Ever regarded on the search filters on Amazon or Airbnb and wished you can make the content material by yourself web site simply as simply discoverable?
Think about in case your guests might merely click on a number of choices within the search filter, like “Value: Low to Excessive,” “Score: 4 Stars,” or “Colour: Blue”… and immediately, the proper outcomes seem.
Sadly, most filtering instruments available on the market are both frustratingly difficult, require hiring a developer to arrange, or are strictly restricted to WooCommerce shops.
It merely shouldn’t be this tough to assist your guests discover the content material they’re in search of.
That’s why right this moment, I’m excited to share the launch of WPFilters, a game-changing plugin that makes including “Amazon-style” faceted search to WordPress utterly seamless.
We constructed this device that can assist you cease dropping guests who can’t discover what they want. Whether or not you will have a weblog, an eCommerce retailer, or a listing, WPFilters permits your customers to filter posts, merchandise, and {custom} content material by classes, tags, {custom} fields, and extra.
Consider it as the last word navigation improve that turns your WordPress website into an expert, searchable database in minutes.
Background Story – Why WPFilters?
A couple of years in the past, we acquired SearchWP to repair the damaged default WordPress search. Right now, it helps over 50,000 website house owners present the precise outcomes to their viewers.
Because the neighborhood grows, we shortly observed a constant sample within the suggestions.
Whereas the search bar was now discovering all the precise content material, our customers needed a approach to assist their website guests slim down these outcomes.
For instance, when a customer searches for a broad time period like “breakfast recipes” on a weblog or “footwear” on a retailer, they may get a whole lot of outcomes. Customers would write to us asking, “How can I let my guests filter these outcomes and assist them get what they search for?”
Most filtering instruments available on the market anticipate you to rent a developer simply to get them working in your website. That’s once I realized faceted search had turn into a ‘premium’ function—one thing solely massive firms with massive budgets might realistically provide.
That didn’t sit proper with me. I consider that highly effective web site options ought to be accessible to everybody, not simply those that can code.
So, I sat down with the crew and set a problem: Let’s construct a filtering resolution that’s simply as highly effective as Amazon’s, however as straightforward to make use of because the WordPress Block Editor.
That’s precisely what WPFilters delivers.
Right here’s the overview of WPFilters. Watch the video:
What’s WPFilters?
WPFilters is a robust WordPress filtering plugin that lets you create superior search filters on your web site with out writing advanced code.
Within the developer world, that is known as “faceted search.” However for you and your guests, it merely means on the spot readability.
WPFilters allows you to construct {custom} filter units based mostly on classes, tags, or {custom} knowledge, and place them anyplace in your website. This permits your guests to drill down by means of your content material to seek out precisely what they want in seconds.
As an alternative of scrolling by means of pages of irrelevant outcomes, they’ll merely tick a field for “Class,” slide a bar for “Value,” and so forth.
Whether or not you might be utilizing the default WordPress search or the highly effective SearchWP engine, WPFilters creates the frontend interface that makes searching your website a pleasure.
Here’s what makes it particular:
1. Create “Amazon-Model” Filters with A number of Enter Varieties
In case you have a look at main websites like Amazon or Airbnb, you’ll discover how straightforward it’s to make use of their filtering choices to find the precise outcomes.
They use radio buttons for single-choice choices, checkboxes for multiple-choice choices, and visible sliders for value ranges.
That is precisely the expertise WPFilters brings to your website. You possibly can assign the proper enter management to match your knowledge, making your website really feel like an expert, custom-coded app.
For publishers and weblog house owners, this goes far past what customary classes can do. For instance, you possibly can enable your guests to mix standards like discovering a “Vegan” recipe that can be “Beneath 30 Minutes” and has a “5-Star Score.”
This sort of detailed drill-down helps your readers discover precisely what they need immediately, preserving them in your website longer.
WPFilters comes with all kinds of enter varieties to go well with completely different wants:
Checkboxes: enable customers to pick out a number of choices without delay (nice for classes or tags).
Radio Buttons: ultimate for once you need customers to make a single, unique alternative.
Dropdowns (Single & Multi-Choose): save display area whereas providing highly effective sorting choices.
Vary Sliders: a visible solution to filter numeric knowledge like value, weight, or dimension.
Search Bar: let customers filter the outcomes record by particular key phrases.
Reset Button: a one-click approach for customers to clear all filters and begin contemporary.
Filter by Something – Classes, Tags, Customized Fields & Extra
Your WordPress website is filled with priceless knowledge, however most of it’s hidden out of your guests. Often, you possibly can solely hyperlink to a generic Class archive, and that’s it. If you wish to let customers filter by one thing particular, like an Creator or a Customized Area, you might be normally out of luck.
WPFilters unlocks all that knowledge and turns it into clickable filters. You aren’t restricted to simply customary classes; if the information exists in WordPress, you possibly can filter by it.
This consists of customary classes, tags, or any {custom} taxonomy (like product classes, genres, and extra).
In case you use Superior Customized Fields to retailer additional particulars WPFilters robotically detects these fields and allows you to use them as filters immediately.
Show Filters Anyplace with Versatile Embedding Choices
Each WordPress website is constructed otherwise. A few of you like the trendy Block Editor, whereas others favor web page builders like SeedProd or Divi. We constructed WPFilters to suit seamlessly into your present workflow, regardless of how your website is about up.
After getting configured your filters, you will have full freedom over the place to show them. In case you use the WordPress Block Editor (Gutenberg), merely seek for the WPFilters Components block and drop it anyplace in your web page. It integrates natively with the editor settings.
Alternatively, for those who use web page builders, like SeedProd or need to use Basic Editor, you should use the distinctive shortcode supplied for every filter. Simply copy and paste it wherever you need to embed it.
In case you’re a developer, WPFilters additionally offers you entry to ready-to-use PHP snippet so you possibly can hard-code filters immediately into your template recordsdata.
Good Management Over Person Expertise (UX)
If a filter record is simply too lengthy or exhibits choices that don’t have any outcomes, it may really frustrate your guests. WPFilters comes with a number of sensible controls to make sure your filters look clear {and professional}.
You have got full management over the conduct and structure of your filter components:
Collapsible Sections: In case you have lengthy lists of filters, you may make the sections collapsible. This protects priceless display area, particularly on cell units.
Merchandise Counts: Mechanically show the variety of outcomes subsequent to every filter choice (e.g., “Advertising and marketing (12)”), so customers know precisely what number of posts exist earlier than they click on.
Disguise Empty Choices: You possibly can select to cover choices which have zero outcomes. This prevents the annoying expertise of a consumer clicking a class solely to see a “No outcomes discovered” message.
“See Extra” Hyperlinks: Maintain your sidebars tidy by exhibiting solely the primary few choices and hiding the remainder behind a “See Extra” hyperlink.
Horizontal Layouts: As an alternative of an ordinary vertical record, you possibly can show checkboxes or buttons side-by-side, which is ideal for top-bar filters.
Constructed by the Workforce Behind SearchWP
WPFilters is constructed by the identical crew behind SearchWP, the main search plugin trusted by hundreds of WordPress web site house owners.
For years, SearchWP has been the gold customary for fixing WordPress search relevance (the backend). We helped you make sure that when a consumer searches for “blue footwear,” they really discover blue footwear.
However we realized that discovering the precise outcomes is simply half the battle. Presenting them in a approach that’s straightforward to browse is simply as essential.
That’s why we constructed WPFilters.
We needed to convey the identical degree of code high quality and reliability that you simply anticipate from SearchWP to the frontend of your website. Whereas WPFilters works fantastically with the default WordPress search, it’s designed to be the proper companion for SearchWP.
Collectively, they provide you an entire, enterprise-grade search expertise—bettering each relevance and usefulness—with out the necessity for costly SaaS subscriptions or {custom} improvement.
What’s Coming Subsequent?
This launch is just the start.
We’re really constructing one thing particular right here, and we wish you to be part of it. Our objective is to make WPFilters the very best filtering resolution for WordPress, and one of the simplest ways to do this is by listening to you.
Now we have an thrilling roadmap forward, however we need to guarantee we’re constructing precisely what you want. In case you have concepts for brand new filter varieties, integrations, or options that will make your life simpler, please ship us your ideas.
We’re listening, and we stay up for persevering with to serve you for years to come back.
Yours Actually,
Syed BalkhiFounder of WPBeginner
