What started as a plugin to replace the WordPress Search with, now has been taken to a whole new level and includes several new features:

• Exclude entries and categories from being indexed;
• Add related posts to your entries;
• Click through statistics for search results and related posts;
• Replace the standard tracker URL with your own shortURL

Add Related Posts to Your Entries

One of the most popular and asked for extensions to WordPress are related posts. We took the concept a level further than existing plugins and included related posts across your search channel options. Just like the search feature of our plugin, the related posts will return results of all the domains listed in your account.

Related posts are completely customisable in look and CSS and the options can be added directly in the plugin configuration panel.

Tip: To display your related post results horizontally, change the vertical trigger in the Related Posts Main Template field.
You can easily add a thumbnail to your results as well by inserting {postimg} to the Related Post Row Template field.

Exclude Entries and Categories

With the opportunity to show results and related posts from several domains across your search channel, we thought that it would be interesting to offer the opportunity to exclude URLs, and even complete categories, from your search. Go to the ‘Other’ tab in your WordPress Search Plugin panel and find a list of your categories and a field where you can enter any URL you would not wish to be indexed.

Tracker and Custom ShortURL

Most related post plugins will do what it says on the tin but too often as a user no feedback (read: statistics) are provided. We integrated a standard tracker URL (t.search-plugins.com) to allow you to easily follow statistics and click through rates for your search results and related posts.

For premium users we included the option to replace the standard tracker URL with your own custom shortURL. To assure optimal compatibility with previous custom shortURL platforms you might have used, the next release will automatically import your shortURLs from these platforms.

Click Through Stats

When using the shortURL, or default tracker URL, you can now see how many click through you receive every day, as well as receive extensive statistics regarding the origin of your clicks and on which domain you receive most clicks.

Statistics can be sorted by date, URl, country and host.

Replace WordPress Standard Search

Of course let’s not forget the main feature of our plugin: replace the search function of WordPress and have search results delivered from your complete network.

BETA Launch

Over the next days we are sending out BETA invites to everyone who has signed up already. Please contact us with the email address you used and your API key to be upgraded to a Premium plan.

Don’t forget to follow SearchPlugins on twitter to be updated about new releases and new features.

Once we were happy with the crawl results and speed of our search engine, we looked further and wondered how we could improve search for websites and help site owners to better cross-promote multiple sites?

It didn’t take long before the light bulb went up: blogs of course and what better software platform to start with than WordPress.

What is Search Plugin for WordPress

Search Plugin for WordPress is a completely new way to search your WordPress setup, especially interesting for those who have more than one site.

For the first time you will have the power of a true search engine combined with the advantages of WordPress plugins: our crawler only indexes your post, the results integrate completely in your blog design and you can still run ads on your search results as if it were a standard site (or the service provided via a big company specialised in Ads search).

You can even add other sites to the search, sites you write yourself and where you install the plugin or sites you wish to include because they are in the same content niche as you are. This way you could even form partnerships with other blogs.
Check out the features list.

Announcing Beta

There still is a lot of work to be done but we have the basic search implementation and WordPress functions tied together already and we now need testers. Beta testers.

What Do Beta Testers Get?
Participants to our Beta program will receive access to the newest updates and if in a near future we switch to a multi-level user account system, they will always have free access to our newest add-ons and receive a free account tailored to their needs.

As Beta tester we will help you making sure that the search integrates correctly in your design. Although we have a seamless integration with the main WordPress themes, many themes use different designs and sometimes weird things happen. We will help you if you’re affected by this.

What Do I Have To Do as Beta Tester?
Right now we are entering a Closed Beta phase: we will be accepted new tester on a manual basis and send out new invites every week.

New releases come fast, often several in one day. Luckily this does not involve more work than updating the plugin, which only takes 2 clicks to do so. Don’t worry, we made sure you will not miss the notification of new releases. ;)

Your task is to report us bugs, share your ideas, share how you would improve the plugin and let us know what you would love to see integrated in the feature. Every Beta tester will be added to our internal Basecamp to assure optimal feedback options and highest focus from as many people as possible.

Can Anyone Join The Closed Beta Program?
We are open to anyone, all you need is a blog with WordPress and you will be taken in consideration and be invited as soon as we have new slots available. Just hop over to the sidebar and sign up. If you think we should give your application higher priority, do not hesitate to contact us and tell us why we should prioritise you.

What’s Next?

Although we have not publicly launched yet we already have ample ideas and new features we will introduce ASAP. Soon we will use the algorithm which ranks our results to cross promote your content in other areas of your site as well.
Right now though we first want to build and deliver you the ultimate search plugin for your WordPress installation.

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