Get up and running with Lumenare Search in minutes.
Current release: 2.1.00
Installation
From WordPress.org
- Go to Plugins → Add New in your WordPress admin
- Search for "Lumenare Search"
- Click Install Now, then Activate
Manual Installation
- Download the plugin from WordPress.org
- Upload the
lumenare-searchfolder to/wp-content/plugins/ - Activate the plugin through the Plugins menu in WordPress
Initial Configuration
After activation, configure your basic settings:
- Go to Settings → Lumenare Search
- Start on the Setup tab and apply the recommended preset
- Review basic settings:
- Enable Plugin – Turn Lumenare Search on
- Search placeholder text – What users see in the search input
- Minimum characters – How many characters before search triggers (default: 3)
- Post types to search – Which content types to include
Setup Presets
The Setup tab gives admins a faster starting point:
| Preset | Best For |
|---|---|
| ASP Migration | Sites replacing Ajax Search Pro; shown only when ASP data or leftovers are detected |
| Publisher | News, magazines, blogs, and editorial archives |
| Commerce | Product catalogs and SKU-like searches |
| Knowledge Base | Documentation and support libraries |
| Performance | Very large sites that want lightweight scoring first |
Lumenare recommends a preset when it detects ASP data tables or leftovers, WooCommerce products, documentation-style post types, or a large editorial archive. ASP-specific setup and import options stay hidden on clean installs. Applying a preset updates ranking, suggestion, freshness, trending, and click-boost defaults without replacing your selected post types.
Recommended Initial Settings
| Setting | Recommended Value | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum Characters | 3 | Balances responsiveness with meaningful queries |
| Match Mode | Any (OR) | Returns broader results for most sites |
| Fuzzy Matching | Enabled | Helps users find content despite typos |
| Highlighting | Enabled | Shows users why results matched |
Building the Index
Before search works, you need to build the search index:
- Navigate to the Index Management tab
- Click "Reindex All Content"
- Wait for indexing to complete
The indexer processes content in batches, so large sites can index without timeout issues. A progress bar shows completion status.
What Gets Indexed
The indexer extracts keywords from:
- Post titles – Highest weight (default: 10)
- Post excerpts – Medium weight (default: 5)
- Post content – Base weight (default: 1)
- Taxonomy terms – Categories, tags, and enabled public taxonomies
- Authors and selected custom fields – Optional relevance sources
- Document attachments – Optional PDF/Office/RTF/text extraction when enabled
Keywords are normalized (lowercase, special characters removed) and stored with per-field occurrence counts for fast relevance scoring.
Using the Search
Automatic Integration
Lumenare Search automatically replaces:
- Default WordPress search forms
- Gutenberg Search blocks
- Theme search forms
No additional configuration needed! Your existing search forms will use Lumenare Search.
Shortcode
Add a search form anywhere with the shortcode:
[lumenare_search]
Place this in any post, page, or text widget.
Widget
Add the search widget to any widget area:
- Go to Appearance → Widgets
- Find the "Lumenare Search" widget
- Drag it to your desired widget area
- Configure widget title (optional)
Next Steps
Optimize Your Search
Once search is working, consider these optimizations:
-
Review the Weighting System
- Understand how relevance scoring works: Weighting System
- Tune weights for your content: Tuning Guide
-
Configure Stop Words
- Add common words that don't add search value
- Reduces index size and improves relevance
- Found in Settings → Search Quality → Stop Words
-
Set Up Synonyms
- Define equivalent terms to expand search coverage
- Example:
car, automobile, vehicle - Found in Settings → Search Quality → Synonyms
-
Add Important Phrases
- Boost relevance for specific multi-word terms
- Example:
WordPress security,Sega Genesis - Found in Settings → Search Quality → Search Phrases
Monitor Performance
-
Check Search Analytics
- Go to Settings → Lumenare Search → Analytics
- Review popular queries to understand user intent
- Check zero-result queries to identify content gaps
- Monitor trending topics
-
Review Search Intelligence
- Go to Settings → Lumenare Search → Search Intelligence
- Review result impressions, CTR opportunities, query promotions, synonym drafts, remediation outcomes, and Search ROI
- Use source filters to separate native Lumenare data from imported Ajax Search Pro history
-
Review Index Status
- Check indexing coverage in Index Management tab
- Green "Good" status means 90%+ coverage
- Reindex if coverage drops or after bulk content changes
Common Tasks
Reindex Content
When to reindex:
- After changing stop words
- After changing post types to search
- After changing weight values
- After enabling document indexing or changing document MIME types
- After bulk content updates or imports
How to reindex:
- Go to Settings → Lumenare Search → Index Management
- Click "Reindex All Content" for full rebuild
- Or use Partial Reindex options for specific updates:
- Index only new posts (since last full reindex)
- Index specific post types
- Index posts within a date range
- For ongoing large catalogs, enable automatic new-content reindexing and choose the WP-Cron interval in Index Management
Adjust Relevance
If results aren't relevant:
- Review your weights in the Tuning Guide
- Increase title weight if titles are descriptive
- Add stop words for common irrelevant terms
- Configure synonyms for better matching
- Add phrase boosting for important multi-word terms
- Reindex after weight changes – weights are applied during indexing
Troubleshoot Issues
If search isn't working:
- Check plugin is enabled in settings
- Verify index exists (Index Management tab shows count)
- See the full Troubleshooting Guide
Settings Reference
Setup Tab
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Search Presets | Apply a curated search behavior profile | Recommended per site |
| Next Moves | Jump to imports, quality tuning, intelligence, or index tools | Available |
General Tab
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Plugin | Turn plugin on/off globally | Enabled |
| Search Placeholder | Text shown in search input | "Search…" |
| Minimum Characters | Characters required before search triggers | 3 |
| Post Types | Which post types to include | Posts, Pages |
Search Quality Tab
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Match Mode | ANY (OR) or ALL (AND) keyword matching | Any |
| Stop Words | Words to exclude from indexing | Common English words |
| Synonyms | Groups of equivalent words | Common synonyms |
| Fuzzy Matching | Enable typo tolerance | Disabled |
| Fuzzy Threshold | Edit distance for fuzzy matches | 2 |
| Suggestion Providers | Ordered provider chain for suggested searches | Analytics, imported stats, taxonomies, index terms |
| Phrase Boost | Multiplier for configured phrase matches | 1.5 |
| Title/Excerpt/Content Weight | Relevance weights | 10/5/1 |
| Taxonomy Weights | Category and tag weights | 5/3 |
| Exact/Prefix/Suffix Multipliers | Multi-pass search weighting | 10/5/2 |
| Secondary Sort | Tie-break or selected date sort | Newest first |
| Freshness Boost | Recently updated content lift | Enabled |
| Audio Attachment Boost | Small lift for posts with audio metadata | Enabled, 1.15x |
| Document Indexing | Optional attachment content extraction | Disabled |
Display Tab
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Results Per Page | Results on search page | 10 |
| Dropdown Results | Results in live dropdown | 10 |
| Highlighting | Highlight matching terms | Enabled |