Amasty Advanced Search Magento 2 Extension

January 17, 2020 - E-Commerce, Magento 2, Magento tips & tricks

Amasty has a considerable portfolio of Magento 2 modules, and, of course, there is a place for a Magento 2 search extension there. Meet the Advanced Search plugin – a tool that completely revamps the way the default Magento 2 search works. So, what are the Amasty’s benefits over the out-of-the-box solution? Below, we describe this Magento 2 advanced search extension in the closest details.

Download / Buy Amasty Advanced Search Magento 2 Extension

Download / Buy Amasty Search Pro Magento Extension

Both searches are designed to help customers find what they are looking for, but the default solution does this in a much less efficient way. With the Amasty Advanced Search Magento 2 extension, you get an advanced search window that:

Displays recent searches;
Displays popular search queries;
Provides Magento 2 search autocomplete functionality;
Supports Magento 2 category search, as well as search for products and CMS pages;
Offers a highly customizable layout;
Displays the “Add to Cart” button in the popup;
Provides multiple search blocks for the popup;
Supports attributes.

Now, we would like to draw your attention to some of the positive reviews this Magento 2 advanced search plugin already got:

The Amasty Advanced Search Magento 2 module allows increasing the effectiveness of search by adding attributes to the search algorithm. As a Magento 2 administrator, you can easily specify their weight, customizing search results display according to your ecommerce needs. On the other side, customers get an excellent opportunity to filter products by such parameters as material, color, manufacturer, and more. Besides, they can quickly add products to the cart without even leaving a page on which they interact with the search window – the Add to Cart button is seamlessly integrated into the popup, dramatically improving the default shopping experience.

As for popular and recent searches, they can be displayed once a visitor clicks on a quick search window. As a Magento 2 admin, you can set a limit on the number of shown results. Also, note that the recent searches block can be displayed only after a necessary word is typed.

As for the Magento 2 category search, it allows adding a separate block to the popup that displays relevant categories. To make the block informative and clear, you can set a limit on the length of category names and descriptions. The Magento 2 advanced search provides similar opportunities when it comes to CMS pages. Moreover, it is possible to display search results in the landing pages and brands sections of a popup window, as well as utilize the search functionality on a website’s blog and FAQ pages. Besides, the module allows dividing search results into convenient tabs.

Product reviews and ratings can be displayed among search results as well. This way, you can provide customers with a better understanding of what to choose. Besides, several design options let you customize the appearance of the popup window and its sections according to your store style.

It is also necessary to say a few words about available Magento 2 search autocomplete parameters. We have mentioned above that the Magento 2 search autocomplete is available in the Advanced Search module. The feature can be customized by specifying a minimum number of characters that triggers the function.

Furthermore, store managers can set search terms relevancy and make the searching process even more comfortable. Ability to display related search queries also helps store owners to promote particular goods that might be interesting for a customer.

With the Amasty Advanced Search extension, you also get access to the analytical dashboard that displays statistics on the customers’ search activity. By analyzing the collected data, you can understand which search requests are most popular among your store visitors and evaluate the engagement rates.

Let’s see how all these features are implemented in the backend of the Magento 2 advanced search module.

Table of contents

1 Backend
2 Frontend
3 Recent Updates
4 Final Words

Backend

First, we would like to describe how to configure the extension. The relevant backend section is located under Stores -> Settings -> Configuration -> Amasty Extensions -> Advanced Search. All settings are divided into 13 groups: General, Search Attributes, Products, Popular Searches, Recent Searches, Blog, Brands, Categories, CMS Pages, Landing Pages, FAQ Question, Custom Layout, and Elastic Search.

The first one allows users to specify a width of the autocomplete popup and set a search field width as default (to keep its original size during the search process) or dynamic (based on the popup width). Next, you can specify a minimum number of characters that will trigger the search and enable redirect to store search results from a broken URL. Here, you can also set a custom SEO friendly URL for default search results page, create a URL key for search results page, and enable separate tabs for the Products, Categories, CMS, and Landing Pages search results. Besides, the Magento 2 module’s settings allow admin to enable indexation for the autocomplete popup. Note that this feature is available with the Amasty Elastic Search only. In this settings tab, you also decide whether to show related search requests and their number in the search results.

In search attributes of this Magento 2 advanced search extension, you can add all the necessary attributes and specify their weight.

In Products, enable the feature, type a block title, specify its position and max results to display, and set limits on the name and short description length. If necessary, allow showing reviews and the Add to Cart button, as well as enable/disable redirect to the product page (in case of only one search result) and display of out of stock items at the end of the results list.

The Popular Searches block allows turning on the feature and enabling recent search functionality on the first click. Next, you specify a block title, position, and maximum qty of results displayed there.

In Recent Searches, you have the same settings: enable/disable the relevant feature, allow displaying it on the first click, specify a title, set its position, and type the number of results to show.

The Blog and Brands blocks can be configured in the following way: enable/disable an appropriate block, type its title, choose a position and max number of displayed results, and set limits on the name and description length.

The Magento 2 Advanced Search module offers the same options for the configuration of the Categories section in the search popup window. In addition, you decide whether to show a full category path to the displayed search results.

The same settings as described above are available for the CMS Pages block. Below, you can see its standard configuration section provided by the Amasty Magento 2 advanced search module:

As for the Landing Pages tab, you can enable the search function based on landing pages, create the block’s title, specify its position and the maximum number of results to show, as well as content and content heading length.

In the following settings tab, you can enable the search across the FAQ pages and set the necessary options for the relevant block appearance in the search popup.

Custom Layout settings allow specifying colors for such search popup elements as text, hover text, background, highlight, border, and hover.

In the last tab of the Magento 2 Advanced Search module’s settings, you can configure the elastic search functionality when it is installed on your website.

Now, let’s navigate to Reports -> Search Analytics to see how the analytical dashboard looks. The Search Analytics diagram shows the following data:

the number of total searches;
the number of unique searches;
the number of users;
engagement of users in percentage.

Another block of the search analytics dashboard contains statistics on the most wanted search terms and customers’ recent activity.

By clicking the “View more” link under the grids, you will be forwarded to a separate screen with the most used search queries or recent searches correspondingly. These pages can also be reached from the Reports menu of the module’s backend.

Besides, you can view all search queries that where entered by users on your storefront and their performance under Reports -> Search Terms.

Here, you can also set search terms relevancy and modify details of existing search queries. The search term edit page is divided into 2 sections: General Information and Related Terms. First, you should enter a keyword for the search query, select the appropriate store view, set the number of returned results and word uses. You can also enter a redirect URL and add a configured search request to the list of related terms.

The Related Terms section shows all suggested search queries enabled for display. You can assign specific search requests as related to the configured term by marking them on the grid.

Now, when you understand how to customize the Amasty Advanced Search Magento 2 extension, let’s see how it works on the frontend.

Frontend

On the first click, the autocomplete search window displays the lists of popular and recent searches. Start typing a query, and you will see the suggested categories and products. Price, image, title, and Add to Cart button are shown for each product. You can also customize their appearance. A block with recent searches appears as well. The following gif image illustrates how the Magento 2 advanced search works:

Below is an example of a search by the brand name Trent. Here, Brands and Landing Pages sections are added to the popup window, showing relevant results for the inserted query.

In the next frontend example, you can see how the Magento 2 extension divides search results by tabs for a more convenient browsing experience.

Recent Updates

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.13.4

A new option was added: the ability to keep the default width of the search field during the search process.
Now it is possible to add related search queries to the search results page.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.12.10

The Most Wanted Search Terms and Recent Activity grids were added to the Reports menu in the backend.
A new design of the search autocomplete popup was introduced.
The Search Analytics dashboard was added to the admin panel.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.10.5

Configuration settings were revised and enhanced.
Now it is possible to utilize blog pages and blog categories created with Amasty Blog Pro for performing the search.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.9.2

New option: a section with brand pages can be added to the search results window.
Compatibility with Amasty Shop by Brand allows performing the search based on the brand pages.
Now Category, CMS, and Landing pages can be displayed in different tabs in the search results window.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.8.0

New function: configuration of SEO URL Key for the default search results page.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.7.0

Now out of stock items can be listed at the bottom of the search results, while currently available products are displayed first.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.6.0

Updated design of the autocomplete popup window: horizontal view display for the desktop and vertical view – on mobile.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.5.0

Now it is possible to perform the search based on landing pages if Amasty Landing Pages is installed.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.4.0

Now frontend users can be redirected to a store search results page if a URL is broken.
Added the possibility to use NOINDEX and NOFOLLOW to prevent search engines from indexing search results pages when not needed.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.3.0

The module is compatible with the built-in Magento EE Solr and Elasticsearch.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.2.3

New: now, if only one product has been found, the user is redirected to the product page.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.2.1

A new option was added: now you can show “Popular” and “Recent” searches on the first click.

Magento 2 Advanced Search 1.1.0

Attribute relevance weight configuration was added.

Final Words

If you are looking for a tool that will make the default Magento 2 search better and enhance the default shopping experience, pay attention to the Amasty Advanced Search extension. The module can be purchased for $199. We gathered more Magento 2 search engines and tools here: Magento 2 Catalog Search Engines. Besides, don’t forget to check Magento 2 Extensions for Improved Catalog Search. For further information about the Amasty module, follow this link: