Ivory Search – WordPress Search Plugin vs AI Search – Smarter WordPress Search That Understands Meaning

Ivory Search is a simple to use advanced WordPress search plugin. It enhances the default WordPress search and also allows you to create new custom search forms. With Ivory Search, you can create an unlimited number of search forms and configure each search form individually to customize WordPress search and perform different types of searches on site content. Display the custom search forms on site header, footer, sidebar or widget area, navigation or menu, on pages, posts, custom post types or anywhere on the site using its shortcodes. Note: The styling of the search form highly depends on how your theme styles it. If your theme does not style search form correctly then to style it get free support from Ivory Search Support. Have any doubt or question? Feel free to ask it using Contact Form. Links Website Documentation Support Contact Us Key Features Perform faster search with inverted index-based search engine. Index and search shortcode contents. Search WooCommerce products. Search images, files and attachments. Customize search form using customizer. Search using AJAX search. Track searches in search analytics. Index and search TablePress shortcode contents. Create unlimited number of search forms. Configure each search forms separately. Configure search form to search specific content. Exclude specific content from search results. Display Search Forms anywhere on your site. Supports multilingual search. Multilingual Search supported by Weglot Integrates with popular plugins such as WooCommerce, Weglot, Polylang, bbPress, WPML etc. AJAX Search or Live Search Convert any search form including default search form to AJAX search form. Search posts, pages, WooCommerce products, images, files or any custom post type using AJAX search. Exclude any specific content from AJAX search. Search Form Customizer Use customizer to change search form colors and its text. Choose any search form style from various search forms. Search Specific Content Search specific post types such as post, page, product, attachment, forum etc. Search in post title. Search in post content. Search in post excerpt. Search posts having specific category or taxonomy terms. Search in category or taxonomy terms title. Search in category or taxonomy terms description. Search posts having specific custom fields or metadata. Search WooCommerce products SKU. [Premium] Search WooCommerce products variation. [Premium] Search posts created by specific authors. [Premium] Search in author Display name and display the posts created by that author. Search posts having specific statuses. [Premium] Search posts having specific number of comments. [Premium] Search in approved comments content. Search posts created in specific date. Search only password protected posts. Search only posts without passwords. Search all posts with and without passwords. Search specific files, MIME type or media attachments such as images, audio, videos, PDF, documents etc. [Premium] Search in the title, caption and description of images, attachments and media. Search in multiple languages as the plugin supports multilingual plugins such as Polylang, WPML etc. Exclude Specific Content From Search Exclude specific post types from search. Exclude specific posts, pages, WooCommerce Products, Media Attachments, forums or any custom post type from search. Do not search in the post title. Configure to not search in post content. Configure to not search in post excerpt. Exclude posts from search having specific category or taxonomy terms. Exclude posts from search having specific custom fields or metadata. [Premium] Exclude ‘out of stock’ WooCommerce products from search. [Premium] Exclude posts from search created by specific authors. [Premium] Exclude posts from search having specific statuses. [Premium] Exclude sticky posts from search. Exclude posts from search having specific number of comments. Exclude posts from search created before or after specific dates. Exclude password protected posts from search. Exclude posts from search without passwords. Exclude images, audios, videos, PDF, documents, attachments, files, media, file type or MIME type from search. [Premium] Control and Extend Search Display search form in navigation menu and configure its functionality. Configure the number of posts to display in search results. Highlight search terms on the search results page. Order posts in ascending or descending order of date, relevance, id, author, title, type, name, comment count, menu order or entirely random. [Premium] Display or hide sticky posts at the top of the search results page. Display an error page or list all posts for empty search queries. Display search forms only to site administrators while testing, before going live. Disable an individual search form or disable searching site wide. Configure stop words which are excluded from search. Option to add word synonyms to provide more relevant search results. Display post_type argument in the search query URL and restrict search to it. Search posts having all or any of the selected category or taxonomy terms. Display content having any or all the searched terms. Fuzzy Matching – Search posts that include the whole search term or search words in the posts that begins or ends with the search term. Keyword Stemming – Also searches base word of searched keyword. [Premium] Note: some of the features are Premium marked as [Premium]. To have access to those features you will need Ivory Search Premium. You can get Ivory Search Premium here! We enhanced and re-wrote old Add Search To Menu plugin from the ground up and Add Search To Menu has renamed to Ivory Search. Help Need Help? Get Ivory Search support. Feedback Any suggestions or comments are welcome. Feel free to contact us using this Contact form.

Two things your site search is missing: instant results while typing, and an AI that understands what visitors mean. Drop in the AI Search Box block and your visitors see results the moment they start typing — thumbnail, title and price, right there in a dropdown. No page reload, no waiting. Then the part keyword search cannot do. Someone who types “summer blue dress” finds your “light cotton navy sundress”. Someone searching “headphones for running” finds your sweat-resistant wireless earbuds — even if the word “running” isn’t anywhere in the description. A reader looking for “how to reduce hosting costs” finds the article you titled “cutting your server bill in half”. WordPress search matches keywords. AI Search matches meaning. It reads your content — titles, descriptions, SKUs, categories, tags, attributes and custom fields — and converts each item into a vector that captures what it actually is. When someone searches, the plugin finds the closest matches by meaning, not by exact word overlap. The result: fewer empty search pages, more of your content surfaced for long-tail queries, and visitors who find what they wanted on the first try. Works on any WordPress site. Built with WooCommerce stores in mind — SKUs, variations, product attributes and catalog visibility are all handled properly — but the same search works for blog posts, pages, documentation, directories and any custom post type. Try it live before installing: wp-search.ai/demos runs this exact plugin on three sample stores. Type your own search – or a SKU – and see the traditional results next to the AI results, side by side: Clothing store – users describe an occasion, not a product name Bookstore – readers remember the theme, never the exact title Electronics – model codes and specs, where exact SKU matching has to win Live search dropdown – type in the box and watch results appear before you finish Traditional Results First, AI Results After AI Search never replaces the results your search already finds — it adds to them. Every search runs in three steps, in this order: Exact matches — a query that matches a product SKU or an exact product title is always the first result. Traditional keyword results — everything WordPress and WooCommerce search would normally find (products literally containing your search words) comes next, ranked by keyword relevance instead of publish date. AI results — only below those, semantic matches are added: products that mean the same thing even when they use different words. So if a user searches for something that literally exists on your site, they see exactly what they would see without the plugin — just better ordered. The AI layer only ever extends the results with products the traditional search missed. Installing AI Search will not change or hide the results your customers already find today. Search As You Type (new in 1.33.0) Two optional blocks bring live results to your site, without sending your visitors to a results page first: AI Search Box — a search field that shows results in a dropdown as the user types: thumbnail, product title and price on a single row. AI Search Button — a search icon for your header or menu that opens a full-screen search overlay. Both are Gutenberg blocks. Open any page, template or header in the editor, click the + button, search for “AI Search”, and place the one you want – there is nothing to configure to get started. They follow the same “traditional first” rule as the results page: keyword and SKU matches appear instantly on every keystroke, and AI suggestions are added underneath when typing pauses. Try the live search demo – three real catalogues, type anything you like. This keeps your quota intact. Keystrokes cost nothing — only the pause triggers a single AI request. A ten-character search uses one embedding, not ten. Both blocks read your theme’s own colours, fonts and corner radius, so they look like part of your site rather than something bolted on, on light and dark themes alike. They are fully keyboard and screen-reader accessible. And they are entirely optional: place one where you want it, or place none and nothing about your site changes. Key Features Search As You Type: Optional search box and search button blocks with a live results dropdown — keyword matches instantly, AI suggestions on pause. WooCommerce Product Search: Full product catalog indexing — titles, short and long descriptions, SKUs, categories, tags, and product attributes (size, color, material, etc.). Pre-configured defaults so you can go live in minutes. Understands Meaning, Not Just Keywords: Semantic search means “cozy winter sweater” matches your “merino wool pullover”. Long-tail and descriptive queries stop returning empty pages. Traditional Results Are Never Lost: Keyword matches always rank above AI suggestions — the AI extends your search results, it never replaces them. Cross-Lingual & Multilingual: Works with 100+ languages — Portuguese, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, and more. International stores get consistent search quality across every language, and an English query can still match content in other languages. SKU & Attribute Matching: Customers can search by SKU fragments, attribute values, or technical specs and still find the right product. Smart Fallback System: 4-tier fallback ensures users never hit a zero-result page — if AI search finds nothing, standard WordPress search takes over automatically. No OpenAI Account Required: Uses our free embedding service (up to 10,000 embeddings per site). Works out of the box for most stores. Bring Your Own API Key: Optionally use your own OpenAI API key for unlimited indexing. Bulk Embedding Generation: Index your entire existing catalog in one click, filtered by post type or category. Quota Management: Real-time monitoring of AI service usage and limits (v1.14.0+). Works Beyond Products Too: Same intelligent search for blog posts, pages, and any public custom post type. ACF Compatible: Index Advanced Custom Fields data for deeper product metadata search. Tunable Similarity Threshold: Fine-tune how strict or broad search results are, per store. Intelligent Caching: Fast results with automatic local caching. Perfect For WooCommerce stores with large or varied product catalogs Fashion & apparel stores where users describe products in their own words (“something flowy for summer”) Electronics & home goods stores with complex technical specs and model numbers Books, media, and marketplaces with thousands of titles International stores selling in multiple languages Membership sites, knowledge bases, and directories — any content-heavy WordPress site How It Works Each product in your WooCommerce catalog is converted into a numeric “meaning fingerprint” (called an embedding) that captures its title, description, SKU, categories, tags, and attributes. When a user searches, the plugin first pins exact SKU/title matches, then lists every traditional keyword match (what your search finds today), ranked by relevance. The query then gets its own meaning fingerprint, which is compared against every product’s fingerprint. The closest semantic matches are appended below the traditional results — extra products the keyword search missed, never replacements for it. If nothing at all is found, a multi-tier fallback kicks in so users never hit an empty results page. Embeddings are generated automatically when you publish or update products — no manual work after setup. Learn More Visit our website for documentation, demos, and examples: https://wp-search.ai/ Browse technical documentation, see live demos of the plugin in action, and learn best practices for AI-powered search. Usage Your existing WooCommerce search form (and the default WordPress search) are automatically upgraded — no theme or template changes required. Manage settings, switch providers, and monitor quota via the AI Search menu in your WordPress admin. External Service This plugin connects with: OpenAI Embeddings API: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/embeddings Custom Node.js Embedding Service Please read more here: https://platform.openai.com/docs/guides/embeddings