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Default search function of WordPress is not really efficient. It also lacks searching the custom post types and taxonomies. It means, your custom post type will not be shown in the search. So, you should think of improving the search function of your WordPress blog to improve the user experience.
There are few nice WordPress plugins that help you in improving the search function of your WordPress blog. Few of these plugins even allow category filter and search inside PDF files.
Also read: How to Add Custom Post Types to Your Main WordPress RSS Feed
These plugins are free and premium both. In this post, we are listing all kinds of plugins to give you wide range of options. You can use a free plugin if you do not want to spend. If you can, you can use a premium plugin for the best experience. There are also few freemium plugins that offer a basic version for free with pro options for better functionalities.
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Best Search Plugins for WordPress To Improve Search Functions
Premium Search Plugins for WordPress
In this section, we are listing premium plugins to improve the search function of your WordPress based blog.
1. SearchWP
SearchWP WordPress plugin instant improves the search experience of a WordPress website. This is the most advanced search plugin with support to custom post types and custom Field data. It also indexes content from document formats such as PDF, Office, Plain text and more.
You can create multiple search engines as per your needs. It uses keyword stems to offer better search results. It also supports WooComemrce, bbPress, Wp Job Manager and more.
It also logs searches to give you advanced analytics about the search on your website. The best thing is that it does not modify your existing search results template, but improves the search results. To customize the search results, you need to edit search.php of your theme.
SearchWP starts at $49 a year including updates and support.
2. WPSolr
WPSolr is a nice WordPress plugin designed to offer improved search experience. It uses Elasticsearch and Apache Solr to offer 10 times faster search. It allows you to select post type, custom taxonomies and custom fields to be indexed and appear in the search result. you can also set what pages and posts to exclude from appearing in the search results.
It also offers great support. You will get an instant answer with Zendesk. But support is only available in premium subscriptions.
It offers a restricted free version that has almost nothing to offer. The basic version is free. After this, you have subscription-based plans for individuals and business. You can check the pricing details here.
Freemium Search Plugins for WordPress
These are few freemium plugin that offers a basic version for free but you need to pay if you want to use advanced features.
1. Swiftype
Swiftype Search is an advanced search plugin with amazing features. It offers nice features including search query autocomplete, drop-down menu, drag and drop interface and more. It also shows powerful analytics.
This feature is helpful for large WordPress blogs with 10,000+ posts.
This plugin comes with a free version o a plugin that supports max of 50 search result on a single website and shows Swiftype branding. For better experience, it offers paid plans. Paid plans start at $19 per month.
2. Relevanssi
Relevanssi is also a freemium WordPress plugin with more than 90,000+ active installations. It offers basic features in the free plugin and technically advanced features in the premium version. The free version offers two notable features that are Exact phrase match and Fuzzy search.
If you are looking for a nice search plugin for your WordPress blog, you should try this once.
Free WordPress Search Plugins
These are free WordPress search plugins. If you do not want to pay, you can try any of these plugins.
1. Search Everything
Search Everything is a free search plugin to get better search in your blog. You can set it to search posts, pages and custom post types and taxonomies. It also offers the ability to exclude specific pages and posts. It is easy to install and configure.
Like few premium plugins, it lacks the search within PDF, Word, Excel and similar documents, but offering those complex features is not an easy task. This is the reason why those features were not added. Still, it is a very nice plugin to try if you do not want to pay.
2. Ultimate WP Query Search Filter
Ultimate WP Query Search Filter is also an excellent free plugin to get improved search function of your blog. It enables you to filter search results, add Ajax search include custom post type, posts, and pages.
You can also create multiple search forms. You are free to either use default theme search template or make one.
Download Ultimate WP Query Search Filter
3. Google Custom Search for WordPress
Google Custom Search for WordPress is the plugin I recommend you to try. It is because it uses the power of Google Search to show the search results. The only issue os that the plugin has not been updated for over 2 years.
Google Custom Search for WordPress makes it easy to integrated the Google’s custom search in your blog. You could also do it without the plugin, but the use of plugin will make the whole setup easier.
Download Google Custom Search for WordPress
4. Better Search
Better Search is also a similar kind of WordPress plugin that indexes posts, pages, and custom post type. You can assign weights to individual elements such as title, content, body content etc.
It also has a search heat map to show what searches are becoming popular on your blog.
5. Category Wise Search
Category Wise Search is a simple WordPress plugin that lets you add search based on categories. If you don’t want to spend time in configuring complex plugins, and just want to add Category Wise Search in your WordPress blog, you can try this.
Final Words
There are many more search plugins to try. But I tried to keep best options only to keep this list short. You should try these plugins depending on your budget and need. you will surely see good results.
If you think I missed a good plugin that should be the part of this article, you can notify us.
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