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Wow Chat for Woo

Instant search

How Wow Search indexes your WooCommerce catalog, ranks results with MySQL FULLTEXT, matches word forms and SKUs, and optionally replaces your theme's search box.

Last updated Sep 4, 2026 · applies to v0.2.1

Why a dedicated index

WooCommerce’s default search runs LIKE queries against the posts table. That gets slow on large catalogs and misses obvious matches — “boots” will not find “boot”. Wow Search builds a dedicated index table and ranks results with MySQL FULLTEXT, so results arrive as the shopper types, without a page reload.

What it understands

  • Word forms — “boots”, “boot” and “booted” match each other.
  • Exact SKUs — a SKU typed exactly wins over everything else, which matters for parts and B2B catalogs.
  • Your vocabulary — the search dictionary is built from your categories, tags, brands and attributes, so “gore-tex” or “oak” match the way your catalog uses them.
  • Priority — in-stock and recently updated products rank ahead of out-of-stock or stale ones.
  • Block editor — add the Wow Search block wherever you want a search box: headers, sidebars, landing pages.
  • Classic themes and widgets — use the shortcode:
[wow_chat_for_woo_search]
  • Take over the theme’s search — in Wow Chat → Settings → Search, let Wow Search replace your theme’s existing search box so every search on the site uses the index. Developers can control this with the wow_chat_for_woo_replace_default_search filter.

Analytics

Top search queries are recorded locally and shown on the analytics dashboard, which is the quickest way to find what shoppers look for that you don’t yet sell — or don’t yet name the way they do.

Performance

Search assets load only on pages that actually render a search box. Queries hit the index table, not your posts table.

wow_chat_for_woo_search_results, wow_chat_for_woo_search_strategy, wow_chat_for_woo_search_dictionary, wow_chat_for_woo_replace_default_search — see Developer hooks.