WordPress search widget not working- How to fix?

11/When your WordPress search widget is not working and you are looking for how to fix it, We are suggesting some of the steps that we follow to fix the WordPress search-related problems. Hope that helps in solving yours. Since the default WordPress search is not a great search that matches the quality of Google Search, it is recommended to add WP fastest site search plugin for your site search needs. Especially if your website has lots of pages or it has lots of products.

WP Fastest Site Search

Fix your wordpress search widget

Step 1- Take a backup

When you make changes to your WordPress site, there is a slight probability that you can break your site. It is recommended to take backup using a Backup guard before you begin making changes.

JetBackup – WP Backup, Migrate & Restore

Step 2- Check your site health

In your WordPress admin panel, go to tools -> site health and check the status of your site health. Make sure that you perform the recommendations provided by the default WordPress site health tool.

Step 3- Check for plugin incompatibilities

You can uninstall plugins one by one and check if the search issue goes off. This could be the solution for 50% of all WordPress search widgets, not working issues. You can use the plugin detective WordPress plugin to do this as well.

Plugin Detective – Troubleshooting Conflicts

Step 4- Check for cache issue

If you are using any caching plugin for improving WordPress speed, make sure you clear the site cache. If you are not sure to do this, you can use the “clear cache for me” WordPress plugin that works with most of the well-known WordPress speed plugins mentioned below.

Clear Cache for Me

• Autoptimize
• Breeze Cache
• Cache Enabler
• GoDaddy Cache
• Kinsta Cache
• LiteSpeed Cache
• SiteGround SuperCacher
• WP Fastest Cache
• WP Super Cache
• WP Optimize Cache
• W3 Total Cache
• WPEngine Cache

Step 6- Check your Theme / Layout, Make sure your Widget Area is Enabled

Disable all plugins, and use one of the defaults (Twenty*) themes. If the problem goes away, enable them one by one to identify the source of your troubles.

The widget would work automatically once it’s added to a widget area, it’s nice to set a title for the widget with some text. This can be set in Dashboard -> Appearance -> Widgets. Make sure that the widgets area is enabled on the desired page, from the theme options (Dashboard -> Appearance -> Customize -> Layout).

It’s quite possible you might be using a Full-Width template on the website, and the sidebar would be disabled. Try picking a default template it should work.

Step 5- Replace your WordPress search widget

If all the other methods didn’t work, you can replace your search widget with the WP fastest site search plugin that replaces your WordPress search widget with a brand new search widget that looks similar to the image below.

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Steps to install replace your WordPress search widget 

1. Install WP fastest site search plugin from WordPress plugin store.
2. Go to https://cse.expertrec.com/newuser?platform=wordpress.
3. Enter your WordPress website URL and click on next->
4. The crawl will start in the background.
   

   Add expertrec custom search and start the crawling

5. Login to your WordPress admin panel.
6. In your left panel you must be able to see expertrec’s WordPress plugin, click on that. 
7. Get your site ID (or) API key from your expertrec control panel ( here ).
   

   How to add the site ID obtained from ExpertRec dashboard to WP Fastest Site Search Plugin

8. Copy paste your site id in your WordPress control panel and click on save changes.
9. Make sure you have upgraded to a paid plan before 15 days of free trial. (Price begins at 9 USD per month)
10. That’s it! Your brand new WordPress search is up and running! Here are snapshots of the search form and the search results pages.
11. If the plugin method didn’t work, you can add the code from https://cse.expertrec.com/csedashboard/home/code and add it to your WordPress PHP code. Please note that you have to add separately the code <ci-search></ci-search> to a place where you want the search box to appear ( Tip!- Contact our support team to get this done). There might be a one-time fee for integration.

FAQS

How Do I Customize the Search Bar in WordPress?

Customization and adding a search bar in WordPress is easy as it comes with a search option as a widget. Additionally, you will get lots of plugins which will assist you in adding a search panel or creating your own. There are three methods by which you can add or customize a search bar on your own. The first and easiest way to perform the job would be from the widget panel. Open the WordPress widgets and follow the steps mentioned below:

• Head on to your Admin Dashboard and go to Appearance and then Widgets.
• You will see the widget named “Search”, in the “Available Widgets”, click on it and follow by hitting the button Add Widget. You can also drag it to the Widget Area and add a customized title for your search widget.
• Go back to your site; the search widget will be visible on the sidebar.

For this, you won’t require coding knowledge as it is primarily an automated method.

The following method would be to go to the plugins and click on “Add New”. Follow up by searching for a plugin that adds the search bar. Install the plugin and activate it. Go to the settings and then to “Add Search To Menu”, and you are all set to configure the plugin.

You can also manually add a search box if you have some technical knowledge. By this, you can take complete control of styling and customization.

Is Elementor Search Form Widget Free?

Yes, the elementor Search Form Widget is Free; however, it also comes with various subscription plans.

How Do I Create & Edit the Search Results Page in Elementor?

Every WordPress website comes with a search result page per the theme used by the associate website. If you do not find the layout appealing, you can edit or create it independently. Suppose you lack PHP skills; you can take the help of elementor to build a custom search result page. You can create a custom header, footer, 404 page and any other themes you want through drag and drop. For this, you need to upgrade the elementor to the pro version. Follow the steps below to create or edit search results:

• Go to the “Templates” option, then move on to “Theme Builder” on your WordPress “Dashboard” and open the screen. You will see a plus icon on the Search Result label on the left panel.
• Once in the template library, you can select a ready-made search result page layout. But if you want to create or edit it, close the window.
• First, you need to place the heading that would display the description of the search result page. To add a new section, click on the plus button. Once you have added the area, drag the “Heading” widget to it.
• Go to the left panel to set things such as text colour and typography. You will see a Content tab under the Title block; click the database icon and select the “Archive Title” option. You can also set the background as per your choice by clicking on the section handle to switch to edit mode.

If you want to add a new section, click the plus button and repeat the process. Once it’s edited, drag the search form widget. Move on to the settings panel to make the settings. You can set the icon size, placeholder, and many more on the search forum under the content tab. Once you are done editing, click on the upgrade button to finish your process. 

Why is Elementor search not the best search and why should you be using Expertrec?

Elementor is primarily a page developer for WordPress and its search plugin allows users to navigate throughout the website. You are required to drag the search form widget where you want your search box to appear on the page. However, there are some major problems that you may face while using the Elementor search form, let’s have a look at them :

• WordPress offers a great platform to bloggers, however, its default search engine may fall short and not provide desired results. The main reason behind not getting the results according to search queries is that WordPress search sorts results by date of publication and not relevance. It also doesn’t look for misspelt queries and doesn’t take into consideration various important data while running a search query.
• Plugin conflict may arise as there are multiple WordPress plugins and Elementor is not compatible with all of them. Due to incompatibility, Elementor may not function properly.
•  It might be a rare case scenario but there still lies a possibility of the hosting limitations causing problems with the search. Elementor requires some systems that would ensure the smooth working of the plugin but if the host doesn’t fulfil these requirements, the chances of Elementor experiencing problems arise.
•  Often due to using the outdated version of Elementor the plugin doesn’t work properly due to a lack of compatibility with WordPress and this may lead to not getting desired results.

Why is Expertrec a better alternative?

Expertrec is known to be one of the best WordPress internal search plugins that offer great help to users to look for and get desired results of their search queries. It has various features and is easy to use. It helps to enhance the overall customer experience.

• When many search plugins may not give you the results that you are looking for, Expertrec works efficiently and makes use of various features like auto-complete, autocorrect, and spell-check to give relevant results.
• Expertrec can work with more than three languages and it offers a wide range of features such as unlimited search.
•  Expertrec offers customized search, and personalization as well. Expertrec also offers voice search which is a game changer in recent days and is extremely helpful to the users.
•  Expertrec doesn’t provide zero results to any search query as it has the “did you mean” feature. It also shows alternatives, predicts search queries, shows products that the user may like and also recommends products based on the preferences and interests of the customers.

Expertrec, owing to its wide range of features and benefits is no doubt a better alternative than Elementor, and it doesn’t face any errors and runs smoothly. It provides faster results that can in turn help your WordPress website to gain more users because customer experience decides the sales of any e-commerce site. Search is the most essential part of the website and the Expertrec search plugin is the best option available to you.

Mention about elementor search plugin

Elementor is a popular drag-and-drop page builder plugin for WordPress. It allows users to create custom designs for their website without the need for coding knowledge.

Elementor also offers a search widget that can be added to your website using its Pro version. This widget allows visitors to search your site for specific content, including pages, posts, and custom post types.

However, Elementor does not offer its own search plugin. If you’re looking for more advanced search functionality for your website, you may want to consider using a dedicated search plugin like Relevanssi or SearchWP. These plugins integrate with Elementor and offer features such as autocomplete suggestions, fuzzy matching, and advanced filtering options to enhance the search experience for your visitors.

Add great search to your wordpress site at 9 USD per month