- Type – free website builder (content management system).
In previous free video tutorial, we created website on Joomla 4 from scratch. We used only free extensions. The result was a business website, which was uploaded to the hosting. In this article we will talk about Joomla Smart search.
Video tutorial
- Indexed Content – 00:02:28.
- Search module – 00:02:53.
- Search menu item – 00:03:4
- Component options – 00:05:21.
- Search Term – 00:08:53.
- Index options – 00:11:01.
- Search plugins – 00:12:49.
- Search Filters – 00:14:55.
Better watch video with «1080p HD» quality. This and other video reviews and tutorials can be found on my YouTube channel.
Links from the video:
- Joomla 4 video tutorials.
- Google Programmable Search Engine.
- «Joomla Module video tutorial (Com modules). Creation and management».
- «Joomla menu video tutorial (Com menus). Creation and management».
- «Joomla Com_content video tutorial. Articles options».
- «Joomla Categories video tutorial (Сom_categories). Creation and use».
- «TinyMCE video tutorial. Joomla text editor».
- «Video tutorial «Joomla Multilanguage (Part 1)»».
- Permissions, Joomla user management and registration.
- Joomla video tutorials.
Smart search is a built-in Joomla extension for searching information on the site. An extension consists of a component, module, and plugins. To display the search on the site, in addition to the module, you can use the menu item. With the help of plugins, search can work not only with built-in components, but also with third-party ones, for example, with VirtueMart.
The previously recorded video tutorials for Joomla 4 are almost completely relevant for the current version of Joomla 5.0. The information and video tutorial from this article remain relevant for Joomla 4 as well. At least this is true on 03 February 2024.
Video tutorial recording date – February 03, 2024. Software from video tutorial – Joomla 5.0.2.
Joomla Smart Search advantages and disadvantages
Since about the middle of 2016, I have been using Google Programmable Search Engine on my site. The main reason is the quality of search results. Let's consider the advantages and disadvantages of Joomla Smart Search compared to Google Programmable Search Engine. I tried to arrange the advantages and disadvantages in the order of their importance.
Joomla Smart Search advantages:
- built into Joomla.
- Almost instant indexing of website content.
- It does not depend on website pages indexing in Google.
- Tighter integration with various Joomla components. For example, you can create a filter by fields, categories, labels for search results (using a third-party extension).
- Ability to influence the search «ranking formula».
- Ability to change any «aspects» of search performance and design by editing code/styles.
- OpenSearch availability (the possibility of adding a site search to the search bar in the browser).
Disadvantages of smart search:
- has little or no understanding of mistake, synonyms, transliteration and word forms in search queries.
- Less relevant search.
- Search database size limit. May not be suitable for sites with a lot of text.
- Content indexing requires special plugins. For example, in order for the online store product search to work, you need to find and install the appropriate plugin.
- Loads the database.
- There is no separate image search.
- It is not possible to search several sites at once.
- Less detailed statistics.
Search is a fairly important element of site navigation and is an integral part of sites with a large amount of information (articles, products, ads, etc.). The relevance of the results, complete coverage of the site's pages, and the ability to «understand» the user's request are important characteristics of the search. That's why I use Google search (Google Programmable Search Engine).
Plus, for my site, the built-in search may not be suitable due to the large amount of text. Basically, some of the content simply won't make it into the index. At least this was the case in Joomla 4.1.5 (August 2022) when the corresponding tests were performed.
If you don't have a lot of text, if you have all the plugins you need for indexing, first of all, try the built-in Joomla search. It is easier and faster to configure, it is built into Joomla itself, which means that almost any template contains styles for its organic display within the overall design of the site.
I hope this and other Joomla video tutorials have helped you with this CMS. If you have any questions, ask them in the comments. In the next video, we'll we will work with several useful Joomla plugins.
| Article author – Aleksej Khoroshevskij |
|---|
 Ph.D., lecturer at Kharkiv National University of Radio Electronics, web developer, and SEO specialist with over 15 years of experience. Expert in website creation using Joomla and WebSite X5. Author of scientific publications, video courses, and educational content on web development and SEO. Runs a blog and a YouTube channel, sharing knowledge and practical experience. Provides services in website development, customization, maintenance, and promotion. Learn more about the author… Publications and work: |
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