Are you using the default WordPress search function on your site? You know that we’re HUGE fans of WordPress and all that it can offer–but sometimes an upgraded function is required. With at least 30% of your website visitors using the search box when it’s offered (source: UXBooth), you want to be sure you’re helping them get relevant, timely results no matter the tool you use.
In this article we look at the importance of a good website search; the limitations of the default search that comes with every WordPress site; and some recommended alternatives.
The Baked-In WordPress Search
WordPress ships with a basic built‑in search that simply scans your database for keywords in titles, post content, and excerpts—and then orders matches by date, newest first. It’s like skimming file folder labels, but it doesn’t actually grasp relevance.
That means if someone searches “college schedule,” and you have two posts—one older with “college schedule” in the title, one newer where it just appears in the text—the older one may still show up first, even if the newer is more useful. The issue? Default search doesn’t weight results by importance, only by publication date. And there’s no way for you to change that.
Why A Good Search Function Matters
Here’s why that matters: WordPress search skips custom fields, tags, categories, comments—and it totally ignores the content inside PDFs, Word docs, or other uploads. So if vital info lives in metadata or attachments, default WordPress search won’t surface it.
In this recent article How Does WordPress Search Work?, the author explains:
These shortcomings of the default search directly affect your website’s visitors and, ultimately, your business. If someone can’t quickly find the product, service description, or blog post they’re looking for, then they’re likely to get annoyed and go to a competitor’s site. Imagine a customer searching for a specific product feature that’s only mentioned in a custom field or a product PDF. If the search doesn’t find it, then you could lose a sale.
How to Make WordPress Search Better
As expected, the WordPress Plugin repository has many options for a search feature that will do more. However, here at AndiSites we like SearchWP, Ajax Search Pro, and Relevanssi.
These comprehensive, super‑fast plugins index your titles, content, metadata, taxonomies, and even inside documents. No code required.
Then you control relevancy: boost titles, demote body text, or give extra weight to custom fields, categories, or tags.
Depending on the specific plugin, additional features include:
- Searching data that WordPress search ignores (like SKUs, ACF fields, PDF text).
- Create rules—exclude old posts, hide categories, focus on specific file types.
- Define synonyms
- Integration with other plugins (e.g., e-commerce, forms, etc)
What About Google Search?
Incorporating Google Search into your WordPress site (e.g. via a custom search engine or Google Programmable Search Engine) can be a lightweight alternative to internal search plugins–and some clients believe it gives more accurate results–but it comes with trade-offs.
On the plus side:
- Google’s infrastructure is lighting fast and can search large websites effortlessly without putting load on your server.
- Google’s algorithms typically do a good job at ranking results by relevance, even across massive amounts of content.
- Google automatically indexes all publicly available content, even non-WordPress pages, PDFs, etc., if linked and crawlable.
- Search queries are handled off-site, reducing database and CPU strain on your WordPress hosting.
- Users are familiar with the look and behavior of Google search results, which may enhance trust.
On the downside, however:
- Google only indexes pages periodically–changes or new content could take a while to appear in search results.
- Free Google Custom Search shows ads, which may distract users or divert them off-site.
- Removing them requires a paid license.
- It’s difficult to deeply customize the search behavior or UI (e.g., weighting post types, boosting product results, etc.)
- Google can’t search member-only content, password-protected posts, or custom user dashboards–only public pages.
- You lose the tightly integrated experience that good WordPress plugins provide. Results may open in a new tab or not match your site’s design.
- Features like live filters, faceted search, taxonomy-based filtering, or WooCommerce integration are not possible with Google search.
Key Takeaway
Premium WordPress search plugins are an easy way to switch from basic, date‑ordered search to a smarter, customizable, relevance‑driven engine–with no coding needed. If you want visitors actually finding what they search for (especially on bigger, content‑rich sites), upgrading to a better search plugin can be an important step in your overall website management.
Contact AndiSites today if you’d like us to help guide you through choosing, installing, and configuring a new WordPress search plugin.