SEARCH FUNCTION
This topic contains 12 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by 
Alex Rollin 5 years, 9 months ago.
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July 2, 2018 at 3:53 am #436875
Hello
My website is http://www.foodtrucks2u.com.au.
When I search the words “chip on a stick” on the home page, there are a few listings that come up that are not related to that search eg. “Ice Creamery on Wheels” shows up.
Also, why are the featured listings not showing up first in search.
Is it possible to search by category with a drop down in the search function?
On the page “Food Trucks”, what would be the best way to add a search function eg. category and location. A megamenu or sidebar menu?
Looking forward to your response.
Danielle
July 2, 2018 at 7:34 am #436894When I search the words “chip on a stick” on the home page, there are a few listings that come up that are not related to that search eg. “Ice Creamery on Wheels” shows up.
Also, why are the featured listings not showing up first in search.
Search includes title/description/categories/tags and results are weighted by relevance. Please share the search URL you have tested and a link to the listing that you think is missing from the search and we can take a look at it. You can read more about search here: https://wpgeodirectory.com/docs/gd-search/
Featured can be used as an advance search criteria, but is not a factor in weighting search results otherwise. To feature listings on the search page it is possible to add a widget like GD Popular Post View with the listings restricted to ‘featured’.
Is it possible to search by category with a drop down in the search function?
It is possible to add a drop down that will restrict results by category: https://wpgeodirectory.com/docs/gd-search/#cat
On the page “Food Trucks”, what would be the best way to add a search function eg. category and location. A megamenu or sidebar menu?
Not sure what you are asking, as there is a search bar at the top of the page already.
Because the site is for the whole country, perhaps you could review the Location Manager widgets and try a popular location widget:
https://wpgeodirectory.com/docs/location-manager-widgets/#pop
July 2, 2018 at 10:28 pm #436976Hello
This is the search result: https://www.foodtrucks2u.com.au/?geodir_search=1&stype=gd_place&s=chip+on+a+stick&snear=&sgeo_lat=&sgeo_lon=
My website developer has said that he thinks geodirectory uses the Title before content as the more relevant factor. Ice Creamery on wheels just has the word “on” in the title, whereas “Spring Potato Twisters” don’t have any of the words in the title, but the entire phrase in the content. Is this correct?
My website developer also tried searching for “chip stick” on the home page. The “Spring Potato Twisters” does not show up for this search results even though it has those words in the description, so it appears the search function does not take into account the description of the listing.
It doesn’t look like its possible to make the featured results in the search show first. My website developer tried your suggestion ” by adding the widget GD Popular Post View with the listings restricted to ‘featured’.”. The result showed all featured food trucks, it does not show only those related to the current search term. I can’t see a way to filter it so that it only shows featured listing related to the current search term.
I also did a search “Chips on a Stick” Category “Fast Food” in Sydney. Here is the result showing that the featured food truck comes last. https://www.foodtrucks2u.com.au/?geodir_search=1&stype=gd_place&s=chips+on+a+stick&sgd_placecategory%5B%5D=17&snear=Sydney&sgeo_lat=-33.8548157&sgeo_lon=151.2164539
My website developer has just added a category selector to the search function. It does help return more relevant results as it takes into account the category.
Can you have a dropdown for the location.
Looking forward to your response.
Danielle
July 3, 2018 at 6:02 am #436990Hello,
Can you have a dropdown for the location.
There is the location switcher, but no dropdown that can be added to the search bar.
https://wpgeodirectory.com/docs/location-manager-shortcodes/#switch
Title before content as the more relevant factor. Ice Creamery on wheels just has the word “on” in the title, whereas “Spring Potato Twisters” don’t have any of the words in the title, but the entire phrase in the content. Is this correct?
My website developer also tried searching for “chip stick” on the home page. The “Spring Potato Twisters” does not show up for this search results even though it has those words in the description, so it appears the search function does not take into account the description of the listing.
I will flag your questions about search for the developers.
July 3, 2018 at 9:49 am #437015My website developer also tried searching for “chip stick” on the home page. The “Spring Potato Twisters” does not show up for this search results even though it has those words in the description
The title is searched for many one and multiple word matches and then given a score.
The description is only searched for the multiple phrase ie “chip stick” which never appear together in the description.Stiofan
July 4, 2018 at 1:03 am #437095Hi Stiofan
Thanks for your response.
It would be great for your developers to have the featured listings show up first in search results.
This would only improve your directory and help businesses to be able to sell this option as a part of their membership over free listings.
Looking forward to your response.
Danielle
July 4, 2018 at 8:57 am #437123It would be a customization but there is an example here;
https://wpgeodirectory.com/support/topic/directory-very-slow-since-transistion/page/3/#post-407637
July 8, 2018 at 11:23 pm #437489My website developer put in the coding for the featured listings to show up first in the directory.
I’m afraid this function does not change the search results to show Featured listings first. i’ve implemented this code and tested the term “chip on a stick”. The last result is a featured listing. Didn’t make any difference to my searches with or without the code being added.
This function needs to work on my website as it is part of the membership benefits. Please let me know how to make this work urgently.
Danielle
July 9, 2018 at 11:31 am #437536Search is score based, featured is given a weighted score and will appear first over other listings with a similar score but its not given as much weight that it will outweigh more relevant results.
Stiofan
July 10, 2018 at 1:09 am #437656I was given a code for this to happen from Alex.
Alex: It would be a customization but there is an example here;
https://wpgeodirectory.com/support/topic/directory-very-slow-since-transistion/page/3/#post-407637
I was also told that this would be put to the developers to make featured listings be listed first over free listings.
Looking forward to your response.
Danielle
July 10, 2018 at 6:24 am #437663Hi Danielle,
The customization example is a place for developers to start with a new customization. This isn’t an easy customization to make because there are many factors involved in search.
A better bet is to place a GD Popular Post View widget restricted to featured listings inside the GD Search Page widget area.
However, we do know some members will want to make changes themselves, so we have provided an example of where to start with the customization. If you need more help tailoring it to fit your site you can contact a GD expert here:
July 19, 2018 at 12:32 am #438995Hi Alex
My website developer tried the GD Popular Post View and unfortuntly this didn’t work. This was my website developers response. Please let me know if he has tried it correctly or not.
Website developers response – It doesn’t look like its possible to make the featured results in the search show first. My website developer tried your suggestion ” by adding the widget GD Popular Post View with the listings restricted to ‘featured’.”. The result showed all featured food trucks, it does not show only those related to the current search term. I can’t see a way to filter it so that it only shows featured listing related to the current search term.
It would be fantastic if you could provide the final code as its really not logical to not show the featured listings first in search results. This is what I have sold my membership on.
Have customers that have purchased this directory requested this before?
Looking forward to your response.
Thanks
DanielleJuly 19, 2018 at 8:40 am #439019Hello,
the insertion of a Popular Post View widget would show featured listings, but no it would not be responsive to the search term.
Sort ordering, in the custom fields, is applicable to listings pages only, not search.
Search is discussed in several places. Please take a look at this doc first:
https://wpgeodirectory.com/docs/gd-search/
Then you can view an older forum threads here:
https://wpgeodirectory.com/support/topic/change-order-of-search-results-to-show-featured-first/#post-412682
https://wpgeodirectory.com/support/topic/html-field-new-lines/#post-116141 -
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