Interested in knowing, how to add Dynamic Ajax Search functionality to WordPress Site? Adding a Dynamic Ajax Search, enables the users to find the articles on your blog more efficiently.
First, let’s understand why dynamic ajax search functionality is needed.
Table of Contents
Why Dynamic Ajax Search Is Needed
Dynamic Ajax Search, also known as instant search, improves your blog’s over all search ability by adding the drop down functionality, so that, you can check the results dynamically & select your article from those results directly.
It is similar to Google Search. An example is given below,
Dynamic Ajax Search guesses what the audience is searching for as soon as they start typing the query in the Search Box.
By adding the functionality to your WordPress website, you will ensure that your audience finds what they are searching for with ease. This will make your audience remain on the blog for a longer period of time & in turn help you make more sales.
Add Dynamic Ajax Search Functionality To WordPress Site
One of the most efficient ways to add a Dynamic Ajax Search functionality to your WordPress Blog is to use a WordPress Plugin.
For this tutorial, we will be using the SearchWP WordPress Plugin. Over 30,000 websites use this plugin.
This plugin can index everything including but not limited to posts, pages, custom fields, PDF documents, text files & WooCommerce products.
The plugin has both, a free version as well as a paid version. We will be using the free version. You can choose which version you want for your blog.
Install & Activate the SearchWP WordPress Plugin.
If you don’t know how to activate & install a WordPress plugin then check out, how to install and activate a WordPress plugin.
Once you are done with the activation, your default WordPress Search form will now automatically include the Dynamic Ajax Search feature.
Displaying SearchWP Live Search On Your WordPress Blog
As mentioned above, upon activation of the SearchWP Live Search plugin, the Dynamic Ajax Search functionality will be included automatically.
You only have to decide where you want to display the SearchWP Live Search plugin.
So lets see how to add the SearchWP Live Search plugin to different locations on your WordPress blog.
Display SearchWP Live Search On The Sidebar
Sidebar is one of the most logical places to add a Dynamic Ajax Search functionality.
So, why is the Sidebar a logical place?
The answer is simple, a sidebar makes it easy for your audience to perform a search no matter where they are on your blog.
To add the SearchWP Live Search widget to your blog’s sidebar, simply go to Appearance » Widgets to bring up the blocks based widget editor.
Each widget area of your WordPress blog will have a separate tab in the block editor. On our test site, our sidebar is on the right side, but yours may have a different position.
Simply click the ‘+’ icon from the sidebar section & type SearchWP in to the search bar. Once it appears in the results, click the SearchWP Live Search icon. This will automatically insert the widget into your sidebar.
You can customize the Title section to change the heading for the search box.
When you’re done setting it up, click the Update button to save your changes to implement the SearchWP Live Search widget.
Now, you can test your live search bar on your blog.
Display SearchWP Live Search To Pages
Just like to the sidebar, you can add SearchWP Live Search to your pages. Go to the Pages => All Pages section & select the page you want to edit.
Once you are on the page, click the ‘+’ icon on the page editor screen to add SearchWP Live Search. This will bring up the blocks menu.
Now, simply type Search in to the box and then click on the Search icon to add it to your page. This will automatically place the search bar for you.
You can also customize the search title and the placeholder text inside the search box. After that, make sure to click the Update button in the upper right corner of your page to save the changes.
Now, your audience can use the dynamic search bar on your website to quickly find what they are searching for.
Customizing The WordPress Search Results
SearchWP is an extremely versatile search plugin. The pro version of the SearchWP Live Search plugin allows you completely customize your search results.
You can also get the Metrics feature that let’s you know what your audience is searching for.
Conclusion
In today’s times there is a lot of competition out there & that’s why you need to make your blog’s content as accessible as possible to your audience.
Adding a Dynamic Ajax Search functionality to your blog in form of a plugin such as SearchWP Live Search definitely helps.