URLs aren’t optimized for search engines which can stop them from correctly indexing your site’s contents.
You can go ahead and use the following custom code to replace the ‘/?s=search-term’ characters with ‘search.’ Your slug will look something like this when finished: http://example.com/search/wordpress
To use something other than ‘search’ in your URL, simply customize the code snippet below.
By uploading PDFs to your WordPress website, you can share information about your services and products in a format that works on all devices. They’re also perfect for offering your visitors ebooks, user manuals, menus, and more.
However, WordPress only searches the contents of its database by default, so it will only look at the title and description of your PDF files, and not their contents. As a result, your visitors may struggle to find the best PDF for their search query.
The good news is that you can use a custom search plugin to improve the default WordPress search experience. If your PDFs are unencrypted, then the right search plugin will index the contents and metadata of your PDFs and add them to the search results.
If you have multiple categories of content on your website, then you might want to let users restrict their search to a specific category. This can help visitors find the right content, faster.
For example, if you have an online store then it often makes sense to let customers search within a particular product category.
If you run a membership site, then you might use search by category to help visitors find other members, groups, forums, online courses, and other specific kinds of content. For more information, please see our guide on how to add search by category in WordPress.
Make a Smart WooCommerce Product Search
WooCommerce has its own built-in search, but it doesn’t look for matches in product attributes, reviews, or product descriptions. This omission can stop shoppers from finding products they want to buy on your online store, so you get fewer sales.
To get even more sales, you may want to fine-tune the kind of products WooCommerce includes in its search results. For example, you might only show products that are on sale or come with free shipping.
Custom post types allow you to go beyond posts and pages and create different content types for your website. Custom post types can have different custom fields and their own custom category structure.
For example, if you run a movie review website, then you would probably want to create a ‘movie reviews’ post type that has fields for the director, release date, and more.
At WPBeginner, we use custom post types for our Glossary section to keep it separate from our blog posts.
If you use custom post types, then you may want to create a form that allows visitors to search only that content.
For example, we also have a form that only searches WPBeginner’s coupon codes.
By default, the built-in WordPress search will include all posts and pages in its search results.
However, you may want to exclude certain pages and posts from the search results. For example, if you’re running a WordPress membership website or selling online courses, then you’ll typically want to exclude your premium content from public search results.
If you’re running an online store, then you may want to hide content like your account page, checkout page, and thank you page. To help you out, we’ve created a guide on how to exclude pages from the WordPress search results.
In this guide, we’ve explored how the default WordPress search works and shared lots of tips on how to improve it.
However, you may still have some questions about this important feature. That said, here are some of the most frequently asked questions about WordPress search.
How Do I Improve WordPress Search?
The best way to improve the built-in WordPress search is by using SearchWP.
SearchWP is the best custom search plugin for WordPress and allows visitors to search any content on your site including documents, WooCommerce products, custom fields, tags, comments, and more.
It also lets you customize the WordPress search algorithm, so you can control exactly where the content appears in the search results.
Since the main navigation menu typically appears across your entire site, visitors will be able to search for pages, posts, products, and more, from any page of your website.
If you’re using a block-based theme such as ThemeIsle’s Hestia Pro or Twenty Twenty-Three, then you can add a search bar to your theme using the full-site editor (FSE).
To do this, go to Appearance »Editor in the WordPress dashboard.
By default, the editor will show your theme’s home template. If you want to add the search bar to a different template, then click on the small arrow icon in the toolbar.
Then, select ‘Browse all templates.’
You’ll now see all the templates that make up your WordPress theme. Simply find the template where you want to add the search bar, and then click on its title.
You will now see this template in the full-site editor.
To go ahead and add a search bar, click on the blue ‘+’ icon.
In the popup that appears, type in ‘Search’ to find the right block.
You can then drag the block to the location where you want to show the search bar.
To customize the block title or placeholder text, simply type it into the search block where it says ‘search’ or ‘optional placeholder.’
When you’re happy with how the block looks, click on ‘Save’ to make the search bar live.
How Do I Add Search to a WordPress Page or Post?
You can add a search bar to a specific page or post using the built-in Search block.
This is a good choice if you want to control exactly where the search bar appears on every page and post, or you only need to offer search on specific areas of your website.
To get started, simply open the page where you want to add a search form and then click on the + icon.
In the popup that appears, type ‘Search’ to find the right block. Once you click on the Search block, it will add the block to your page.
By default, the block uses ‘Search’ for both its label and the button text.
This will be visible to visitors, so you may want to replace it with something more descriptive by typing into the text fields.
You can also add some placeholder text to the search bar. This text will disappear automatically when the visitor starts typing.
To add a placeholder, simply click on ‘Optional placeholder…’ and then start typing.
When you’re happy with how the Search block looks, you can go ahead and either publish or update the post.
Do you want to add fuzzy search to your WordPress website?
WordPress fuzzy search helps users easily find the information they are looking for, even if they misspell or incorrectly enter their query. This improves the overall search experience and user engagement on your website.
In this article, we will show you how to easily add fuzzy search to your WordPress website.
What Is Fuzzy Search for WordPress?
Fuzzy search looks for partial matches for a search term, and if no exact matches are available, then it shows users the closest results.
This way, users can find the right content on your website even if they make typos in their search queries.
By default, all WordPress websites come with a basic search feature that only shows results for exact matches.
For instance, if a user misspells a term, no results will be shown, not even partial matches. This creates a bad search experience for users and often causes them to leave your site. You can see this in the image below.
This is where SearchWP comes in. It is the best WordPress search plugin on the market that automatically replaces the default search with a much better search feature.
Unlike the default WordPress search, SearchWP can use fuzzy search and look for matches in titles, excerpts, post or page content, products, custom fields, categories, tags, PDFs, and more.
For instance, if a user searches for ‘vintage furniture’ on your WordPress blog but misspells a word, then they will still be able to find your posts on this topic.
The image below shows the same misspelled search using the SearchWP plugin.
Note: We only recommend adding fuzzy search if you really consider it necessary. This is because partial matches can reduce the effectiveness of the search form on your website and display unwanted results, leading to user frustration.
That being said, let’s see how you can easily add fuzzy search to your WordPress website.
Upon activation, you need to visit the SearchWP » Settings page from the admin sidebar and then enter your license key into the required field. After that, click the ‘Activate’ button.
You can find the license key information in your account on the SearchWP website.
Now, the fuzzy search feature is not enabled in SearchWP by default.
However, you can easily turn it on by visiting the SearchWP » Settings page from the WordPress dashboard and scrolling down to the ‘General’ tab.
From here, simply toggle the switch next to the ‘Partial Matches’ option.
Doing so will enable the WordPress fuzzy search feature for your site, and your settings will be saved automatically.
Once that is done, you should review the other SearchWP settings. The plugin comes with a bunch of powerful options that allow you to customize search on your WordPress blog.
You can see them by going to SearchWP » Algorithm from the WordPress admin sidebar.
From here, you can assign weight to different search results. This tells SearchWP to consider some attributes as more important when displaying its search results.
You can also click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button to select additional search areas. For instance, you can enable search for comments, products, and more instead of simply posts and pages.
SearchWP automatically replaces the default WordPress search. This means that if you have already added the WordPress Search block or widget to your website, then it will start using the SearchWP custom algorithm for results.
However, if you have not added a search form to your website yet, then you can do so by simply inserting the Search block or widget into any post, page, or sidebar area.
Head over tothe Appearance » Widgets page from the WordPress dashboard.
Here, click the add block ‘+’ button to find the Search block and add it to your sidebar. Then, don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button to store your settings.
However, if you are using a block theme, then it may not have a widget-ready area. In that case, you won’t see the Widgets screen under the Appearance menu.
Instead, you can use the full site editor to add the search block to your website. Simply go to the Appearance » Editor page to launch the editor.
Here, click the ‘+’ button and add the Search block to where you want to display the search form on your website.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Update’ button to save your settings.
You can now visit your website and try out the new, more powerful search feature.
For example, you can see in the image below how the fuzzy search feature returns multiple relevant results from a misspelled query.
Bonus: Search by Category in WordPress to Improve User Experience
By adding fuzzy search, you make it easier for users to find relevant content, which makes your website more user-friendly and helpful for visitors.
Another way to make your website easier to navigate is by allowing users to search by category in WordPress.
Categories allow you to organize the content on your website in a more structured way. If you have a lot of blog posts on your site, then allowing users to search by category makes it easier for them to search within specific topic areas, such as travel.
If you have an online store, then adding a category search for products also makes it easier for customers to find the items they are interested in buying. In turn, this can help increase sales.
You can easily improve user experience by enabling the category search feature using the SearchWP plugin. This creates an interactive form where users can filter results using the different categories on your site.
Would you like your customers to be able to search for your WooCommerce products using a SKU code?
Because SKU codes uniquely identify your products, searching for them will help users quickly find exactly what they are looking for. The challenge is that SKU search is not enabled in WooCommerce by default.
In this article, we’ll show you how to enable search by product SKU in WooCommerce.
Why Enable Search by Product SKU in WooCommerce?
To run a successful WooCommerce store, it’s important for your customers to easily find the products they wish to purchase. To make this simple, most eCommerce platforms use SKUs, or Stock Keeping Units, to uniquely identify each product.
If a customer knows the SKU for the product they wish to purchase, why not let them search for the SKU to instantly find the correct product in your store?
The problem is that WooCommerce SKUs are stored in custom fields, and these are not indexed or included in search results by default. As a result, searching for the SKU won’t help.
Let’s take a look at how to solve this problem by enabling users to search by SKU in WooCommerce using a product search plugin.
How to Enable Search by Product SKU in WooCommerce
The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SearchWP plugin. You’ll need at least the Pro plan to access WooCommerce integration. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
SearchWP is the best custom search plugin for WordPress and is used by over 30,000 websites. It lets you customize the search algorithm, add live Ajax search for real-time results, and more.
Upon activation, you need to visit the SearchWP » Settings page and switch to the ‘Support’ tab to enter your license key. You can find it in your downloads area for your account on the SearchWP site.
Next, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce Integration extension for SearchWP.
You’ll find this in the downloads area for your account on the SearchWP website, too. You should install it as you would install any other WordPress plugin.
Now you are ready to customize the SearchWP search engine to index your product SKUs.
Simply go to the SearchWP » Settings page and make sure you’re on the ‘Engines’ tab. Once there, you need to click the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you should make sure the checkbox next to ‘Products’ is checked. This will allow SearchWP to index your WooCommerce products.
Also, if you’d also like to include WooCommerce product reviews in your search results, then make sure you check the ‘Comments’ box, too. That’s because product reviews are actually stored as comments in WooCommerce.
Once you’ve done that, click on the ‘Done’ button to close the popup and get ready to add the SKU search.
Now you need to scroll down to the ‘Products’ section. Notice that by default, the plugin will only look at the product title, content (description), slug, and excerpt (short description).
You can extend SearchWP’s reach to include SKUs by clicking on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button. This will bring up a popup where you can include specific custom fields and taxonomies in searches.
You’ll need to type ’SKU’ into the Custom Fields field and choose the _sku option from the dropdown menu. This will add SKUs to WooCommerce search results pages.
You can now click the ‘Done’ button.
Notice that there is now a new section labeled ‘Custom Fields’ with the _sku field underneath.
To begin with, the relevance slider will be set all the way to the left, which means that SKU search results will be given the lowest priority in search results.
Since SKUs are an important way to find your products, you should move the _sku slider all the way to the right, as you can see above.
When you’re done, go ahead and click on the ‘Save Engines’ button at the top of the screen to save your settings.
SearchWP will then start rebuilding your search index in the background. It may take a few minutes to complete, but after that, you will be able to search your WooCommerce store by product SKU.
SearchWP will automatically use any search forms on your online store, so there is no need to take any additional steps if you have them on your site already.
Do you want to customize the search results page on your WordPress website?
The search results page can help users find the content they are looking for. Customizing it will improve the user experience on your site, which can lead to more page views and conversions.
In this article, we will show you how to easily customize the search results page in WordPress without writing any code.
Why Customize the WordPress Search Results Page?
By default, your WordPress website comes with a basic search feature. It allows users to look for content matching their search terms, but the search results are not very good.
Often, search terms return no results, even when there are possibly several matches that would answer the user’s query.
The search itself is also slow and requires a page load. If multiple users end up using the search feature at once, then this could slow down your website.
By customizing your search results page in WordPress, you can create a faster search system with a better user experience and more helpful search results.
Sounds good? Let’s get started.
Step 1: Setting Up SearchWP as Your WordPress Search Engine
SearchWP is the best WordPress search plugin on the market. It allows you to improve WordPress search by replacing it with a faster and more accurate search engine.
It automatically indexes your content in the background, which allows searches to run faster. You don’t need to replace the default WordPress search forms and templates.
Upon activation, you need to visit the SearchWP » Settings page and switch to the ‘License’ tab. Enter your plugin license key, which you can find in your account on the SearchWP website.
Next, you need to visit the SearchWP » Algorithm page to configure the search engine settings.
You will notice that SearchWP has set up a default search engine for you. It uses your WordPress posts, pages, and media as sources.
Under each source, you can adjust the sliders to give more relevance to one attribute than another.
Want to include more places on your website in search results? Just click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button to add them.
For the sake of this tutorial, let’s add Comments as a search source.
After you click ‘Done’, a new tab will appear under the sources list. However, it will be empty, and to make it useful, you need to click on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you can select which attributes you want to include in your search.
For instance, we picked Comment text as an attribute.
After adding an attribute, you can assign a weight to it in your search results.
More weight means that SearchWP will consider that attribute more relevant than other attributes when showing search results.
Just repeat the process if you need to add more attributes to a source.
Once you have finished reviewing search sources, you can go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button.
SearchWP will now start building a search index based on your settings.
Once finished, you will see 100% as the Index Status.
The SearchWP engine will now automatically replace the default WordPress search. If you already have a search form on your website, then you can try it.
If you don’t have a search form on your website, then you can add one by visiting the Appearance » Widgets page.
Simply add the Search widget or block to your sidebar and click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
Note: If your WordPress theme does not have any widget-ready areas, then you will not see the Widgets page under the Appearance menu.
Instead, you can add a Search block to your site by visiting the Appearance » Editor page.
This will launch the full site editor. You can add the Search block to any place where you want the search form to be displayed.
You can now visit your WordPress blog and try out your new and improved search feature.
Step 2: Creating Advanced Search Forms for Your WordPress Site
A plain search form looks okay and gets the job done. However, it is not very engaging, and users often don’t even notice it on a site.
SearchWP fixes this by allowing you to create highly useful and advanced search forms for your WordPress site.
Simply go to the SearchWP » Search Forms page and click the ‘Add New’ button.
On the next screen, click on the pencil icon next to the form name to give it a proper name.
This will help you recognize the form when you need to add it to your site later.
After that, you must choose a theme for your search form.
SearchWP comes with several options, including Basic, Category Search, Quick Search, Advanced, and Combined search forms.
Clicking on a theme will select it and show you a preview of what that search form would look like.
Simply pick a theme you would like to use for your search form and then scroll down to customize it.
From here, you can tweak the form settings, style your form, and choose colors.
Once you are finished, don’t forget to click the ‘Save’ button to store your settings.
Note that this custom form will not automatically replace your default WordPress search form.
Instead, you will need to manually embed it on your site. Simply go to the Appearance » Widgets page (or Appearance » Editor if your WordPress theme doesn’t have sidebars).
From here, you need to add the Search Form block to your widget area or template in the site editor.
After that, choose the form you just created from the dropdown menu inside the block.
You will then see a preview of your custom search form on the screen.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save’ or ‘Update’ button to store your changes.
Step 3: Adjusting the Search Results to Promote Important Content
Now that you have replaced the default WordPress search with SearchWP, it is time to look at how you can generate even better search results.
We will start by promoting important content in search results. These could be blog posts that bring you more revenue, sales pages, lead-generation landing pages, and more.
First, you need to visit the SearchWP » Extensions page and install the Custom Results Order extension.
Next, you need to visit the SearchWP » Statistics page.
Here, you can see which search terms or keywords are popular among your users.
Note: If you have just installed the plugin, then you may not have enough data here. You can wait for users to enter a few search terms to collect more data.
Now, look for the keywords where you want to promote a particular post and page in the search results.
After that, go to the SearchWP » Algorithm page and select the ‘Custom Results Order’ tab.
Enter the keyword for the post or page that you want to promote inside the search query box, then click the ‘Add Search Query’ button.
SearchWP will show you the results for that particular query. You need to select the content you want to promote and then click the ‘Promote to Top’ button.
Your selected post or page will now start appearing at the top for that particular search keyword.
You can always return to the same page and unpin that post or page from the top by clicking on the ‘Remove Promotion’ button or perhaps adding a different one.
Step 4: Exclude Content From WordPress Search Results
Sometimes, you may have content you don’t want to appear in search results. For instance, you might have a page promoting an expired sales event or an outdated blog post.
SearchWP allows you to easily exclude any post or page you don’t want to include in search results.
First, you need to visit the SearchWP » Extensions page and install the Exclude UI extension.
After activation, you can simply edit the post or page you want to exclude from search results.
In the ‘Post’ panel on the edit screen, you will now see an option to exclude that post from search results.
Simply check the box next to ‘Exclude from search’ and click on the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
SearchWP will now stop showing that post or page in search results.
Step 5: Make Search Results Appear Instantly in WordPress
Normally, your SearchWP search results will appear using the theme template file provided by your WordPress theme.
But what if you could show the users the results as soon as they start typing? This feature is called live search, and you may have already seen it on search engines like Google and Bing.
Let’s add live search to your WordPress site to make search a better experience for your users.
First, you need to visit the SearchWP » Extensions page and install the Live Search extension.
Upon activation, the extension will start working automatically.
You can now go to your website and start typing keywords into a search form to see it in action.
Step 6: Search in More Places on Your WordPress Site
SearchWP can be configured to search in more places on your WordPress website. For instance, it can search in custom fields, PDF documents, shortcode outputs, and more.
Depending on where you want to enable search, you can turn these features on and off as needed.
Enable Search for WordPress Custom Fields
WordPress custom fields allow you to store additional metadata for your WordPress posts and pages. They are also used by WordPress plugins to store data related to a post or page.
To include custom fields in your search sources, just go to the SearchWP » Algorithm page and click the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button below a source.
This will bring up a popup where you can select a specific custom field or select any meta key.
Simply click on ‘Done’ when you are finished, and don’t forget to click the ‘Save Engines’ button.
SearchWP will now start using custom fields as a source and will include matching posts in the search results.
SearchWP can also search inside PDF files and office documents uploaded in your WordPress media library.
Simply go to the SearchWP » Algorithm page and click on your search engine’s ‘Sources & Settings’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you need to make sure that ‘Media’ is selected as one of the sources.
Then, click the ‘Done’ button.
After that, scroll down to the sources list on the Engine settings page to find the Media tab.
From here, you need to click on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.
This will bring up a popup where you can select which attributes you want to include in your search results.
Make sure that the Document Content, PDF metadata, and Title attributes are selected.
Simply click on the ‘Done’ button after making your selection.
Next, you can move the slider up and down to adjust the weight you want to give to a particular attribute in search results.
Once you are finished, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your settings.
Enable Search in Shortcode Outputs
Many WordPress plugins use shortcodes to output data in your WordPress posts and pages.
If this shortcode data is important for your WordPress website and will help improve search results, then you can enable Shortcode Output parsing in SearchWP.
Simply go to the SearchWP » Settings page and scroll towards the bottom. From here, you need to turn on the ‘Parse Shortcodes’ option.
After that, you just need to click the ‘Wake Up Indexer’ button to run a new indexing process in the background that will include shortcode output in search results.
Step 7: Include eCommerce in WordPress Search Results
SearchWP makes it super easy to improve eCommerce search results in your online store.
We will show you how to turn it on for your WooCommerce store. Other integrations work similarly as well.
First, you need to go to the SearchWP » Extensions page and install the WooCommerce Integration extension.
Upon activation, go to the SearchWP » Algorithm page.
Then, click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button for your search engine.
This will bring up a popup where you need to ensure that the ‘Products’ option is selected as one of the sources.
After that, click on ‘Done’ to exit the popup.
Now, scroll down on the Sources screen, and you will see the Products tab.
You can adjust the attribute weight by moving the sliders or clicking on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button to select custom fields or product categories.
Once finished, don’t forget to click the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your settings.
Do you want to include custom post types in WordPress search?
By default, WordPress will never show custom post types in its search results. That means your visitors may miss out on some great content, and you’ll miss out on extra page views.
In this article, we will show you how to include custom post types in WordPress search.
How to Include Custom Post Types in WordPress Search
Although WordPress has a built-in search feature, its quite limited. If you create custom post types in WordPress, then WordPress won’t include these items in search results.
The easiest way to include custom post types in WordPress search is by using the SearchWP plugin.
SearchWP is the best custom search plugin for WordPress, used by over 30,000 websites. It’s easy to use and lets you search content that isn’t included in the default WordPress search.
To include custom post types in WordPress search, you’ll need to install and activate SearchWP. If you need help, then please see our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, click on the new ‘SearchWP’ button in your website’s toolbar. You can then go ahead and click on ‘Activate License.’
After you’ve done that, click on the ‘License’ tab.
You can now paste your license key into the ‘License’ box. You’ll find this key in the email you got when you purchased SearchWP and in your account on the SearchWP site.
Once you’ve pasted this information into the ‘License’ field, go ahead and click on the ‘Activate’ button next to it.
You can now set up SearchWP to include custom post types in WordPress search results.
To start, simply click on the ‘Engines’ tab.
On this screen, you’ll see sections for the different types of content on your WordPress site that SearchWP includes in its search results.
By default, this plugin searches your website’s media, posts, and pages.
To include custom post types in your searches, click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.
Under ‘Sources,’ you’ll see all your post types listed along with comments, media, and more. Simply find all of the custom post types that you want to include in your search results, and check their boxes.
After that, click on the ‘Done’ button.
You’ll now see a new section for each of your custom post types on your WordPress blog.
In each section, SearchWP shows all the attributes that it will look at when searching your custom post types.
For each attribute, SearchWP has an ‘Applicable Attribute Relevance’ scale. This is the weight that SearchWP gives to this attribute when searching your custom post types.
By default, the sliders for Title, Slug, and Excerpt are all the way to the right, so they have the most weight. The slider for Content is in the center, so it has less weight.
Want to change an attribute’s weight? Simply drag its slider.
You may want to try different relevancy settings to see what gives you the most accurate and helpful search results.
You can also remove attributes. For example, your custom post type may have attributes that you want SearchWP to ignore, like attributes that you added for your internal reference only.
To add or remove attributes, click on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.
To add an attribute, simply click to check its box.
If you want SearchWP to ignore an attribute, then go ahead and uncheck its box.
If you’ve created any custom taxonomies or custom fields, then you might want SearchWP to look at this content when searching your custom post types.
To do this, simply click on either the ‘Custom Fields’ or ‘Taxonomies’ fields. You can then type in the name of the attribute that you want to add, and click on it when it appears.
When you’re happy with your settings, click on the ‘Done’ button.
If you’ve added any attributes, custom fields or taxonomies, then you can change how much weight this content has. Just like we mentioned earlier, moving the slider to the right will give this attribute more weight which means it will have a bigger impact on the search results.
Once you’ve finished customizing SearchWP’s settings, scroll to the top of the screen.
You can then click on the ‘Save Engines’ button to save your changes.
At this point, SearchWP may show you the message ‘The index needs to be rebuilt.’
If you see this message, then go ahead and click on the ‘Rebuild Index’ button. This will add your custom post types to your site’s search index, so they will show up in the search results.
That’s it. WordPress will now include your custom post types in its search results.
Once you’ve done that, you may want to enable some advanced settings that will make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for.
To take a look at these settings, click on the ‘Advanced’ tab.
This screen lists some of the more advanced settings that you may want to use.
For example, if you want to show results that don’t quite match the term that the visitor searched for, then you can check the ‘Partial matches (fuzzy when necessary)’ box.
After adding custom post types to WordPress search, you may want to create a search form that only show the search results from your custom post type category, which can make it easier for visitors to find what they’re looking for. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to create advanced search form in WordPress for custom post types.
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 improve your WordPress search with SearchWP?
By improving WordPress search, you can show your users the most relevant results to improve content discoverability and make more sales.
In this article, we’ll show you how to improve your WordPress search with SearchWP easily.
What is SearchWP?
SearchWP is the best custom search plugin for WordPress, used by over 30,000 websites. It lets you improve your WordPress site search to deliver more relevant results to your visitors.
This plugin puts you in complete control of your WordPress search algorithm. You can create your own relevance scale and adjust the algorithm without writing any code.
SearchWP also lets you make any part of your site searchable, including PDF documents, custom tables, ACF files, text files, custom fields, WooCommerce products, and more.
You also get access to detailed search metrics to see what your visitors are searching for and the types of content they’re finding.
This gives you actionable insights to improve your existing content and plan new content.
Plus, SearchWP automatically integrates with all major WordPress plugins like WooCommerce, bbPress, Meta box, Easy Digital Downloads, and more.
Beyond improving your default WordPress search, it has more features like redirection after a search is performed, excluding specific content from search, keyword stemming, support for multiple search engines, and more.
With that said, let’s show you how to set up SearchWP properly to improve your WordPress search.
Upon activation, you need to visit the Settings » SearchWP page and then click on the ‘License’ menu option.
Then, enter your license key in the ‘License’ box and click the ‘Activate’ button.
You can find this information in your account on the SearchWP website.
Once you’ve done that, you need to click on the ‘Engines’ menu option.
This brings you to a screen where you can set your search engine settings. Think of it like creating your own Google search algorithm for your website.
With SearchWP, you need to create a site-wide search engine before you can customize your search further.
You can adjust your search engine settings by clicking on the ‘Posts’, ‘Pages’, ‘Media’, or other available drop downs.
Every section has ‘Attribute Relevance’ sliders that change 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 slider accordingly.
After you’re done customizing your default search engine settings, make sure to click the ‘Save Engines’ button to create your first search engine.
Once the initial index is created, SearchWP will replace the default WordPress search with your new improved search. If your theme already has a search box, then you don’t need to make any changes.
If you don’t already have a search box on your website, then it’s easy to add one. Simply navigate to Appearance » Widgets and click the ‘+’ icon to bring up the widget block menu.
After that, type ’Search’ into the widget search box.
Then, select the ‘Search’ block.
This will insert a search form into your sidebar.
You can customize the title of your search form and add optional placeholder text if you prefer.
Make sure you click the ‘Update’ button to save your changes.
Now when your visitors use your search form, they’ll be using the improved SearchWP search.
There are all kinds of ways you can customize the search experience on your site with SearchWP, so let’s take a look at a few of them below.
How to Make PDF Files Searchable in WordPress
If you upload a lot of PDF content to your website, then you can allow your users to search the text in the PDF files to find what they’re looking for.
SearchWP quickly indexes the PDF content you’ve added to your media library and displays the files in search results.
To make sure your PDFs are searchable, go to SearchWP » Settings to bring you to the engines page.
Then, in the ‘Media’ section, you’ll find a slider called ‘Document Content’. You need to make sure this is enabled.
For some users, this option won’t be enabled yet.
To turn this on, click on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.
This brings up a popup where you can manage the attributes for how your media is searched.
Simply check the ‘Document Content’ box and then click ‘Done’.
Now, you can adjust the slider settings to give weight to your PDF content.
Then, make sure you click the ’Save Engines’ button.
Now, your visitors will be able to search through your PDF content and find relevant results.
When your visitors click the PDF result it will take them to a page where they can view the entire PDF document.
Add a Search By Category Feature to WordPress
If you have multiple categories of content on your WordPress website, then you might want to let users search for a single category at a time.
You can do this by adding a category select drop down to your search forms.
Another feature you’ve probably seen is live Ajax search, also called instant search. This adds a drop down autocomplete feature that’s common in search engines like Google.
Instant search helps your visitors to more quickly find what they’re looking for, which can keep them on your website longer.
SearchWP makes it easy to add this feature to your website.
Create a Custom Post Type Search Form in WordPress
With SearchWP, you can create all kinds of advanced search forms, like a custom post type search form.
To do this, you’ll create a separate search engine that only searches through a single post type. For example, here is a search form that will only search through coupon posts.
SearchWP is a very flexible and valuable WordPress search plugin. You can create completely custom WordPress search engines that deliver more relevant results for your visitors.
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.
