WordPress search has more configuration levers than most people realise – both in WordPress core and through plugins like Ivory Search. Most options do not move the needle much. A few specific configurations have disproportionate impact on whether visitors find what they are looking for. This article covers those specific settings.
Post Type Inclusion: The Highest-Impact Setting
The single most impactful search configuration change on many sites is controlling which post types appear in results. WordPress searches all public post types by default. A search on a WooCommerce site returns both blog posts and products mixed together. A visitor searching “checkout” might want WooCommerce checkout settings information from a blog post or the checkout page – but they might also just want to find the shop checkout page. Mixing content types in a single search can confuse rather than help.
For sites with distinct content types that serve different audiences, consider separate search experiences: a product search form configured only to return products (using Ivory Search’s named search with product post type only), and a blog/content search that excludes products. Place the right search in the right context rather than a single search doing everything everywhere.
The Excerpt vs Content Decision
WordPress’s search matches against post_content in the database. This means shortcodes, raw HTML, and plugin-added dynamic content appear in search regardless of what visitors actually see on the page. A search query might match against a raw shortcode string like [product id=”142″] rather than meaningful content. Plugins that store data as post content in non-readable formats create false search matches.
Relevanssi and SearchWP handle this more gracefully by indexing rendered content. Ivory Search uses the raw database content like WordPress does. For sites where shortcodes and HTML in post content cause false matches, a relevance-ranking plugin with proper content parsing is the more complete solution.
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Custom Field Selection: What to Include and What to Avoid
When enabling custom field search, selectivity matters more than inclusivity. Including every meta key produces more results but lower quality results. A systematic approach: list all meta keys in your database, categorise each as either “user-visible textual content” (include) or “internal/technical data” (exclude), and configure search accordingly.
User-visible textual content worth including: product descriptions in ACF text areas, event location text, speaker biography, testimonial body text, address and contact information. Technical data to exclude: post IDs stored as references, serialized option arrays, image attachment IDs, plugin settings stored as meta, and any field starting with underscore (_) which by convention indicates private meta not intended for display.
Excluding Outdated Content
Search results that include very old posts create a credibility problem. A visitor searching for information and finding a 2015 blog post may assume the site is abandoned. Most search plugins allow excluding posts older than a certain date. For evergreen content sites this matters less; for sites covering topics where information changes (software, regulations, prices, events), excluding content older than 1-2 years from search improves result quality significantly.
Search Result Page Design
The search results page template is often neglected. WordPress uses the search.php template (or archive.php as fallback) to display results. On most themes this is a basic list of post titles and excerpts. Visitors who land on a search results page with poor design – no thumbnail images, no category labels, no obvious visual hierarchy – are more likely to refine their search or leave than to click through to a result.
A well-designed search results page shows: a thumbnail image, the post title as a link, a context-aware excerpt (highlighting where the search term appears, which Relevanssi provides), the post category, and the publication date for time-sensitive content. For WooCommerce stores, the search results page should show product images, prices, and an Add to Cart button rather than a plain text excerpt. Most caching plugins have settings to prevent search result pages from being cached – verify this is enabled, since cached search results can show outdated or incorrect results.