Do you want to make WordPress search media files?
The default WordPress search focuses primarily on text-based content from posts and pages, ignoring the metadata or file information associated with media files such as images, videos, audio, and documents.
This means searches for media file titles, alt text, or descriptions won’t show relevant results, which is a major drawback for content-rich websites.
Therefore, let’s learn how to make WordPress search media files so that you can include various file types, including images, videos, audio, and documents, in the search results.
Key Takeaways:
- The default WordPress search functionality is limited to text, overlooking various media files.
- Upgrading your search tools lets your site display relevant media files in search results.
- SearchWP is a powerful no-code plugin for indexing all media file data and attributes.
Why Do You Need To Make WordPress Search Media Files?
Enhancing your WordPress site to search all types of media files, such as images, videos, audio clips, and documents, transforms how visitors interact with your content.
Being able to search media files can directly impact sales. Imagine you sell electronic gadgets online. A customer comes to your site looking for a ‘digital camera.’ If they can’t search through images or manuals, they might miss the perfect match, especially if it’s only detailed in file attributes and not well-described on the page.
By searching across media types, you can make sure that your customers can find the right product on their first try with minimal effort.
Therefore, let’s see how to make the most common media file types searchable in WordPress:
How To Make WordPress Search Media Files
The simplest way to make WordPress search media files is to use the SearchWP plugin. It is the most powerful search tool for WordPress and will significantly enhance your website’s search results.
SearchWP makes all your media files fully searchable. It indexes their titles and metadata, including alt text, captions, and descriptions. The plugin can also search through document content and EXIF data in your images, significantly enhancing your site’s search functionality.
Using SearchWP, you can make nearly everything on your site searchable. It also offers multiple search engines, customizable search rules, access to search statistics, and a ton of other features.
Over 60,000 WordPress site owners worldwide use this tool to outperform competitors and improve visitor search experiences.
Furthermore, here are some critical features of SearchWP that make it invaluable for online businesses:
- WooCommerce Integration: SearchWP seamlessly integrates with WooCommerce, improving search capabilities for product media files and beyond.
- PDF and Office Documents Indexing: You can make the content of PDFs, Office documents, and rich text documents searchable by parsing their content.
- Multiple Search Engines: You can create specialized search engines for different types of content, including a dedicated engine for media files.
- Search Behavior Analysis: Tracks user search trends on your site, providing valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors.
- Prioritize Search Results: You can easily adjust the order of search results to highlight specific pages or items, enhancing visibility with just a few clicks.
Now, let’s get started with setting up SearchWP so that you can make WordPress search media files.
Step 1: Setting Up SearchWP On Your Site
First, choose the SearchWP package that fits your needs. After purchasing, download the plugin from the “Downloads” section on your Account page.
Remember to copy the license key from this page; you’ll need it to activate the plugin later.
Install and activate SearchWP just like any standard WordPress plugin.
When activated, you can begin the setup process using the “Start Onboarding Wizard” for guided instructions.
Alternatively, you can manually adjust the settings by navigating to SearchWP > Add License Key.
Now, enter the license key you previously copied into the designated field and click “Verify Key” to complete the activation.
Once verified, your license details will appear below.
The stage is set! Now, we can make WordPress search image files. Let’s see how.
Step 2: Set Up SearchWP Engine To Make WordPress Search Media Files
SearchWP automatically replaces the default WordPress search on your site once installed. You’ll need to configure the search engine to enable searching for media files.
You can either modify the existing default Engine or create a new Supplementary Engine dedicated to searching media files. For the purpose of this tutorial, let’s set up a new Engine. Visit SearchWP > Algorithm and click the “Add New” button in the Engines tab to get started.
In the popup window that appears next, select the “Media” option and give your engine a descriptive name. As a result, this engine will only show media files in the search results. If you want to add more content types, please check the sources you’d like to have.
Once you’ve done that, click “Done” to save your settings.
Now, click the “Add/Remove Attributes” button located on the Media tab so that we can identify what to index.
Next, select the sources you want to index from this popup and click “Done” to save your changes.
You can adjust the attribute relevance for search results using the following slider. The greater the relevance, the higher the content will rank on the search results page.
Finally, click “Save” to store the new settings.
Now, you might need to rebuild the index in order for the changes to take effect. To do this, click on “Rebuild Index” to initiate the process manually.
Based on your website’s current configuration, you might see a popup during this process. When SearchWP indexes an image or document file, it gathers all indexable data and saves it in its database.
If you prefer to replace the existing index data with new data, check the option “Remove stored Document Content, PDF…” and then click on “Continue Index Rebuild.” That’s it! You’re all set.
Congratulations! You have successfully made WordPress search media files on our website!
Step 3: Create A Search Form To Search Media Files
Now, you can use this Engine with any search form you create using SearchWP. To do this, navigate to SearchWP > Search Forms, then click “Add New.”
Next, name the search form and select a Layout theme.
You should be able to customize the search form as necessary. Most importantly, you’ll need to assign an Engine to this form. To do this, locate the Engine section and select the newly created “Media Engine” from the dropdown menu.
Once you’ve made other modifications according to your needs, you can click “Save” to store your settings.
Now, visitors will see media files such as PDFs, documents, videos, audio, and images in the search results made using this search form.
SearchWP provides multiple ways to embed this search form into your website. Click the “Embed” button next to “Save,” and you’ll see the instructions.
Pick the embed method that suits you best. Follow this comprehensive tutorial to learn how to create an advanced search form in WordPress.
Wrapping Up
In this tutorial, you have learned how to make WordPress search media files. This simple, easy-to-implement feature can significantly improve user engagement and accessibility, which in turn will drive more traffic and interaction on your site.
Get SearchWP now to equip your website with advanced search capabilities.
