Search helps users find listings on your marketplace. It’s usually the first action customers take, so creating an easy and intuitive search experience is key to the success of your marketplace.

By default, both logged-in and anonymous users can browse and search listings on your marketplace, but only logged-in users can start transactions.

Users can search by keyword, location, or both. You can also further enrich the search experience by adding categories, custom fields, and by limiting custom fields to specific categories.

The marketplace search bar supports keyword and location searches. You can configure your search type in Console > Build > Listings > Listing search. You can also decide to show the search bar in the top bar only on some pages (learn more here).

Here is an example of a search bar with location search configured as the search type:

When location search is enabled, users can find listings by entering a place such as a country, city, street or postal code. You can also enable keyword filtering when location search is enabled, allowing users to combine location and keyword search.

Learn more about location search.

Keyword search lets users find listings by entering words or phrases. When enabled, it checks the listing title, description, and any 'Free text' fields you’ve included in keyword search. The search requires an exact match with the text(s) entered.

Learn more about keyword search.

In any section of a content page created with the Pages feature, you can enable Search as the section's call to action. Doing so allows you add one or more of these search fields:

Here is an example of a landing page with Search as CTA in the Hero section:

The search page is where open listings are returned by the search. Users can further refine their search results using filters and sorting on the search page.

Here is an example search page with a filter based on a category enabled:

Your marketplace search page is always located at yourdomain.com/s. The “/s” in the URL indicates the search page.

When users input a search parameter on the search page, the parameter is stored in the URL address of the search page. Filters, keywords, or locations are examples of search parameters. "yourdomain.com/s" is the path of the search page with no search parameter inputted; all open listings are shown there.

One or many parameters can be stored in a search page URL. Opening up a webpage with that same URL path will open up a search results page with the same search parameters inputted. In other words, the URL of the search page stores the searched-for parameters.

Any field or filter on your landing page will be stored in the address path of your search page. It is particularly useful with listing type, category, and location searches.

You can use this mechanism to create search pages with results for specific or desired parameters. For instance, you can direct users to view results only in a particular geographic area or results in a particular category. You can combine these to create a search page for results in a particular area and in a particular category.

There is no limit to the amount of parameters that can be stored in the URL of the search page.

Here are some ways you can use this technique:

Filters can be created from:

Learn more about the different filters available and how they work.

Listings are shown in the order they were created: more recent listings are shown ahead of older listings. Users can choose to sort by oldest listings first.

Users can also sort results by price (highest or lowest first). When searching by keyword, users can sort results by relevance to the keyword. Location searches are automatically sorted by distance to the searched-for location with nearer listings coming first.

The search page layout (where elements are placed and what elements are shown) is configurable. When configuring a custom filter, you can choose whether it shows as a primary filter or secondary filter. Primary filters feature more prominently. Learn more about filter placement.

The search page can be laid out in grid view or map view. Learn more about these layout options.

Your marketplace search engine queries and returns open listings from your marketplace database. Listings that are closed, pending approval by the admin, drafted, or deleted are not returned during a search.

User profiles, or the account page of a particular user account, is not searchable. User profiles, in other words, do not appear on the search page. User profiles can be accessed by pressing "View profile" button at the bottom of the listing page or through a direct link. User profile URLs are always domin.com/u/random-letters-and-numbers. The "u/random-letters-and-numbers" points to the specific user profile.

For marketplaces where the focus is on discovering people (e.g., hiring industry professionals), you should configure listings to function and look like like profiles. This allows them to be searchable, filterable, and sortable like regular listings.