WordPress examines only Title, Content, and Excerpt when performing searches. Some ecommerce plugins do what they can to get around this issue by including some additional content when possible, but that quickly turns into unwieldy database queries that are slow and still don’t return results sorted by relevance.
SearchWP properly considers Custom Fields (metadata) and Taxonomy Terms when searching, which includes all of the product and course details you so painstakingly populated.
If your customers don’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll move on
It’s vital that your online storefront produce accurate and comprehensive search results. Ecommerce is a very competitive space, and having a powerful on-site search experience will set you apart from everyone else.
WordPress ignores product details
Take for example this sample online storefront:
Note: this example highlights WooCommerce Integration which is a Pro Extension
It looks like there's a lot of hats for sale here
There are hats in multiple places, right? It’s a fan favorite so people must visit this site to buy hats. Let’s search for hat and see what else they’ve got for hats:
No search results for 'hats'
Not one result! It turns out in the fields that are searched by default, these products are called “beanies” and “caps” not “hat” which causes no results to show up, despite the word “hat” appearing multiple times in areas that are not searched:
This content is ignored by default!
Using SearchWP this isn’t an issue because Custom Fields and Taxonomy Terms are considered for searching, which is very important for product details as outlined here!
When SearchWP and the WooCommerce Integration Extension (note: this is a Pro Extension) are activated, SearchWP automatically finds more and better results!
Finding caps and beanies when searching for hats
When configuring SearchWP you can pick and choose what content to make searchable, including Custom Fields, Taxonomies, and Comments which WooCommerce uses for Reviews. All of this content is supremely valuable when searching your online store, and leaving this content out means customers aren’t finding what they’re looking for.
Note that the example store above includes some Layered Navigation bits and also WooCommerce’s functionality to sort results by various criteria.
SearchWP supports Layered Navigation and custom sorting within WooCommerce. Customers will continue to be able to refine their search results using Layered Navigation Widgets, and using the sorting dropdown will override SearchWP’s default relevance-based sorting and respect the chosen sorting option.
Gain new insight into your customers
Beyond providing comprehensive search results, paying attention to what your customers are searching for is an important duty of any store owner. Customer searches are direct insight into what your customers are seeking.
SearchWP provides extensive Metrics that give you insight into what can be improved on your site (including searches that yield no results) so as to optimize and drive more conversions.
Knowing what customers are searching for, what they’re finding, and what they’re not finding will give you a strong advantage over your competition and help you optimize your conversion rate.
Find out more
To find out more about how SearchWP fixes WordPress search, have a look at this documentation:
