Explore Plugins

How to Add Popular Searches to Your Knowledge Base

Last updated July 1, 2026 Reading time: 9 minutes

How to Add Popular Searches to Your Knowledge Base

Popular searches give visitors a quick way to find common topics without typing into the search box.

They appear near the main knowledge base search area and act as ready-made search links.

For example, you could add links for:

  • Installation
  • Activation
  • Product key
  • Categories
  • Analytics
  • Troubleshooting

When a visitor selects one, SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base searches for that term and shows matching articles.

Open the homepage settings

To add popular searches:

  1. Sign in to your WordPress dashboard.
  2. Open Knowledge Base > Settings.
  3. Select the Homepage tab.
  4. Find the Popular Searches settings.
  5. Enable the section.
  6. Add your search terms.
  7. Select Save Changes.

Open the main knowledge base page afterwards and test each link.

Find the option that controls whether popular searches are shown on the homepage.

Enable it, then save the settings.

If the section is disabled, the saved terms will remain in the settings but will not appear publicly.

This means you can temporarily hide the links without deleting them.

The label introduces the suggested search links.

The default wording may be something similar to:

Popular searches

You can change this to suit your website.

Other options include:

  • Common searches
  • Popular topics
  • Quick searches
  • Try searching for
  • Frequently searched
  • Common help topics

Keep the label short so it does not take attention away from the main search box.

Add your search terms

Enter the topics you want visitors to see.

Depending on the field shown in your plugin version, you can enter them one per line or separate them with commas.

For example:

installation, activation, product key, categories, troubleshooting

Or:

installation

activation

product key

categories

troubleshooting

SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base will display up to eight terms, so place the most useful ones first.

The best terms are subjects visitors regularly need help with.

Good sources include:

  • Common support questions
  • Frequently viewed articles
  • Search Analytics
  • Important setup tasks
  • Licence and activation questions
  • Features that customers often ask about

For a SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base documentation area, useful terms might include:

  • Install plugin
  • Activate licence
  • Product key
  • Create category
  • Create article
  • Change colours
  • Search analytics
  • Licence error

Use wording that matches the content of your articles.

Keep search terms short

Popular search links should be easy to scan.

Short phrases usually work better than full questions.

For example:

Activate licence

is better suited to a small search link than:

How do I activate my SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base licence?

The longer question may still work as a normal search, but it can make the homepage look crowded.

One to three words is normally enough.

Make sure each term returns results

Before adding a term permanently, search for it manually.

Check that at least one useful article appears.

For example, if you add:

Product key

the search should return articles such as:

  • Where to Find Your Purchase Email and Product Key
  • How to Activate SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base
  • Fix Licence Details Not Recognised

If a popular search returns no results, visitors may think the knowledge base does not cover that subject.

You should either improve the existing articles or change the suggested term.

Match the wording used in your articles

Popular search terms work best when the same or similar wording appears in:

  • Article titles
  • Article excerpts
  • Article content

For example, if all your articles use the phrase licence key, but the popular search uses serial number, the results may be less useful.

Use the language your visitors understand, then include that wording naturally in the relevant article.

Once visitors begin using the knowledge base, open:

Knowledge Base > Analytics > Search Analytics

Look for terms with a high number of searches.

These are good candidates for the popular search links, especially when they return helpful results.

You may find that visitors use different wording from the terms you originally expected.

For example, they may search for:

activation code

instead of:

product key

You can use the wording that produces the most useful result.

Check no-result searches

Search Analytics can also show terms that returned no results.

These may reveal useful topics for new articles.

For example, if visitors repeatedly search for:

change category URL

you could create a guide explaining how to change the category URL base.

Once that article has been published, the search term could be added to the popular searches if it is useful to a wider group of visitors.

Popular searches are different from category links.

A category opens a fixed section containing selected articles.

A popular search runs a search using the saved phrase.

Use category cards for broad sections such as:

  • Getting Started
  • Licence and Subscription
  • Customisation
  • Troubleshooting

Use popular searches for more specific subjects such as:

  • Product key
  • Change logo
  • Article views
  • Licence error

Using both gives visitors two different ways to find help.

Arrange the terms in a useful order

The terms are normally shown in the order they are entered.

Place the most important or commonly used searches first.

For example:

  1. Installation
  2. Activation
  3. Product key
  4. Create article
  5. Create category
  6. Customisation
  7. Analytics
  8. Troubleshooting

The best order will depend on your own visitors and documentation.

Review it occasionally as your search data changes.

Avoid duplicate search terms

Do not add several terms that return almost identical results unless the different wording is genuinely useful.

For example, you may not need all of these:

  • Activate
  • Activation
  • Activate licence
  • Licence activation

Choose the clearest term and use the available space for another topic.

You can still include alternative wording naturally inside the related article.

Avoid terms that are too broad

A broad term such as:

WordPress

may return a large number of unrelated articles.

A more focused term such as:

WordPress installation

is likely to produce a more useful result.

Other broad terms to avoid may include:

  • Help
  • Plugin
  • Article
  • Settings
  • Problem

Use enough detail to point visitors towards a clear subject.

Avoid terms that are too specific

A very long or unusual phrase may only match one sentence inside an article.

For example:

why my product key does not work after changing hosting

may be too specific for a permanent homepage link.

A simpler term such as:

Product key not working

will usually be more useful.

The first terms you choose do not need to remain forever.

Review them when:

  • New features are added
  • Customer questions change
  • New articles are published
  • Search Analytics shows new popular wording
  • Old articles are removed
  • A term begins returning poor results

A knowledge base for WordPress should change as the product and its documentation change.

To remove a term:

  1. Open Knowledge Base > Settings > Homepage.
  2. Find the Popular Searches field.
  3. Delete the term.
  4. Select Save Changes.
  5. Refresh the knowledge base homepage.

The other terms will remain in place.

Change an existing term

To rename a popular search:

  1. Open the Homepage settings.
  2. Replace the old wording with the new wording.
  3. Save the settings.
  4. Test the updated link.

Remember that changing the wording changes the search being performed.

Make sure the new version still returns the expected articles.

Hide the whole section

If you no longer want to display popular searches:

  1. Open the Homepage settings.
  2. Disable the Popular Searches option.
  3. Select Save Changes.

The links will disappear from the public homepage.

Your saved terms may remain available in the settings if you decide to enable the section again later.

If one of the links does not return an article:

  1. Search for the term manually.
  2. Check that the relevant article is published.
  3. Make sure the article is not unlisted.
  4. Check that the wording appears in the title, excerpt or content.
  5. Change the search term if needed.
  6. Clear the website cache.
  7. Test again while signed out of WordPress.

Every visible popular search should lead to something useful.

If the section does not appear, check that:

  • Popular Searches is enabled
  • At least one term has been added
  • The settings were saved
  • The main knowledge base search area is enabled
  • You are viewing the correct knowledge base page
  • The website cache has been cleared
  • Your SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base licence is active

Try adding one simple test term such as:

installation

Save the settings and check the page again.

The terms are displayed incorrectly

If several terms appear as one long link, check how they were entered.

Depending on the field, they may need to be separated by:

  • Commas
  • New lines

Remove any unusual symbols or extra formatting.

Use plain text terms without quotation marks.

A term shows the wrong articles

If the results are too broad:

  • Make the term slightly more specific
  • Improve the article titles
  • Add clearer excerpts
  • Remove unrelated wording from articles
  • Split a broad article into smaller guides

For example:

settings

may return too many articles, while:

design settings

may produce a more useful list.

Test on mobile

Popular searches can take up more space on a smaller screen.

After adding them, check that:

  • The links wrap neatly
  • The text is easy to tap
  • The search area does not feel crowded
  • No term is unnecessarily long
  • The title and tagline still have enough space

If the section looks too busy, reduce the number of terms.

You do not need to use all eight available positions.

Before finishing, check that:

  • The section is enabled
  • The label is clear
  • The most useful terms appear first
  • No more than eight terms are used
  • Each term returns a helpful result
  • The wording matches your articles
  • There are no unnecessary duplicates
  • Terms are not too broad or too specific
  • Search Analytics has been reviewed
  • The links work on desktop and mobile

Your popular search links are now ready to guide visitors towards common knowledge base topics.

Continue reading

How Popular, Related and Recently Updated Articles Work How Popular, Related and Recently Updated Articles Work SoftwareRoad Knowledge Base can automatically display useful article lists across your knowledge base. These…