Advice on best approach to improve search

[synergyParticipant]

My site is a B2B platform for buyers to view suppliers products and services.

All my suppliers pages are named: supplier-‘name of supplier’ and I use a php filter you gave me to remove the ‘supplier’ prefix from the search results and search result image pic titles.

Everything works OK searching in page/pst titles and content but i need some advice on focusing the search results.

I want to use a selection of descriptive terms for each supplier but I’m not sure which is the best option.

1 – Put them in the WordPress ‘Tags” section of the post/page

2 – Put them in the ‘additional search tags’ section in the Ajax Search Pro settings section on the post/page

3 – Put them in a ‘custom fields’ section of the post/page

The site only has a hundred plus suppliers pages at the moment but hopefully will grow to several thousand.

Thanks in advance.

[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

Hi!

All of the options sound great, it depends on the use case:

1. If you plan to use these tags anywhere else than searching, then this could be useful.

2 and 3. The additional search tags is actually a custom field as well. I believe searching custom fields might give you a better performance. So, if you plan to use these keywords mostly for search purposes, then custom field/additional search tags is a better choice.

I hope this helps!

Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

[synergyParticipant]

Hi Ernest,

I’ve finally got round to sorting out the search terms on my website and have hit the following problem:

I put these search terms in the ‘suggested search keywords’ section in the setup:
Meat, Seafood, Dairy, Drinks, Beverages, Ingredients, Sauces, Bakery, Snacks, Equipment, Services

and they appear as expected under the search bar. I then placed the search term ‘seafood’ on a test page in the ‘Ajax Search Pro – custom phrase field’

However, when I click on the search phrase ‘seafood’ under the search bar the expected page does not show up.

But when I place the search term ‘seafood’ on the same test page, but this time in the ‘Ajax Search Pro – additional search tags for this post’ it does show up.

Thanks in advance,

Paul.

[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

Hi Paul,

Under the General Options -> Sources panel within the search instance settings, is the custom phrase field selected for search?

The additional search tags field is automatically used, but all other custom fields must be selected for search.

Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

[synergyParticipant]

Hi Ernest,

I couldn’t see an option for custom phrase field – please see attached screenshot.

Thanks,
Paul.

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[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

Hi Paul,

I thought you mean a custom field that you created.

Can you please clarify what do you mean by the ‘Ajax Search Pro – custom phrase field’? As this is not part of the plugin itself, only the additional phrases.
I guess you made a custom field there?

Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

[synergyParticipant]

Hi Ernest,

Its under the ‘Ajax Search Pro settings’ tab in the WP page backend -see attached screenshot.

Thanks,

Paul.

[synergyParticipant]

Oops – forgot to attach pic!

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[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

Hi,

That field is only to change the ‘try these’ keywords, when the plugin is visible on that page. For additional search keywords, use the field above it.

Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

[synergyParticipant]

Hi Ernest,

Thanks for the explanation, I thought that this option was relevant to the page contents in the context of search terms rather than changing the search modules appearance on this page.

One further question if you would be so kind.

Is this scenario possible?

User clicks on email link option (option 1, option 2, option 3) chosen option (http://www.website-example.com?option1) links to page with search loaded and search outputs results for appended search term (option1).

Thanks again for your excellent support.

Paul.

[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

Hi Paul,

You are welcome.

Well, it should be possible, you can trigger the live search via an URL like this:

http://mywebsite.com/?asp_id=1&asp_s=phrase

Just replace the asp_id=1 argument with the correct search instance ID, and the asp_s=phrase with the search phrase.

Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

[synergyParticipant]

Thanks Ernest, it works just how I hoped.

Once again, excellent service.

Paul.

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