How to Make a Smart WooCommerce Product Search (Step by Step)

WooCommerce has a built-in search feature, but it’s not very good at finding products. By replacing it with a smarter and faster search tool, you can improve the user experience and drive more sales in your WooCommerce store.

A powerful search functionality helps customers find exactly what they are looking for, reducing frustration and increasing the likelihood of purchase.

Over the years, we have used SearchWP in our business websites to provide an intuitive search experience for our customers. This powerful plugin has improved our site navigation, resulting in higher engagement rates and increased conversions.

In this article, we will show you how to make a smart WooCommerce product search for your online store. Since we have hands-on experience with this topic, you can rest assured we will only give you reliable advice.

Why Add a Smart WooCommerce Product Search to Your Store?

WooCommerce has a built-in product search, but it is very limited.

By default, it does not look for matches in product attributes, reviews, custom fields, or the product description. This can stop shoppers from finding products they want to buy on your online store, so you get fewer sales.

It’s also very slow, so impatient shoppers may leave your site before they even find what they were looking for.

Luckily, there are some excellent WooCommerce plugins that allow you to show more helpful search results, fetch them faster, and get more sales.

That being said, let’s take a look at how to add a custom product search in WooCommerce. You can use the quick links below to navigate through the tutorial:

Step 1: Install and Set Up SearchWP

Out of all the WooCommerce product search plugins we’ve tried, the easiest way to create a smart WooCommerce product search is by using SearchWP.

SearchWP is a WordPress search plugin that allows you to search content that WordPress ignores by default. For example, you can make blog comments searchable or add PDF indexing and searching to your website.

You can also create your own relevance scale and adjust the algorithm without writing any code. In this way, you can show the right search results to the right people at the right time.

It also comes with a WooCommerce integration so you can improve the WooCommerce product search and include product attributes, tags, and more in the search results.

You can see our complete SearchWP review for more details.

The first thing you need to do is install and activate the SearchWP plugin. For more details, see our step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, visit the SearchWP » Settings page from the admin sidebar and click on the ‘General’ tab.

Here, you have to enter your license key. You can find this information in your SearchWP account or by checking your purchase confirmation email.

Once you’re done, make sure to click the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Next, you need to install and activate the WooCommerce Integration extension. In your WordPress dashboard, go to SearchWP » Extensions.

Here, find the WooCommerce Integration extension and click on its ‘Install’ button.

Step 2: Create a Custom WooCommerce Search Algorithm

Once you have the extension, you’re ready to create a custom site search engine for your WordPress blog. This gives you a complete understanding of the content that SearchWP looks at and how it shows the results to shoppers.

To get started, go to SearchWP » Algorithm. Then, click on the ‘Sources & Settings’ button.

This will open a popup where you can tell SearchWP what content to include in its searches. For example, you might exclude pages from the WordPress search results or include custom post types.

To improve the WooCommerce search, check the box next to ‘Products.’

WooCommerce product reviews are stored as comments. If you want to make reviews searchable, then you’ll need to check the ‘Comments’ box too.

After that, click on the ‘Done’ button to close the popup. Now, if you scroll down, you’ll see a new ‘Products’ section.

By default, SearchWP will look at the product title, content (description), slug, and excerpt (short description) for matches. Depending on how your website, store, or online marketplace is set up, you may want to search for other content, such as custom product attributes and tags.

To do this, click on the ‘Add/Remove Attributes’ button.

This will open a popup where you can check different boxes or select custom fields and taxonomies. If you enabled ‘Comments’ in the previous step, then you can also check the box next to ‘Reviews.’

In the following image, we’ve added ‘color’ and ‘size’ as searchable custom fields, as well as product tags and categories in the taxonomies field.

When you’ve selected all the product attributes you want to use, click on ‘Done.’

With that done, you’ll see that each attribute has its own ‘Applicable Attribute Relevance’ slider. This controls how SearchWP ranks the products when building its search results page in WordPress.

If an attribute has a high relevancy, then it’ll have a bigger impact on the search results. For example, if you want a product’s title to carry more weight than the product slug, then you’ll need to adjust the slider accordingly.

When you’re happy with how the smart product search is set up, scroll to the top of the screen and click the ‘Save’ button.

SearchWP will now rebuild the index.

Depending on the speed of your Internet connection and your WordPress hosting provider, this may take a few minutes.

As soon as you see ‘Index Status 100%,’ you’ll know that SearchWP has added all your product data to its search index.

Step 3: Add a Search Form Anywhere on Your Online Store

If your WooCommerce theme already has a search field, then you don’t need to make any changes. SearchWP will start delivering more relevant search results right away.

However, if your theme doesn’t have a product search form by default, then you can follow any of the tutorials below to add it to your page:

• How to Create a Custom WordPress Search Form (Step by Step)
• How to Use Multiple Search Forms In WordPress
• How to Create Advanced Search Form in WordPress for Custom Post Types
• How to Search By Category in WordPress (Best Method)
• How to Customize WooCommerce Product Search Results Page

WooCommerce Product Search: Frequently Asked Questions

Now that you know how to add custom search features to your Woocommerce website, let’s answer some frequently asked questions on the topic.

How do I add a product search to my WooCommerce menu?

Here’s how to add a product search to your WooCommerce menu:

• Using a block theme: Simply open the Full-Site Editor, open your ‘Navigation’ area, and add the ‘Search’ block. You can customize its appearance to match your store’s design.
• Using a page builder: If you use SeedProd or similar builders, you can simply drag and drop a search element into your header area. These tools give you complete control over the search bar’s placement and styling.
• Using a classic theme: The easiest way is to install the free SearchWP Modal Search Form plugin. It lets you add a search bar as a menu item to your navigation menu.

How do I create a product filter in WooCommerce?

You can create product filters with the YITH WooCommerce Ajax Product Filter plugin. This plugin allows you to select parameters to improve the customer experience, such as product categories, tags, attributes, reviews, or price ranges.

For more details, check out our tutorial on how to add WooCommerce product filters.

You can also learn more about the plugin by reading our complete YITH WooCommerce Ajax Product Filter review.

Can I customize the WooCommerce product page?

Yes, you can customize WooCommerce product pages, but the process depends on your WordPress theme type:

If you use a block theme, you can customize your product pages directly through WordPress’s full-site editor. This gives you basic control over layouts and styling.

With a classic theme, you might use the theme customizer or find a page builder that integrates with your specific theme.

Our recommendation is to use SeedProd page builder, as it works with any theme and offers the most flexibility. It comes with WooCommerce-specific templates and eCommerce blocks that make it easy to create high-converting product pages without coding.

We hope this article helped you learn how to easily make a smart WooCommerce search for your online store. You may also want to check out our tutorials about how to upsell products in WooCommerce and how to add a search toggle effect in WordPress.

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