Search in Verba: from a simple form to a command palette

Search in Verba is one element with two levels, not two separate tools.

#The basic level

Turn search on in the header and configure it in the Customizer: how the trigger looks (an icon or a field), the placeholder text, a note at the bottom of the panel, and whether search is limited to posts.

Results open on the standard WordPress results page, and its appearance is configured alongside archives. See Advanced archives.

Mobile has its own switch. Showing search on narrow screens is enabled separately, because a phone header has room for very little.

#The advanced level

Pro adds a second mode of the same search: a panel that opens over the page, shows suggestions as you type, and looks like the command palette in a code editor.

It is not a separate tool and not a replacement. The mode switch is in the search settings, and everything else behaves the same way.

The panel is not empty before you type. It shows groups of links, and each group is enabled separately:

Which link groups appear in the idle panel. Posts, categories, authors, tags, and a custom group of links you compile yourself.

Each group has its own content settings, so the panel can be either a directory of your whole site or a short list of the things people actually need.

Live suggestions as you type are enabled separately.

Every keystroke that triggers a suggestion is a request to your server. On modest hosting that is noticeable, both for the reader waiting and for the server under load. Turn it on, then try it on a phone over a mobile connection before deciding.

#What actually searches

What powers the results.

By default WordPress does the searching. That works, and on a large archive it gives you exactly what standard WordPress search is capable of, which is a keyword match without ranking by relevance.

The alternative is Algolia: an external search service that is faster and more precise. The provider choice only appears in the settings when the matching plugin is active. See the Algolia integration.

Said without salesmanship: Algolia makes sense on sites with a lot of material, and it is an external service with its own terms and pricing, not part of the theme.

Search is on but I cannot see it in the header

Check the desktop and mobile switches separately. They are independent.

My search finds pages I do not want in results

Turn on limiting search to posts, which keeps pages, attachments, and other post types out of the results.

Do I need Algolia?

Not for a few hundred posts. It earns its place on large archives where readers search often and standard results are visibly poor.

Last updated 22 Sep 2026

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