Advanced WordPress Search Engine

How is your current and default WordPress search bar working for you and your readers? If you’re like me, you’re probably not very happy with the search results found in a standard WordPress blog. That is part of the reason why I took my down many months ago. However, a search bar is definitely needed for a blog. In fact, I have had many readers comment or email me and ask me where mine was.

I took it upon myself to create an “Advanced WordPress Search Engine” for your WordPress blog and also include a “WordPress Search Bar”.

Give mine a try:

If you like what you see, you can use it for your own WordPress blog.

What Is The Advanced WordPress Search Engine?

The standard WordPress search algorithm produces very weak and irrelevant results. Replacing your standard search bar with this “Advanced WordPress Search Bar” will help your readers quickly find what they are looking for.

The Advanced WordPress Search Engine uses an algorithmic formula that scans your entire WordPress blog and sorts results based on the weighted keyword density found within the title of the post, the first two sentences of the post and then remaining content within that post.

The Advanced WordPress Search engine places the most weight in the post title. If two post titles contain the same number keywords, it will then check the first two sentences for the matching keyword. If the first two sentences of the post still contain the same number of keywords it will then scan the entire article for keyword density. The final results are displayed in descending order of relevance.

The Advanced WordPress Search Engine is very accurate. Don’t be alarmed if zero results are being returned. Unlike the standard WordPress search algorithm, The Advanced WordPress Search is formulated to produce accurate results and does not fill space with irrelevant results.

The purpose of a search engine is to provide the user with results based on their query. If your blog contains the keywords within a users query, results will be returned, otherwise it will return nothing. Configuring The Advanced WordPress Search Engine only requires two modifications. In less than one minute The Advanced WordPress Search Engine can be configured for your blog. Installing The Advanced WordPress Search Bar is very easy as well.

How Do I Configure and Install?

Step One: Get a copy of The Advanced WordPress Search Engine.

Step Two: CLONE (screen shot below)

Step Three: Rename the clone to your liking, add a new description and then click Edit Source (screen shot below)

Step Four: Replace the URL in the URL Builder box to reflect your WordPress URL with the /search on the end.

Example: http://www.garryconn.com/search

Screen shot below:

Step Five: Replace the fetch feed with your blog feed URL.

Example: http://www.garryconn.com/feed

Screen shot below:

Step Six: DONE! Click save!

Not that you have your Yahoo Pipe configured, now you need to install the search bar on your blog. The following steps will guide you in configuring your search bar and installing it on your blog.

Step Seven: Go to the Pipe home page and you will see the search bar. Enter a term into the search bar and then click run pipe.

(screen shot below)

Step Eight: After you click ‘Run Pipe’ you should see the search results below. Click “More options >” and then click “Get an RSS”.

Screen shot below:

Step Nine: After clicking “Get an RSS” you should instantly be transferred to your unique RSS page that displays your search results.

Screen shot below:

Look in your web browser address bar and copy your ID#. You will need this number in the next step so make sure you copy it to your clip board, etc..

Screen shot below:

Step Ten: Add your unique ID# into your search bar. Below is a copy of the HTML code for your search bar. Insert your ID# where is says, “ADD YOUR ID# HERE”.

* Download the search bar code here. Sometimes code can get screwed up when posted in blogs as they pick up on HTML formatting. I have made the code available by download. It is in an unformatted text form. Simply copy the code, add your ID# and paste it into your Textbox Widget.

Step Eleven: Now its time to insert your search bar! The easiest way to do this is to use the WordPress Widget Text Box. You can then position the widget to where you see fit.

Screen shot below:

The search bar can be hard coded into your single.php, index.php, header.php as well as above your widgets in your sidebar.php files.

At this time I am not going to publish tips on how to do this. If you are not familiar with hard coding into your WordPress files, its best that you stick to using the automatic Widgets.

If you need help however, please feel free to comment and I will provide advice.

You’re All Done!!!

Congrats! You are all done… You have successfully configured your Advanced WordPress Search Engine and have properly installed the Advanced WordPress Search Engine search bar! Now your readers can find exactly what they want and not worry about the default WordPress search algorithm filling in space with irrelevant results! It’s either there or its not!

Keep an eye out and subscribe to my feed because I will be showing you a very easy way to include all your favorite blogs into your Advanced WordPress search engine. We all love each other, right? Well… with The Advanced WordPress Search Engine you can share the link love in your search results and include posts written by your blog friends in your search results. The search results are displayed in a very search engine friendly RSS feed. People can subscribe to these feeds and search engines can crawl and index the links if you link directly to the search results pages in your post.

Enjoy! and feel free to ask questions, I am here to help!

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