Lumenare Search provides a comprehensive set of features to enhance your WordPress site's search functionality.
Current release: 2.1.00
Guided Setup Presets
The Setup tab recommends a starting preset for common site types:
- ASP Migration when Ajax Search Pro data or leftovers are detected
- Publisher for news, magazines, blogs, and editorial archives
- Commerce for product catalogs and SKU-like searches
- Knowledge Base for documentation and support libraries
- Performance for very large sites that want lightweight scoring first
Applying a preset tunes ranking, suggestions, freshness, trending, and click-boost defaults while preserving configured post types. ASP-specific setup and import options stay hidden on clean installs.
Instant Live Search
Real-time search results appear as users type, with a dropdown showing the most relevant results instantly. No page reloads required.
How it works:
- Search triggers after minimum character threshold (default: 3)
- AJAX request fetches results from the custom index
- Results display in a styled dropdown below the search input
- Users can click results or press Enter to see full results page
Benefits:
- Faster content discovery
- Reduced bounce rate
- Modern, professional feel
- Works on any device
Modular Suggestions
Provider-based suggestions help users find what they're looking for faster.
As users type, the system suggests short query refinements from analytics, imported migration stats, taxonomy terms, and indexed terms. Full post-title suggestions are available as an opt-in provider for sites that want result-like suggestions.
Custom Search Index
Fast database-driven search using weighted keywords extracted from titles, excerpts, content, taxonomy terms, authors, selected custom fields, and optional document attachments. The index is automatically maintained as content changes, and large sites can enable scheduled new-content partial reindexing through WP-Cron.
Index features:
- Keywords normalized for consistent matching
- Per-field occurrence counts stored for weighted scoring
- Automatic indexing on post save/delete
- Batch reindexing for large sites
- Partial reindexing for targeted updates
- Automatic new-content reindexing with run status and safe continuation
- Schema repair and hard-error reporting when index writes fail
Keyword Match Modes
Choose between matching ANY keyword (OR) for broader results or ALL keywords (AND) for precision:
Match ANY (OR) – Default
Returns results containing at least one of the search keywords. Best for:
- Broad topic searches
- Exploratory queries
- Sites where discoverability is priority
Example: Searching "WordPress security" returns posts with "WordPress" OR "security"
Match ALL (AND) – Precision
Returns only results containing ALL search keywords. Best for:
- Product names and specific phrases
- Technical queries
- Sites where precision is priority
Example: Searching "WordPress security" returns only posts with BOTH "WordPress" AND "security"
Stop Words Configuration
Exclude common words from indexing to improve relevance and performance. Configure which words to ignore (e.g., "a", "an", "the", "is", "are").
Why use stop words:
- Reduces index size
- Improves query performance
- Prevents common words from diluting relevance
- Focuses results on meaningful keywords
Default stop words include: a, an, and, are, as, at, be, but, by, for, from, has, he, her, his, in, is, it, my, of, on, or, our, she, that, the, their, they, this, to, was, we, what, when, where, which, who, will, with, you, your
Note: Changes to stop words require reindexing to take effect.
Synonyms Support
Define groups of equivalent words to expand search coverage. For example, if you define "car, automobile, vehicle" as synonyms, searching for "car" will also find posts with "automobile" or "vehicle."
How to configure:
- Go to Settings → Search Quality → Synonyms
- Enter one synonym group per line
- Separate words with commas
Example groups:
car, automobile, vehicle
doctor, physician, dr
quick, fast, rapid, speedy
buy, purchase, order
Benefits:
- Improves search recall without adding content
- Handles different terminology and jargon
- Works instantly—no reindexing needed
Fuzzy Matching
Find results even with misspellings using configurable Levenshtein distance (1-5 character differences). Higher thresholds are more permissive but may return less relevant results.
How it works:
- User searches for "computr" (misspelled)
- System finds "computer" in index (1 edit distance)
- Result includes the correctly-spelled match
Configuration:
| Threshold | Behavior |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very strict – only single-character typos |
| 2 | Balanced – recommended default |
| 3 | Permissive – may return less relevant results |
| 4-5 | Very permissive – use with caution |
Note: Fuzzy matching only applies to words 4+ characters long to prevent false positives on short words.
Phrase Boosting
Boost relevance for specific phrases defined in settings. When users search for exact phrases you've configured, those results receive a significant relevance boost.
Why it matters:
Without phrase boosting, searching "Master System" might return posts about any "system" ranked higher than posts specifically about the "Sega Master System."
With phrase boosting, posts containing the exact phrase "Master System" rank significantly higher.
Configuration:
- Go to Settings → Search Quality → Search Phrases
- Enter one phrase per line
- Set the Phrase Boost Multiplier (default: 5)
Boost calculation:
- Phrase in title: multiplier × 3
- Phrase in excerpt: multiplier × 2
- Phrase in content: multiplier × 1
Example: With default multiplier (5), a phrase match in the title adds 15 to relevance score.
Dynamic Trending Ranking
Automatically boost content that's gaining traction in searches. Trending topics are identified based on search frequency and growth rate, then used to boost related content in search results.
How it works:
- All search queries are tracked
- System calculates trending scores based on:
- Search frequency (how often a query is searched)
- Growth rate (how quickly searches are increasing)
- Recency (recent searches weighted higher)
- Related content receives relevance boost
Configuration options:
| Setting | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Trending | Turn feature on/off | Disabled |
| Boost Strength | How much trending affects ranking (0-2) | 0.5 |
| Decay Period | Days before trends decay | 30 |
| Minimum Searches | Queries needed to become trending | 5 |
Trending scores are calculated daily via WordPress cron (2 AM by default).
Filterable Results
Filter search results by content type, taxonomy facets, and date ranges to help users narrow down their search.
Content Type Filter:
- Shows matching public post types, such as posts, pages, or custom post types
- Multiple content types can be selected
- Counts respect the current query and other active filters
Taxonomy Facets:
- Supports categories, tags, and custom taxonomies attached to searchable content
- Multiple terms can be selected per taxonomy
- Legacy category filter URLs still resolve
Date Filter:
- Filter by date range (from/to)
- Useful for news sites or time-sensitive content
- Works with content type and taxonomy filters
Filters can be enabled/disabled in Settings → Filters. Admins can choose which taxonomies appear and cap the number of facet values per group.
Result Sorting
The filters UI includes a sort control for relevance, newest first, and oldest first. Sort choices travel with the same filter state used by results pages, live search requests, blocks, and shortcodes.
Search Term Highlighting
Visually highlights matching terms in titles and excerpts for better user experience.
What gets highlighted:
- Original search terms
- Synonym matches (if configured)
- Fuzzy matches (if enabled)
How it looks:
Highlighted terms appear with a yellow background. Customize styling via CSS class .lumenare-highlight.
Benefits:
- Users immediately see why results matched
- Validates search relevance
- Faster scanning of results
Multiple Integration Points
Lumenare Search integrates seamlessly with WordPress:
- Automatic replacement – Replaces default WordPress search forms
- Shortcode support –
[lumenare_search]for custom placement - Widget support – "Lumenare Search" widget for sidebars
- Gutenberg integration – Automatically replaces core search block
No template editing required for basic integration.
Security Features
Built-in protection keeps your site safe:
- SQL injection protection – All queries use prepared statements
- Code injection filtering – Dangerous patterns stripped from queries
- Character filtering – Blocks dangerous characters (parentheses, backticks, etc.)
- Nonce verification – All AJAX requests verified
- Security logging – Optional logging of filtered queries
All user input is sanitized and validated before processing.
Autocorrect Prevention
Disable browser/device autocorrect to preserve technical terms and brand names in search queries.
Problem solved: When users search for "Qdrant" (a brand name), autocorrect might change it to "Quadrant," breaking their search.
With autocorrect prevention enabled, the exact input is preserved.
Technical implementation: Adds HTML attributes: autocorrect="off", autocomplete="off", autocapitalize="off", spellcheck="false"
Analytics Integration
Built-in search analytics tracking provides insights into user behavior:
Popular Queries
See which searches are most common. Helps you understand what content users want.
Zero-Result Queries
Identify searches that return no results. These represent content gaps or missing synonyms.
Trending Topics
Queries gaining traction over time. Updated daily via cron job.
Click-Through Tracking
See which results users actually click. Understand if top-ranked results are actually helpful.
Result Impressions
Native impression tracking records which results were shown for a query. This gives Search Intelligence enough context to spot high-impression, low-CTR results instead of relying on raw click counts alone.
Result CTR Opportunities
Compare impressions against clicks for individual result/query pairs. High-impression, low-CTR rows highlight content that may need better titles, excerpts, synonyms, or ranking adjustments.
Each row includes action links for editing or viewing the result, jumping into tuning settings, and marking the opportunity reviewed. Reviewed rows are hidden from the default open queue but can be restored with the CTR Actions filter.
Query Promotions
Admins can promote a result directly from a CTR opportunity row. Promotions are exact-query boosts for already-eligible candidate results, so they can move the right result up without forcing unrelated content into the search set. Promoted rows show a badge and can be unpromoted from the same report.
Synonym Drafts
Admins can draft editable synonym lines from zero-result queries and result CTR opportunities. Drafts stay pending until they are applied or dismissed, and applied lines update the normal synonym setting without requiring a reindex.
Remediation Outcomes
Search Intelligence compares before/after analytics for applied tuning actions. Query promotions show CTR lift across matching result impressions, while applied synonym drafts show whether the original query's zero-result rate dropped after the change.
Search ROI Summary
The Search Intelligence dashboard summarizes how many tuning actions improved, how much CTR changed for promotions, how zero-result rates changed after synonym work, and how many actions are still collecting enough data.
Search Intelligence now lives as a tab in the main Lumenare Search settings screen, directly alongside the quality controls it helps tune.
Ajax Search Pro Migration Cleanup
When Ajax Search Pro data is detected, admins can import historical searches, impressions, clicks, and suggestion terms, then preview and remove leftover Ajax Search Pro tables. Optional option/transient cleanup is available after configuration has been archived, and WP-CLI supports dry-run cleanup for safer large-site migrations.
CTR-Aware Ranking
The optional click boost uses impressions when available, so ranking learns from clicks per impression instead of raw click volume alone. Older click-only data still works as a fallback.
Access analytics: Settings → Lumenare Search → Analytics and Search Intelligence tabs
Partial Reindexing
Update your search index without rebuilding everything:
- Index only new posts – Posts published since last reindex
- Index specific post types – Only posts, only pages, etc.
- Index by date range – Posts within specific dates
- Automatic new-content indexing – Scheduled WP-Cron runs can catch up published content with status reporting and continuation handling
Useful for large sites where full reindexing takes time.
Document Content Indexing
Optionally index text inside uploaded documents so visitors can find content that lives in files, not just posts.
Supported controls:
- Enable/disable document indexing independently from normal post types
- Choose MIME types for PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, RTF, text, and OpenDocument files
- Select the PDF parser method
- Set attachment content weight
- Cache extracted text in post meta for faster repeat reindexes
- Test Parse supported attachments from Media Library
- Link attachment results to the parent post/page or directly to the file
Audio Attachment Boosting
Posts with attached audio can receive a small ranking lift. The default detector looks for ListenUp-style metadata keys, and companion plugins can customize detection through filters.
Custom Taxonomy Support
Configure weights for any custom taxonomy to prioritize certain types of content organization.
Examples:
- WooCommerce product categories
- Custom portfolio types
- Event categories
Weights are configured per-taxonomy in Settings → Search Quality → Taxonomy Term Weighting.
Performance Optimized
Lumenare Search is built for speed:
- Efficient database queries – Uses indexes, prepared statements
- Batch indexing – Large sites index without timeouts
- Result caching – Search results cached for 5 minutes
- Minimal footprint – Only loads on pages with search
- Compatibility prep – Tested up to WordPress 7.0 and improved for PHP 8.3
- Resilient indexing – Frontend fallbacks, repair paths, notices, and hard-error reporting help failed index writes surface clearly