How to Add Voice Search Capability to Your WordPress Site

Do you want to bring voice search capability to your WordPress site?

If you have a smartphone, you’re probably familiar with Siri, Google, or Cortana. Luckily, you can add similar functionality to your WordPress website and provide a better user experience.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add voice search to WordPress.

Why Add Voice Search Capability in WordPress?

Adding voice search to your WordPress website can take your user experience to the next level. It’s an invaluable feature to have on your site, as it helps your visitors search for content without having to type anything.

Voice search capability is handy for visually impaired users with difficulty reading and typing. This user group might rely on voice commands to navigate the internet, as it allows them to find articles and products more easily.

Additionally, you can use voice search to speed up your work processes. This functionality lets you quickly discover pages and posts you’re looking for instead of clicking different elements and typing commands.

Without further ado, let’s see how you can set up voice search in WordPress.

Adding Voice Search Capability in WordPress

The easiest way to set up voice search in WordPress is using the Voice Search plugin. It’s a free, user-friendly WordPress plugin that works out of the box. There are no special settings for you to configure.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the Voice Search plugin. If you need help, please see our guide on installing a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you don’t need to do anything if you’ve already added a search widget to your site. The plugin will automatically add the voice search option in the search bar.

If you don’t have a search widget, you’ll need to add it first. To get started, you can go to the Appearance » Widgets section in your admin area.

The next step is to add the default WordPress search widget to a sidebar. Simply click the ‘+’ icon and add the ‘Search’ widget block in the widgets area.

After you’ve added the widget block, go ahead and visit your website.

If you’ve successfully added the voice search functionality, you should see a microphone icon in your WordPress search box.

Next, it’s a good idea to test if it functions properly.

Simply click on the microphone icon and speak to it. Then, you’ll want to see if the plugin catches what you said and proceeds to look for content with those search terms.

Finally, note that the Voice Search plugin currently supports Google Chrome on desktop and mobile. And it modifies only the default WordPress search form to add voice input.

So, if you use a custom search solution like Google Search for WordPress or SearchWP, this plugin will not work with your search form. Please take a look at our guide on how to improve WordPress search for more details.

We hope this article helped you add voice search to your WordPress site. Next, you may also want to check out our guide on how to add the text-to-speech feature and the best voice message plugins for WordPress.

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