Better Search - Supercharge your WordPress search results

Requires: 4.7

Tested up to: 5.2

License: GPL-2.0+

Plugin page: Better Search | WordPress.org plugin page

Better Search replaces the default WordPress search with a better search engine that gives contextual results sorted by relevance

Description

Better Search replaces the default WordPress search engine with a more powerful search engine that gives search results relevant to the title and content of the post. This means that visitors to your blog will find what they are looking for quicker than if you didn't have Better Search installed.

Better Search can search through not just posts, but also pages and other custom post types. Let your visitors find what they are looking for.

The plugin is packed with options to allow you to easily customise the output. You can also fine tune the results by assigning a greater weight to either the title or the content. The default mode is a seamless integration with your WordPress theme. And, for power users, Better Search supports templates for that extra something.

And for even more advanced users, Better Search is packed with filters and actions that allow you to easily extend the plugin's feature set.

Additionally, the plugin also tracks the searches and you to display a "search heatmap" of the most popular searches. Support for WordPress widgets will allow you to easily add this heatmap to your theme's sidebar or footer.

Features

• Automatic: Once activated, Better Search will automatically replace your default WordPress search with more relevant search results
• Seamless integration: Search results are perfectly integrated into your theme without the need for custom search templates
• Relevance: Search results are automatically sorted by relevance. You can also turn off relevancy based searching, in which case, results are sorted by date
• Control the results: Fine tune the results by changing the weighting of post title and post content. Turn on BOOLEAN search to override the default NATURAL LANGUAGE search of mySQL
• Popular searches: Find out what visitors are searching for on your blog. Display a list of popular search terms (daily and overall) on your blog in the form of a heatmap. Widget support for easy integration in your theme
• Customisation: Support for a template file for perfect integration into your blog template. Alternatively, just input your own CSS styles in the Custom Styles tab in the Settings Page. Check the FAQ for more information
• Supports cache plugins: Works with caching plugins like WP-Super-Cache and W3 Total Cache
• Profanity filter: Customise the list of stop words that will automatically be filtered out of search queries
• Translation ready: Better Search is translation ready

Screenshots

Better Search settings page - General Options.

For more screenshots visit the WordPress.org screenshots page

Installation

WordPress install (the easy way)

1. Navigate to Plugins within your WordPress Admin Area

2. Click "Add new" and in the search box enter "Better Search"

3. Find the plugin in the list (usually the first result) and click "Install Now"

Manual install

1. Download the plugin

2. Extract the contents of better-search.zip to wp-content/plugins/ folder. You should get a folder called better-search.

3. Activate the Plugin in WP-Admin.

4. Go to Better Search to configure

Alternatively, search for Better Search from Plugins » Add New within your WordPress admin.

Frequently Asked Questions

Check out the FAQ on the plugin page for a detailed list of questions and answers

If your question isn't listed there, please create a new post in the WordPress.org support forum. I monitor the forums regularly. If you're looking for more advanced paid support, please see details here.