10+ WordPress Search-Related Plugins to Supercharge Search Function

One important element of any website is the search feature. With this, people can find for what they’re really looking for through your site, instead of just getting the information from the links you gave them, such as category, tags, featured post, etc. If your website is on WordPress, the search feature already exists by default. But it is still too stiff to use and not flexible enough to customize.

One available option you can use to improve the search feature on your site is by using plugins. These 15 plugins will help you make your searches on your site easier and faster to run. Some allow different methods to run searches, helps you track what users are searching for, lets you customize your search results or disable search altogether.

WP Extended Search

WP Extended Search plugin allows you to set the search results based on Post Meta, Taxonomies (category and tags), Post Type (post, page, and media) and author name. You can also customize SQL relation (AND/OR) between search terms.

WP Search Suggest

WP Search Suggest adds a suggestion based on sthe earch term that a user enters on the search form. It will make an AJAX call then return the matching search query from the database. This is currently available in English, Deutsch and Czech language.

Jarvis

To use Jarvis, just hit the / button, and a search bar will show up. Enter your search term and Jarvis will suggest you available options related to your keyword. Arrow up or down the list to quickly navigate and pick the best search query for your search, then press enter to go to that result list.

Search & Filter

For a more narrowed scope, Search & Filter lets users add filters to refine their searches. Fields can be added under the Search form and displayed as dropdowns, checkboxes, radio buttons or multi-selects. You can add filter by Category, Tag, Custom Taxonomy, Post Type, Post Date, or any combined form.

Voice Search

Need a different way to search on your site? Use this plugin Voice Search which allows you to search things on the site through (what else?) voice. It currently works only on Chrome for both mobile and desktop version; for desktop, you must have a microphone installed for this to work.

Disable Search

If for some reason, you want to deactivate the search capabilities on your WordPress site, this is the plugin to do it. Disable Search will hide the appearing of the search form, disable the search widget, and prevent any manual search request or give a 404 Not Found response on submitted search attempts.

Auto Search Suggestion

In the WordPress dashboard, admins can use this plugin to search any content from page, post, or custom post type, all in one place. It also has auto suggestion so you can search faster.

Search Redirections

Search Redirections is a plugin that allows you to redirect to a specific page or site when a user tries to search a specific word. For example for ‘CSS’ you can set that when a user searches with this word, it will redirect to google.com/search?q=css.

Instant Search Suggest

With this plugin, just typing several letters into the search field will make it return suggestions for related tags, categories, or title. This plugin should work for your current theme and just need a slight configuration to work.

WP Lucky Search

It’s similar to the ‘Im feeling lucky’ feature on Google, but for your site. When your visitor clicks the lucky search button, plugin will redirect to one random post based on the search term.

WP Live Search

WP Live Search returns the search result for page, post, and post type, as the user types the keyword on the search form. You can simply run this by add shortcode [wp_live_search] on page or any part of your site. You can see available options on documentation.

Rocketbar

Rocketbar works just like OS X’s Spotlight, allowing you to get around in the WordPress dashboard using keyboard shortcuts. To open Rocketbar simply use the keybind SHIFT + SPACE, then enter your keyword.

Curated Search

Customize what results your users can find by pinning your article to show up as the top search result for specific keywords, or creating alternative keywords or possible typos for search queries. Alternatively you can also redirect search terms, or make these searches contextual. Lastly, you can also limit the search results users can see or even hide specific content.

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