WordPress search plugins to use on WordPress based website

WordPress is currently the most popular CMS in the world. The main reasons for its popularity are the ease of use and availability of tools. By tools, I am referring to plugins and themes.

WordPress saves you time with organizing a website through so many themes available out there, and tons of plugins to perform every little functions and features that you might need for your site.

However, WordPress does have a small lackings. And that is it’s default search engine facility for websites. The main issue is that the search results are not relevant, rather it looks for exact searches. Plus you have no filter options.

Why You Should Have A Good Search Engine On Your Site?

The search feature is very important to create a better UX for site visitors.

If you are running a blog site, visitors would love to search for specific topics on your site, if you run a WooCommerce site, people would want to search for specific products.

Whatever the purpose of your site, it’s always best to have option to search specific items. It’s even better if you can include filter options; that way visitors can search for groups of similar items.

Now here’s why WordPress is so credible. You can actually get few amazing WordPress search plugins that will allow you to easily set up search engines on your site.

Here I have listed 10 amazing WordPress Search Plugins which are compatible with all WordPress themes and are very efficient.

1. SearchWP

My personal favorite, and currently among the most popular WordPress Search Plugins, SearchWP is a premium plugin which offers so many features.

The plugin allows you to customize and deploy search engines in any way you want. You can set up multiple search engines with different search rules. The plugin works directly on top of your default WordPress search feature, adding extensive filter options and proper relevancy search rather than exact match search.

It offers many more features such as:

  • Can be configured to search through all website components such as custom fields, shortcodes, product details, and all other data.
  • Ability to index all contents including Docs and PDFs in the media library
  • Provides search statistics to track what your visitors searched for on your site
  • Compatible with WooCommerce, bbPress, WP Job Manager and Easy Digital Downloads.

The plugin has a clean user interface and easy to use. SearchWP is the best choice if you run a large website with multiple groups of data. For each menu you can set separate search engines that will search only within that menu, add relevant filter options and keep track of visitors easily.

2. Relevanssi

Relevanssi is a brilliant search plugin that allows you to place a smart search engine on your site, mainly focused on relevancy.

The plugin is set up to make step by step search: first it searches for exact matches, then partial matching, finally page relevancy. The search result is arranged based on relevancy rather than dates.

The free version offers few more features such as:

  • Phrase search ability
  • Create custom search rules
  • Filter options for categories, tags, product types, etc.
  • Search in custom fields as well
  • Multisite compatible
  • Restrict certain data from appearing in the search results.
  • Index custom post types, custom taxonomies and shortcodes
  • Search log of visitors

However, you can get tons of more features on the premium version. You can set rules for any search filters and allow to index attached documents on a web page, or on media library. It is also possible to combine multiple searches using the “And/Or” criteria. You can check out the Relevanssi Premium.

3. Ivory Search

Ivory Search is a free WordPress search plugin that you can use to add a search bar on your website.

The plugin lets you enhance the default WordPress search and allows you to add custom fields. It allows you to set several search rules and imply them on different web pages on your site.

Few other features you get with Ivory Search are:

  • Restrict certain data to be detected by search engine
  • Ability to search any part of a web page
  • Allow filter options with categories, tags or taxonomies
  • Compatible with WooCommerce, Polylan and bbPress
  • Supports multilingual search

You can place the search form anywhere on a web page. The plugin will blend with the theme style.

The Ivory Search Pro adds few more useful features such as ordering search results, excluding items based on categories, excluding custom fields and a few more. Checkout Ivory Search Pro.

4. Ajax Search for WooCommerce

In case you wish to run a WooCommerce store, then Ajax Search for WooCommerce is the plugin you require. It is one of the best WordPress Search Plugins for WooCommerce.

This plugin is great because you can customize the search form to view extra details with search results. For example, if a visitor searches for a product, you can set it up so that the prices of each of the products on the search result is shown as well.

Also, the search form gives instant relevant suggestions on every letter typed, thus making the search process faster.

This free plugin also bores more features such as:

  • Search in all product details including SKU
  • Include product thumbnail image with search results
  • Set number of suggestion to be viewed for live search
  • Set number of characters to be typed for suggestions to appear
  • You can customize the color and text on the search form
  • Easily place search form on web page either using shortcode, or through widget

This plugin is focused on making visitors’ search experience the best on any WooCommerce store.

5. Better Search

Better Search serves its purpose as its name suggestions. The plugin is made to make the WordPress search better that it actually is.

The plugin replaces the default WordPress search form and turns it into a more responsive and useful search form. You can add custom search filters, customize search results, and get templates for the search form.

It offers other features such as:

  • Filtering out stop words
  • Search results appear based on relevance
  • Get reports on customer searches
  • Works fine with cache plugins such as W3 Total Cache
  • Automatically replaces your default search form, no codings required

The plugin templates allow you to customize it to look more attractive to visitors.

6. WP Solr

WP Solr is another one of the few premium WordPress search plugins that can make a difference. The plugin is designed to deliver fast results with full relevancy.

It allows visitors to get live search suggestions and use filter options, while getting relevant search results. It allows cross domain search, thus making it compatible with multi-sites. Plus it comes with 25 exclusive add ons for several customization options on your search form.

It has few other features such as:

  • Supports all post types, taxonomies, attached files and custom fields
  • Uses Elastisearch or ApacheSolr search engine platforms to perform search
  • Set search result rules
  • It’s indexing helps with SEO

WP Solr just has a one time fee and gives you lifetime support. It is a great plugin for large organizations.

7. Ajax Search Lite

Ajax Search Lite is an amazing search plugin that is great for live search feature on your website. The plugin is integrated with Google autocomplete and search item suggestions on every characters typed.

This plugin comes with 8 amazing built in templates which you can use. And you can easily embed the search form anywhere in a web page whether using a shortcode, or on the widget area.

The free version has few other features such as:

  • Search anywhere in the website including custom fields, shortcodes, product details, etc.
  • Filter options with categories or post type, or add custom filters
  • Filter out search items based on categories or post types
  • Set up thumbnails to be viewed beside search results
  • Google analytics integration

The Ajax Search Pro adds more amazing features. It is compatible with BuddyPress, bbPress, JigoShop and WooCommerce. Plus you get 4 layouts to display search results. It also offers improved caching for images and search terms. Learn more about Ajax Search Pro.

8. Advanced Woo Search

Advanced Woo Search is one of the best WordPress search plugins that most WooCommerce users prefer. It is a great plugin specialized for WooCommerce stores.

The plugin indexes all data in a WooCommerce store and can search data from any product details such as title, sku, tags, etc. It follows Ajax search system to get instant results within the website. The search results also views a product thumbnail and the price.

Some other features the free versions offers are:

  • Can search for product variations
  • Smart search metrics to ignore stop words
  • Diacritical marks and google analytics integration
  • Filter with category and tags
  • Filter to exclude products

The Advanced Woo Search Pro comes with more layouts for search results and the search for itself. It also enables searches to be applied on custom fields and attributes. It also integrates “And/Or” search metrics to make more dynamic multiple search combinations. Check out Advanced Woo Search Pro.

9. WP Extended Search

WP Extended Search is another great search plugin that allows you to search through the website for posts The plugin is mainly designed to put a search form on a blogging website. It even searches through .the post meta, categories, custom taxonomies and tags.

You have both exclude or include option to search for, and allows to sort by date.

It offers few other options such as:

  • Allows search combination using “And/Or”
  • You can choose not view public posts on search results
  • You can customize the number of posts to be viewed on search results
  • Translation ready and compatible with WPML

It’s a simple lightweight plugin, ideal for personal blog sites.

10. Search & Filter

Search & Filter is a good WordPress Search Plugin many used to add filter options to the default WordPress search option.

You can search using categories, taxonomies, post types, post dates and any search term. You can combine multiple searches. Also, you can view search results in the formats dropdowns, checkboxes, radio buttons or multi selects.

That’s just about it in the free version. However, it gets better with the Search & Filter Pro. With the Pro, the search works anywhere in the website including post meta and custom fields. Plus, it gives users to rearrange search results extensively by Post ID, date, date modified, parent Id, categories, comments and many more.

Some other features it offers are:

  • Drag & Drop editor
  • Create custom templates
  • Translation ready and compatible with WPML
  • Compatible with WooCommerce, WP eCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads
  • Add custom fields and custom filter options

The Pro version is pretty cost effective and offers a brilliant Ajax search option for your site. Checkout Search & Filter Pro.

Author’s note

You might think all the WordPress search plugins are pretty much the same, however, you should know that you should choose a search plugin based on the purpose of your website.

Most search plugins have similar features, but they all have few uniques features that make them ideal for different businesses. For example, I prefer SearchWP because I run a multisite, which most WordPress search plugins do not support. For WooCommerce, I would rather use Ajax Search For WooCommerce.

Hence, do checkout all of these plugins before choosing one. Remember, small features enhances UX. A good search engine definitely plays a good role.

If you have any opinions or suggestions, please comment below.

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