The default WordPress search is bare-bones and leaves much to be desired. These plugins improve the WordPress search results and appearance.
Better Search ★
One reviewer said this plugin should be standard for all WordPress installs. It’s a lightweight plugin that improves the search results appearance by highlighting the search terms, and sorting by relevance, among other things. Plus, it logs searches so you know what your users are looking for. If you think people will be doing searches on your site, you need this plugin’s functionality at a minimum.
Relevanssi
This heavy-duty plugin enhances the WP search in many ways including fuzzy matching, weighting, boolean logic, searching custom fields, and others. Many say this is the best search plugin. However, this is a really heavy-duty plugin with respect to CPU and database size (which can get huge) and there is some setup and pre-caching required. For those reasons, I don’t use this plugin, but if you need its features, it could come in handy.
ACF: Better Search
Use this plugin to include custom fields in your search results.
Please leave a comment below if you have questions or comments! – Brian
I am a freelance web developer and consultant based in Santa Monica, CA. I’ve been designing websites using WordPress and from scratch using HTML, CSS, PHP, and JavaScript since 2010. I create websites and web applications for businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations. I have a degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from California Institute of Technology and a degree in Engineering Management (MSEM) from Stanford University.
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