Site search FAQs

Here are some common issues you may encounter when configuring site search in your Shopify store and ways to address them.

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How can I hide specific products in the autocomplete search dropdown menu?

The autocomplete search dropdown menu that our Instant search widget adds to your search bar can include relevant products that match the search queries. When you want to hide certain products in the autosuggest list, you can try the following methods:

  • Method 1: You can adjust the quantity of those products to zero. Then you customize the components of your search dropdown menu accordingly by: 
    • From the app’s admin, go to Search > Instant search display.
    • In the Display settings section, go to the Instant search widget tab.
    • In the Product suggestion display section, switch the button Out of stock products off to hide all products with zero quantity when the search bar auto-suggests relevant products.
  • Method 2: The status of those products can be changed from Active to either Draft or Archived. It is worth noting that when you change their status, the purchased orders that contain them will be no longer accessible and customers cannot buy them anymore. 
  • Method 3: You can assign special tags to the products and use our feature Product Visibility to hide them when your search bar automatically suggests relevant products, by taking the following steps:
    • From the app’s admin, go to Merchandising > Product Visibility.
    • Click + Add product visibility.
    • In the Hide products with selected tags field, select the tag that you have added to specific products that you want to hide.
    • In the Applies to section, select Instant search widget.
    • Click Save.

Why are some products missing from search results?

Some products can be missing from either the dropdown menu that your autocomplete search bar offers or the search results page. A number of factors can result in the situation.

Scenario 1

The synchronization mechanism has not updated the latest changes that you have made to your store. In this case, you can wait about 10 minutes for the automatic sync to happen or you can click the Sync recent updates button by going to Sync from the app's admin.

Scenario 2

The product can be missing from the dropdown menu that your autocomplete search bar offers when its quantity is zero and when customizing the components of the search dropdown menu, in the Product suggestion display section, you have switched the button Out of stock products off. 

When you have a product that matches a search query and the search engine does not return it on the search results page, then you might have selected Hide out-of-stock products/variants when customizing the display of your product list. 

Scenario 3

The missing products might have tags that have been controlled by our Product Visibility feature. If your store assigned pfs:hidden tags to some of your products before Aug 26, 2020, you can go to Merchandising > Product Visibility from the app’s admin to check if there are specific tags that have been added to our Product Visibility feature. 

Scenario 4

The status of a missing product can be either Draft or Archived. You can change it to Active to test if the product will show up in the autocomplete dropdown menu from the search bar and the search results page. 

Scenario 5

You have checked the automatic sync process, all kinds of out-of-stock product settings, Product Visibility settings, and the missing products’ status. And they are still not displayed in the autosuggest list from the search bar and search results page. Then you can check if their searchable attributes have the search term. It is worth noting that our search engine looks for matched products in the searchable attributes, including product title, product type, vendor, tag, product option, SKU, barcode, and description. You can learn more about the algorithm of our site search features here. 

Scenario 6

The app allows you to turn on and off any product attribute that you do not want the search engine to run through so that search results can be delivered faster. You might have accidentally disabled a searchable attribute that contains data that matches the search query, consequently making some products, that do match the search query, not show up in the autosuggest dropdown menu from the search bar and the search results page. You can customize search fields by following this instruction. 

When you have other issues related to our site search features, please contact us at support@boostcommerce.net for instant assistance.