The built-in search engine in WordPress, by default, does not search comments left by users to blog posts, which in some sites where there is a good community can make it difficult to find interesting conversations or even doubts that, instead of being resolved in the posts, have been resolved in the comments.
Why should you also include comments in WordPress search results?
As I mentioned above, one of the main reasons would be when there is a good community in your blog, in which the answers, solutions and conversations contribute content to the entries from the blog.
Offering search results also from the content of the comments you provide your users with access to fantastic content, offered by other users.
Right here in this blog it happens a lot that, based on a guide or article, doubts that are not resolved in the entry arise, but to which other users give totally valid, alternative solutions, and sometimes even better than those of the author of the entry. poses.
If your blog has a good community of users who comment regularly and you do not provide access to those conversations, you are sometimes wasting access to very good content.
How do I make WordPress search comments too?
If you’re convinced, there are a few ways to make WordPress expand your searches to include comments, using plugins…
Relevance
If you want to improve the WordPress search engine, this plugin is a true champion, even in its free version, which, of course, includes the possibility of adding to the WordPress search engine the option to also search in comments.
You just have to install it, activate it and, in its settings, in the indexing tab, activate that comments are also included.
Then save the options and… You have one very important step left: build the index.
Simply, from the same settings screen, press the new button that will appear “Build the index”.
The process is fast, but it will depend on the amount of content you have on your website, after which the summary will be displayed, and you have finished configuring the WordPress search engine indexing, so that it also includes comments.
Now, for a better experience for users, I recommend that you go through the “Excerpts and highlights” settings before finishing, and that you activate the box to highlight the search results in the comments, as this is new, and In addition, customize the text of the breakdown format, so that it appears in Spanish.
From this moment the comments will be included in the search results of your WordPress, it is not necessary to add any Relevanssi widget, it integrates with the existing search engine.
ivory search
a complement very similar to the previous onewhich also offers to add comments to WordPress searches. Furthermore, in this case the option is checked by default, although the same as before, you have to create the indexon the plugin settings page.
Build the index, check the box that I indicated in the previous screenshot, so that it is regenerated when there is new content, and that’s it.
When the index has been created, save the changes.
Then go through the settings section called “Menu Search” to choose which menu the Ivory search engine will be added to, if you want, although by default it also integrates with the default theme or WordPress search engine.
Once chosen, and configured to your liking, you can start looking, also in the comments.
search all
This plugin, although it has not been updated for a long time, still working properlyand it is very easy to use, and best of all, you don’t have to configure anything in principle, because the functionality to search in comments is already activated by default.
As you have seen, there are possibilities, and if you want WordPress to also search in the comments, it is easy to add the functionality, you have at least 3 plugins that simplify the task, and which one to choose I prefer not to make any recommendations, since the ones we have seen comply all with what is exposed here, another thing is that you want other additional functionalities, and there it will depend on which one you choose.
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