To control which product data customers can search, navigate to Elevated › Product Search › Settings › Advanced Options and expand the Search Scope section. Toggle the fields you want included, add any custom meta field keys, then click Save Settings. Titles are always searchable and cannot be disabled.
Navigate to Elevated › Product Search › Settings.
Locate the Advanced Options section on the left side of the page. Click Advanced Options to expand it.
The Search Scope panel appears at the top of the expanded section.
The Search Scope panel lists all product data fields that can be included in the search.
Toggle each field to ON to include it in the search:
Product titles are always searchable and do not appear as a toggle.
If you store additional product data in custom meta fields (for example, using Advanced Custom Fields, Meta Box, or JetEngine), you can add those fields to the search index.
Look for the Search in Custom Fields section below the toggles.
Click the input field and type the meta key for the custom field you want to search. Press Enter to add it. Add multiple fields by typing each key and pressing Enter.
To remove a field, click the X next to the meta key.
After enabling fields or adding custom meta keys, click Save Settings at the top of the page.
The indexer automatically rebuilds to include the newly enabled fields. A success message appears indicating how many products were indexed.
If you need to manually rebuild the index at any time, scroll to the Indexer section at the bottom of the page and click Force Index Rebuild.
Wait for the success message indicating the number of products indexed.
The Preview panel on the right side shows a visual mockup of how your search form and results will appear.
To test actual search behavior, visit a page on your frontend where the search form is placed. Type a value that matches one of your newly enabled fields. For example, if you enabled SKUs, search for a known SKU. If you added a custom field for material, search for a material value assigned to a product.
Confirm that matching products appear in the live search dropdown.
The Search Scope controls what data the indexer extracts from your products. When a field is enabled, the indexer reads that data and adds it to the dedicated search index. When disabled, the indexer ignores it completely, and searches against that data type return no results.
Product titles are always included in the index and cannot be disabled. This ensures that basic product name searches always work regardless of other scope settings.
Custom fields are selected from a searchable list. Click the input field under Search in Custom Fields and type a keyword. Elevated Product Search displays all matching custom fields. Click the correct field to add it to the index. You do not need to know the exact meta key.
Changing Search Scope settings affects all instances of the search form on your site. There is no per-shortcode override for searchable fields.
The index rebuild process runs in the background. For stores with fewer than 1,000 products, it completes in seconds. Larger catalogs may take longer. You only need to rebuild when you change scope settings or add new custom fields. Regular product updates are handled automatically by the indexer.
Search by SKU returns no results
Confirm you toggled SKUs to ON in the Search Scope panel, saved settings, and clicked Force Index Rebuild. Then test with the exact SKU or a partial value.
Custom field search does not work
Confirm you selected the correct field from the list. If the wrong field was added, remove it by clicking the X next to the field name. Then search again and select the correct custom field.
Enabled fields are missing from search after saving
You may need to rebuild the index. Go to Elevated › Product Search › Settings, scroll to the Indexer section, and click Force Index Rebuild.
