Better Search replaces the default WordPress search with a better search engine that gives contextual results sorted by relevance
Are you looking for a way to improve your WordPress site search and make it easier for your visitors to find what they need? If so, you need Better Search, the plugin that replaces the default WordPress search engine with a more powerful and relevant one.
Better Search is not just a simple search plugin. It is a complete solution that gives you full control over your site search results. You can customize the output, fine tune the relevance, search within different fields and post types, track the popular searches, and much more.
With Better Search, you can make your site search more user-friendly and engaging. You can display a “search heatmap” of the most popular searches on your site, either as a widget or a shortcode. You can also use your own template file and CSS styles to match your theme perfectly.
Better Search has its own caching system and is also compatible with caching plugins like WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache, so you don’t have to worry about performance issues. It also has a profanity filter that lets you block unwanted words from search queries. And it is translation ready, so you can use it in any language.
Here are some of the main features of Better Search:
If you want to take your site search to the next level, download Better Search today and see the difference for yourself.
On activation, the plugin creates three mySQL FULLTEXT indices (or indexes) in the *_posts
table. These are for post_content
, post_title
and (post_title,post_content)
. If you’re running a multisite installation, then this is created for each of the blogs on activation. All these indices occupy space in your mySQL database but are essential for the plugin to run.
Better Search is also available on Github
So, if you’ve got some cool feature that you’d like to implement into the plugin or a bug you’ve been able to fix, consider forking the project and sending me a pull request.
Better Search is one of the many plugins developed by WebberZone. Check out our other plugins:
Navigate to Plugins within your WordPress Admin Area
Click “Add new” and in the search box enter “Better Search”
Find the plugin in the list (usually the first result) and click “Install Now”
Download the plugin
Extract the contents of better-search.zip to wp-content/plugins/ folder. You should get a folder called better-search.
Activate the Plugin in WP-Admin.
Goto Settings > Better Search to configure
Goto Appearance > Widgets to add the Popular Searches sidebar widgets to your theme
Optionally visit the Custom Styles tab to add any custom CSS styles. These are added to wp_head
on the pages where the posts are displayed
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.
Better Search has a huge set of options that help you customize the output or fine tune the results without leaving the comfort of your WordPress site. Goto Settings > Better Search to configure.
The plugin also supports the use of template files within your theme. You can create a file called better-search-template.php
in your theme’s directory and the plugin will use it to display the results.
Better Search includes a very cool profanity filter using the script from Banbuilder. You can customize which list of words you want to filter out from the Better Search settings page. Find the setting called “Filter these words:”. The plugin will automatically strip out both partial and complete references of these words.
You can turn the filter off by emptying the list.
Know of a better profanity filter? Suggest one in the forums.
Release post: https://webberzone.com/better-search-v3-3-0
This is a major release. Complete rewrite of the plugin code – Better Search now uses autoloading and namespaces. Database structure has been changed.
Features:
Enhancements:
get_sites()
behind the scenes to delete options from all sites in a multisite installBETTER_SEARCH_DELETE_DATA
to true in you wp-config.php fileBug fixes:
Enhancements:
get_match_sql
instead of score
in the order by clausemeta_query
argumentbetter_search_query_date_query
Bug fixes:
Release post: https://webberzone.com/blog/better-search-v3-2-0/
Enhancements/modifications:
Bug fixes:
bsearch_form
shortcode incorrect parameters