Better Search replaces WordPress’s default search and works with site themes without code edits or a custom search template. Better Search Pro adds controls for matching and ranking content, plus indexing and REST API settings.

Matching and ranking

Sort results by relevance or date, set a relevance threshold, and adjust how titles, content, and other fields affect ranking. Search can cover public post types and fields such as excerpts, metadata, authors, tags, taxonomies, and comments. Pro adds fuzzy matching for queries beyond exact wording, post slug searches, a LIKE-based fallback, and optional recency weighting, which is disabled by default.

FULLTEXT indexes and content storage

Better Search adds MySQL FULLTEXT indexes to the wp_posts table for post_content, post_title, and combined title and content searches. These indexes support relevance-based search and are required for full functionality. On multisite installations, activation adds the indexes to each blog. Pro’s indexing tools include a list of posts that failed to index and an option to retry them.

Search presentation and connected capabilities

AJAX Live Search can display results as visitors type. Popular search terms can appear as a heatmap in a widget or shortcode. You can adapt result pages with a custom template file and CSS, and use the profanity filter to remove selected words from queries.

REST API integration connects search with the WordPress REST API. Pro also offers optional AI answers grounded in Better Search results, with source links, cached answers, usage limits, and a content gaps report.

The add-on includes its own caching system and works with WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache. It is translation-ready, supports WPML and Polylang, and recognizes TranslatePress’s active language for search caching and Pro REST and live-search responses.

Set up search

Install and activate Better Search, then review its options for search fields, relevance, templates, and optional features. On multisite, activation adds the required FULLTEXT indexes to each blog.