How to Enable Idx Integration on WordPress
The Index (Idx) is one of the most popular and versatile search engines around. Their specialty is giving users the ability to search through a database of news articles, blog posts, and other content to discover what they want to read. This content is then delivered to them in an easy-to-scroll format that brings all of the information to the surface and allows users to find exactly what they want in seconds. Most people who use WordPress know what Idx is, however, many are still uncertain as to how they can integrate the search engine into their system. In this article, we will discuss the steps that you can take to easily enable Idx searches on your WordPress site.
Step 1: Install and Configure the Idx Search API
First things first, you need to install the Index search API on your website. This can be done by navigating to https://yourdomain.com/wp-content/upgrade/index-search-api/ and clicking the Install Now button. Once installed, you can access the Settings -> API section of your WordPress backend to configure how you want the search API to function on your site. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be using the free version of the API. All webmasters should ensure that they have the Pro version, as it offers more features and is generally more cost-effective.
Step 2: Enabling Idx Inclusion in Your Theme
After you have installed the API, you need to determine where you will integrate it in your theme. The ideal location is wp-content/themes/your-theme/inc/header.php. You can then copy and paste the following code into your header file:
<h1>How to Enable Idx Integration on WordPress</h1>
<p><strong>Step 1:</strong> Install and Configure the Idx Search API</p>
<p><strong>Step 2:</strong> Enabling Idx Inclusion in Your Theme</p>
<p><strong>Step 3:</strong> Integrating Search into Your Website</p>
<p><strong>Step 4:</strong> Testing and Optimizing Your Workflow</p>
<p><strong>Step 5:</strong> Managing Popular Searches</p>
<p><strong>Final Step:</strong> Review and Reflect</p>
<p><strong>Tip:</strong> If you are new to WordPress or haven't used a CMS in some time, start small.
Now when a user visits your site, they will see a search bar at the top of every page. If you are using a free version of WordPress, you will also see a Get Pro button at the top of the search bar. When a user clicks this button, they will be taken to the Get Pro page where they can sign up for a free version of WordPress or purchase a premium account. In either case, they will now have the option of enabling or disabling the search bar on their site.
If you have more than one website or blog, you can install the Index API on each one and integrate the search bar across all of them.
Some WordPress users may be familiar with Amazon's product review platform, ReviewExpress. This is where they get all of the reviews from small businesses around the country. Those businesses rely on Amazon's review platform to get the word out about their products and services. The same concept applies to your website. By adding a product review section to your site and enabling Idx on it, you could increase the traffic to your other reviews while also increasing the chance of a customer finding what they're looking for.
Step 3: Integrating the Search Bar into Your Website
Once you have installed the Index search API on your site and enabled it in your theme, you can start building your product review section. To do this, you must first create a new page (or post) for this purpose. From there, you can start building out the review content.
The next step is to navigate to the page (or post) you created and add some product reviews. When a user submits a review for a product, the data is then funneled into the Index API and returned as search results.
You may choose to display these results on your site in a number of ways. A popular practice is to place the search bar into the sidebar and have the results appear there. Depending on your theme, you could also display the results in a dedicated section at the top of a blog post or page.
To test this out, navigate to a product review page (or post) and click on the Add New button at the top of the page. This will take you to the next step of the review process where you can start adding content.
Step 4: Testing, Optimizing, and Making Changes
When you get a new WordPress blog or website, it's a good idea to take some time to learn the ropes. Even seasoned bloggers can benefit from getting their toes wet with some simple tasks. In this step, you will learn how to use the built-in testing tool that comes with every WordPress installation. This way, you can ensure that your changes don't break any existing functionality on your site and get the most out of your dashboard.
To begin, log into your WordPress account and click on Tools in the left-hand navigation. From there, you can access the Testing tab.
From the Testing tab, you can access the Online button which will take you to a search bar. In the search bar, you can start typing your product or service name and hit Enter to see a list of matching results.
As you can imagine, there are a lot of unexpected results that come up when you search for something as vague as “dog food”. Fortunately, the Testing tool allows you to control what results appear by selecting one of the suggested search phrases from the drop-down menu.
If you click on the Cancel button next to the Search Bar, the bar will disappear and you will be returned to the main dashboard.
Step 5: Manage Popular Searches
In the previous step, you learned how to add your own product reviews and get those results back via search. Another popular use for an e-commerce store's search bar is to allow customers to find what they're looking for quickly and easily via search. In this final step, we will discuss how you can manage the searches on your site so that you can maintain maximum control over what results are displayed.
To do this, navigate to Settings from the WordPress dashboard. Once you're there, click on the SEO tab.
If you use Google Analytics to track your website traffic, you can learn a lot from its organic search data. This data reveals the keywords and search phrases that users are using to find your content. To see what keywords and phrases people are using to find your site, log into your Google Analytics account and navigate to the Search Traffic tab. Here, you will see a search bar at the top of the page. You can enter a query and see a list of keywords and phrases along with their related search volumes.
What you want to do is enter your product or service name into the search bar and hit Enter. This will pull up all the searches that contain your product or service. You can then use the Organic Traffic drop-down menu to choose the region and time period of the search results you want to see.