The search function in Shoporama

Shoporama has a built-in search function. It can be used in different ways and here we try to answer any questions you may have about the search function.

What does the search function search for?

When a user performs a search on your online store, it will search in
products
Categories
Landing pages
Note: Category and landing page search was added in March 2020, so it might not be implemented in your theme. However, it's relatively simple to extend, so it can be done in about an hour by a developer.

The search looks at the name, descriptions and the extra words in the search box when trying to find a match.
If you also want it to search by SKU, GTIN and other fields, click settings (the gear) and then "Search" on the left side. Check "Search by name, SKU and GTIN" and click "Save"

If you want the search function to search all fields on your product, category and landing page, check "Search all fields". Note that this will of course slow down your online shop a bit, as it takes longer to search in multiple fields.

How to make your search function better

People search both east and west. What you call a dressing gown, they might call a bathrobe. One is no more correct than the other and when you add misspellings, plurals, etc. there are a lot of search options to work with. That's why you have the option to add extra keywords to your products. For example, if you sell a "Björn Borg dressing gown", you may also want customers to find the product on "Bjørn Borg dressing gown" and "Björn Borg bathrobe" and "Bjørn Borg bathrobe". To do so, go to the product. Select the "Search" tab and type now
Bjørn Borg
bathrobe
in the "Optional words for internal shop search" field and click "Save".
Note that you need to create a new line for each search phrase.
Please note that it may take up to 24 hours for this to work on your webshop. This is because we cache the searches so that your shop is even faster.

Can I exclude products from the search?

Yep... Go to the product. Click on the "Search" tab. Check the "Ignore in webshop search" box.

Can I get Ajax search on my shop?

You definitely can. However, it needs to be coded in, so you will need a developer. If you use our Alaska theme, it's built in.
And yes - you can get a "Add to cart" button directly from the search (but it's not something people are likely to use, so think twice before paying for its development).

How do I track what people are searching for?

You do this in Google Analytics. You need to set up the "search" parameter in Google Analytics. We also recommend that you set the "searchresults" parameter as a category. This allows you to track your 0 searches (i.e. the number of searches that do not produce any results). This is a great opportunity to improve your webshop.
Go to the administrator in Google Analytics. Now click on "Display settings"

Then click on "Site search tracking" so that it is set to "On". Under "Query parameter", type "search" and just below it, click on "Categories for site search" so that it is set to on. Here you type "searchresults". Check the two checkboxes to keep parameters out of the URL. It should look like this:

In the future, you can see your zero searches in Google Analytics under Behavior → Site Search → Search terms. Then click on "Site search category".

Then click 0 in the table (can easily be somewhere else in your table)

You will now get an overview of all the searches that people have made where they have not gotten any results.