Are you looking for the best WordPress search plugins for your website? People often use the search feature to navigate things. This is especially true for content-heavy sites such as blogs, news sites, online stores, and knowledge bases. While WordPress CMS has a search system, it only provides basic information. To improve your site search, you can replace or add to the existing system with one of the best WordPress search plugins. It will make it easier for visitors to find what they need and improve their overall experience.
Best WordPress Search Plugins
Ivory Search
If you’re interested in web development, Ivory Search is a helpful plugin that lets you create customized search forms. Create as many forms as you need, and add them wherever you like on your website. Ivory Search replaces the default WordPress search tool and offers a site-wide search form that can be further customized.
You can adjust the appearance of each form, activate live search results with AJAX, apply filters by content and metadata, and decide which content types are indexed, such as post content, product listings, and file attachments. If you use Ivory Search with WooCommerce, you can create a custom search form for product listings.
Features:
- Search Result: Exclude specific content from search results.
- Search Form: It allows you to display search forms anywhere on your site.
- Supports: It supports multilingual search.
FiboSearch
It is one of the best WordPress search plugins by FiboSearch Team. This plugin improves the standard search system of WooCommerce by adding a more advanced live search feature. Search results are displayed immediately as customers type, so they don’t have to wait for the results. The search suggestions can show the product names or include photos, prices, and descriptions. This plugin searches for products based on their titles, descriptions, and SKUs, improving your website’s search efficiency.
Features:
- Search history: The current search history is presented when the user clicks/taps on the search bar, but hasn’t yet typed the query.
- Mobile First: It is a Special mobile search mode for enhanced UX
Relevanssi
Relevanssi is a widely used WordPress plugin that provides a more advanced search system than the native WordPress search. The plugin utilizes a partial-relevance algorithm to find and arrange results. Additionally, the plugin sorts results by relevance rather than posting date.
Relevanssi has two versions free and premium WordPress plugin. The free version is quite capable, with features such as result highlighting, result in weights, bbPress integration, and exact phrase search, and “fuzzy matching” that finds results based on partial query matches. Although it replaces WordPress’ search algorithm, the original search interface is still used by visitors. However, you can customize the interface with a theme or on your own.
Features:
- Search Results: It allows you to sort search results according to relevance, not by date.
- Find Documents: It allows you to find matching documents either just one search term (OR query) or require all words to appear (AND query).
Advanced Woo Search
Advanced Woo Search is a plugin that can improve your WooCommerce website’s search function. The plugin indexes your product listings, allowing it to quickly and accurately display search results from simple or complex queries. One of its features is AJAX, which automatically displays search results as visitors type. These live results show the item’s name, image, and price, making it easy for your customers to find what they need.
Features:
- Product Price: Each search result contains the product price.
- Smart Ordering: Search results are ordered by the priority of the source where they were found.
Ajax Search Lite
The AJAX Search Lite plugin is a tool that can improve the experience of website visitors when searching for content. It provides a live search bar using AJAX with PHP technology and can be easily customized to replace the default search form of the site. You can place the search form anywhere on your site using the shortcode provided.
The plugin comes with eight built-in templates, custom filter boxes, and post exclusions that you can use to customize the search bar. It is also possible to change the placeholder text for the search field. All customization options are accessible through the plugin’s settings panel.
The plugin offers a Google Search autocomplete feature that helps users complete their search query as they type. It also provides search keyword suggestions, which show recommendations when there are no matching results.
It is one of the best freemium-level WordPress search plugins.
Features:
- Templates: 8 built-in templates + options for color adjustments.
- Cache: It offers cache images for faster response time.
- Responsive Design: Appear beautifully on various devices.
ACF: Better Search
If you’re using the Advanced Custom Fields plugin, ACF: Better Search is a tool you won’t want to miss. It helps you search for content using custom fields. Once installed, it replaces the default search function. It works by adjusting your SQL database and extending the standard search to specific fields of the Advanced Custom Fields.
ACF: Better Search is a free WordPress custom field plugin such as Number, Text, Text Area, Email, and File. By choosing exact phrases or words, you can get more accurate results.
The plugin also has a Lite Mode designed to speed up searching, but it makes the search less accurate by bypassing custom field selections.
Features:
- Set-Up: It is easy to set-up on your WordPress website.
- Lite Mode: It makes search faster.
WP Search with Algolia
WP Search with Algolia is a reemium-level WordPress search plugin that’s popularly used for eCommerce websites. The plugin can work seamlessly with Algolia.
One of the plugin’s most notable features is its cross-domain search function that lets you index content from different domains.
WP Search with Algolia boasts strong search capabilities, including the ability to search for custom fields, taxonomies, attached files, and custom post types. It’s an excellent option for websites that need to scale and has been thoroughly tested on content-rich websites.
Features:
- One-Click: It allows to index of all content in WordPress.
- Customer-Care: 24/7 customer care support system.
Search in Place
Search in Place is a free plugin for WordPress that can help your users find what they are looking for. It replaces the basic WordPress search with a more powerful option that allows you to prioritize your content types, so your users can easily navigate through your posts, pages, and other custom post types.
Search in Place integrates with your free or premium WordPress theme and can be customized with custom CSS. It shows search results by relevance, but you can adjust these settings from your WordPress dashboard.
Features:
- Box Colors: You can customize according to your preference.
- Customer Care: It offer 24/7 customer care support.
Smart WooCommerce Search
Looking for a specific product on your online store can be a hassle for customers. But with this WooCommerce search plugin, customers can easily find any product they need. All you have to do is enter a keyword and the plugin will search through all your WooCommerce products. This is especially useful for online stores with a large inventory. You can also customize the search to fit your preferences. The plugin works seamlessly with the WooCommerce Product Search widget, making it a must-have for any WooCommerce online store.
Features:
- WPBakery Compatible: Edit and create web pages (no need to code.)
- Search Result: It appears with image and price.
Jetpack Search
If you use WordPress, you might know that its search feature isn’t always the best. Luckily, Automattic has created a plugin called Jetpack Search that makes searching your website much easier.
Jetpack Search replaces the default search feature with Elasticsearch, which is a faster and more accurate search service. One of the best things about Jetpack Search is that it updates automatically every time you publish new content or make changes.
Jetpack Search also offers spelling corrections, fuzzy matching, and prioritized results based on your website’s statistics.
Features:
- Languages: It support for all languages.
- Highlighted: It allows to highlight search terms on comments and post content.
- Spelling Correction: Fast and accurate spelling correction.
Conclusion
Improving the search functionality on your WordPress website is essential for delivering a smooth user experience, particularly for sites with lots of content. There are several top WordPress search plugins available that offer various features to suit different needs. These include Ivory Search for customizing your search, FiboSearch and Advanced Woo Search for enhancing WooCommerce search, and Relevanssi and WP Search with Algolia for integrating advanced search algorithms. Coupled with a robust WP Theme bundle, enhances the user experience by enabling effortless search queries. These plugins optimize search functionality, allowing visitors to navigate and find content seamlessly. These plugins can take your search experience to the next level.
