The Search Behavior box sets the defaults for every search bar on your site: the shortcode, the block, the widget, Spotlight and the results page. Change it once here, and every bar follows.
Any single bar can still override these with shortcode options.
Where to find it:
Open AiX Search, then Settings. The Settings section is open by default. Scroll past the licence panel to Search Behavior.
The fields:
- Placeholder Text: the default grey prompt inside the bar. Default: Search the site...
- Start Searching After: how many characters a visitor types before results appear, from 1 to 5. Default: 2 characters. Use 3 on a very large site to avoid broad early results
- Max Results: the total number of results shown when results are not grouped, from 1 to 30. Default: 8
- Per Group: the most results shown under each heading in the dropdown, from 1 to 10. Default: 4
- Group Results By: Content type, Category or No grouping (flat list). Default: Content type
The tick boxes:
- Show thumbnail images: the picture beside each result. On by default
- Show a short excerpt under each result: the description line. On by default
- Show a See all results link at the bottom: the link to the full results page, with a count. On by default. With it on, pressing Enter in the bar also opens the results page
- Open results in a new tab: off by default
- Record searches for the Insights tab: on by default. It stores the words typed, the number of results and the time. See Privacy And What Gets Recorded
Click Save Settings at the bottom of the screen to keep your changes.
How the bar behaves for visitors:
The bar waits until the visitor pauses typing for a moment, then searches. Each new search cancels the one before it, so results never arrive out of order. Arrow keys move through the results, Enter opens the highlighted one, and Escape closes the dropdown.
The rest of the Settings screen:
- The licence panel at the top. See Activating Your License
- Spotlight Search: the Ctrl+K overlay. See Spotlight Search
- See All Results Page: where the See all results link goes. See The Full Search Results Page
- Appearance On The Front End: accent colour and custom CSS. See Styling, Colours And Custom CSS
- Admin Color Scheme: how the plugin's own screens look. See Admin Colour Schemes
Two more sections sit in the row of buttons at the top: Rules, for synonyms and promoted results, and PRO Settings.
A real example:
The Home Bakery Club changed the placeholder to Search recipes, courses and guides... and kept the other defaults. Recipes are short words like scones, so 2 characters is a good start. Per Group stays at 4, so the dropdown shows a tidy mix of recipes and courses.
Tips:
- Per bar overrides use shortcode options such as limit, group, images and excerpt. See Shortcode Options Explained.
- Keep Record searches switched on. The Insights tab is one of the most useful parts of the plugin.