Is there a way or code to make the Keyword search work WITHOUT having a category selected, and WITHOUT having to disable the “display categories” on the home page? My website works better with categories showing on the front page, not listings, but the keyword search should not be dependant on adding a category. The average user would expect to enter a keyword and have search options appear.
Hi,
Thank you for your patience, and apologies for the late response.
Could you please clarify what you mean by keyword search requiring category selection? By default, you can enter keywords in the search form and get results by clicking the search button - there’s no requirement to choose a category.
If you want to display categories alongside the search form but don’t want to use the Display Categories option, you can create a new page and set it as your front page in WordPress Dashboard > Settings > Reading. On this page, you can add blocks such as Search Form and Categories, and in that case, when you search by keywords, the listings will be displayed.
I’m using ExpertHive and I don’t want to change my front page. I already have the categories showing instead of listings on the front page and I have the search bar also on the front page which I have search option as keyword and category - but I want it to search on keyword OR category, not keyword AND category which it is currently doing.
If I search on just category it brings up listings in that category, but if I try to search on a keyword it brings up nothing (it just refreshes the page) unless I enter a category as well which defeats the point. So it doesn’t work.
Also, what exactly does the keyword use to search on - tags? name? attributes? I have a talent directory and when I search ‘actor’ only one listing comes up even though there are several listings that should appear.
Hi,
Unfortunately there’s no way to change the “Display categories instead of listings” behavior, this option was added to force users to select category before searching listings so until the category is selected, the categories will show instead of listings.
If I understand correctly, currently you have the Listings page (that initially shows categories because the “Display categories…” option is checked) as the Front Page in Settings/Reading. The solution to this issue is to use a separate page for the Front Page, please consider creating a new page in WordPress/Pages, insert the following blocks to its content:
- Listing Search Form
- Listing Categories
Set this page as the Front Page in Settings/Reading, and disable the “Display categories…” option in HivePress/Settings/Listings. This way, the Listings page will display listings and allow search by keywords without forcing users to select a category, and the front page will show the same layout as you currently have on your site – the search bar, and category cards below. The search bar will also allow search by keywords without selecting the category.
Regarding the keyword search functionality, by default it indexes listing titles, descriptions, and category labels. You can also mark specific attributes as Indexable in Listings/Attributes, this way category values will also be available in the keyword search.
Hope this helps
No it doesn’t help because I don’t want Listings displayed on the front page. My directory makes more sense to show categories. But this should not impact how a user searches for something - this makes the website non-user friendly because it is not intuitive and you don’t really seem to be understanding my question - when searching (on ANY page if there is search options) it should allow search on ANY value - whether it is keyword OR category OR location. But your search bars do not do this and never bring up the correct results, if they return any results.
My solution for now is to remove the search bar completely (not ideal) and use tags for search ability instead.
How do I remove the search bar from both the listings page and vendor page because the search function doesn’t work properly? I would prefer it to show tags instead as that works better for filtering listings.
There was no suggestion to display Listings on the home page – if I understand correctly, the current issue is that users are forced to select the category before viewing listings in the search results.
It occurs because of a combo of 2 settings (“Display categories…” is checked and the Listings page is set as front page in Settings/Reading). The solution is to uncheck the “Display categories…” option in HivePress/Settings/Listings and select another page as the front page in Settings/Reading. For the page you select as a front page, you can then add the Search Form and Categories blocks to the page content in the editor (in WordPress/Pages). As a result, the front page will display the search form and categories, but users will not be forced to select a category when searching listings by keywords.
Please check this screencast (it’s based on the ExpertHive theme but works the same with any theme) test - 17 September 2025 | Loom As you can see, the front page displays the search form with categories, and when searching listings by keywords, listings are displayed without the need to select category. I followed the same steps as described above before recording the screencast.
Hiding the search form will not resolve the category display issue because the “Display categories…” option is still checked, if it’s checked then the search results will never appear until the category is selected (this is the purpose of this option). If you want to hide the search form anyway, please use this CSS code (it can be added to Appearance/Customize/Additional CSS), but please note that hiding the main search form may cause issues or require further customizations:
.hp-form--listing-search {display:none!important}
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