Better Search - Supercharge your WordPress search results

Requires: 6.3

Tested up to: 6.8

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

Supercharge your WordPress site search with Better Search – a powerful replacement for the default WordPress search engine that delivers more relevant results and a richer search experience.

Better Search gives you complete control over your site’s search results. Fine-tune relevance, search across different fields and post types, track popular queries, and customise the output — all without writing a single line of code.

Make your search more intuitive and engaging with a search heatmap of popular queries, display results as users type with AJAX Live Search, and tailor the look to your theme with custom templates and styles.

Built with performance in mind, Better Search includes its own caching system and works smoothly with popular caching plugins like WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache. It also features a profanity filter and is translation-ready for global use.

Here are some of the main features of Better Search:

• Automatic: Just activate the plugin and enjoy better search results right away
• Seamless integration: No need to edit any code or create custom search templates
• Relevance: Sort the results by relevance or date, and assign different weights to title and content
• Control the results: Search within title, content, excerpt, meta fields, authors, tags and other taxonomies and comments
• Popular searches: Show a heatmap of the most popular searches on your site, either as a widget or a shortcode
• AJAX Live Search: Show search results as you type in any search form on your site
• Customisation: Use your own template file and CSS styles for the ultimate look and feel
• Supports cache plugins: Works seamlessly with caching plugins like WP-Super-Cache and W3 Total Cache
• Profanity filter: Filter out any words that you don't want to appear in search queries
• Translation ready: Use the plugin in any language

If you want to improve your site search, download Better Search today and experience the difference for yourself.

Features in Better Search Pro

Better Search Pro gives you even more control and performance:

• 🔍 Multisite Search
• ✨ Fuzzy Matches
• 🎯 Relevance Threshold
• 🔗 Search Post Slugs
• ⚙️ REST API Integration

MySQL FULLTEXT indices

Better Search adds the following MySQL FULLTEXT indices to the wp_posts table:

• post_content
• post_title
• (post_title, post_content)

On multisite, these are added to each blog upon activation. These indices power the relevance-based search and are required for full functionality.

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. If you're looking for more advanced paid support, please see details here. Paid users receive support via email.

How can I report security bugs?

You can report security bugs through the Patchstack Vulnerability Disclosure Program. The Patchstack team help validate, triage and handle any security vulnerabilities. Report a security vulnerability.