SearchUs – Site Search + Smart 404 Recovery

Description

SearchUs (SearchUs by FunnelWon) after free or paid license activation replaces or powers your WordPress search with a dedicated index, relevance-ranked results, and a results page (SERP) you control. Until activation, visitor search on ?s= uses WordPress’s built-in search while you complete setup. It indexes pages, posts, WooCommerce products, and media (images, PDFs, videos, documents). All admin settings in this plugin are available on every plan (ranking weights, intent, SERP layout, media extraction, result injections, multi-user mode, and more). Plan differences are enforced by the SearchUs hosted service: indexed URL cap, monthly search queries, full reindex frequency, and optional removal of “Search powered by…” attribution—not by disabling plugin features in PHP.

Key features

• Search results page (SERP) – After license activation, redirects ?s=query to a dedicated search page (e.g. /searchus/ or /search/) with search box, result tabs (All, Images, Videos, Documents, Audio, Products), and optional list or grid layout. Works with your theme header and footer. Result reordering and injections (promoted results on the All tab) apply when you use the SearchUs SERP template under SERP → Layout, not when you use the theme’s default search template only.
• Smart 404 recovery – On 404, suggests similar pages/posts/products/media based on the URL so visitors can find content instead of a dead end.
• Intent and synonyms – Synonym list and intent matching so queries map to the right content (e.g. “lead gen” → “lead generation”).
• “Did you mean?” – When there are no results, can suggest a corrected query from the search service (returned with query results; no third-party spell-check APIs).
• Ranking – Admin controls for title, H1, H2, H3+, body, and media weights; optional URL-segment and multi-token boosts; per-type caps and multipliers (pages, posts, products, images, videos, etc.). Relevance scoring runs on the SearchUs API using your saved settings.
• Crawl and reindex – Sitemap-based or full reindex to build/refresh the index. Auto-crawl can keep the index updated when content changes. URL exclusions and optional class/ID exclusions for body extraction. Full reindex frequency and index size limits are enforced by the service when you hit plan quotas.
• Media and products – Index and search images (with alt/title/filename), PDFs, documents, video, audio; WooCommerce product support with per-type caps and ranking multipliers. On the SearchUs SERP template, optional Buy Now on simple in-stock product cards (SERP → Layout → Ecommerce Config: checkout, cart, or off).
• Safety – Settings lock to avoid accidental changes; optional local rate limits; junk-query guard blocks scanner probes before any API call (see External services).

Options

• Use the SearchUs search results page (default) or “default WordPress results” so your theme’s search template shows our results.
• Choose which post types and media types to index, exclude URLs or DOM areas, and tune SERP layout (list/grid, excerpt length, results per page, WooCommerce Buy Now destination) and ranking from the same settings screens on all plans.

Requires PHP 7.4+. Free plans include “Search powered by FunnelWon” attribution on results where the API returns it; paid plans may remove attribution per license. No remote code execution. After license activation, the plugin communicates with FunnelWon’s API for indexing, visitor search results, and license handling; usage counters support plan limits on the service. No third-party advertising or behavioral-tracking scripts for FunnelWon’s benefit.

External services

This plugin connects to FunnelWon SearchUs (hosted API and account dashboard at https://searchus.funnelwon.com). Use of the service is subject to our Terms and Privacy (links below).

When data is sent

• License activation / validation – When you enter or refresh an API key (and on periodic checks the plugin performs).
• Indexing – When you run a full reindex, delta/index push, or auto-crawl sends content to build or update the remote index.
• Visitor search – After activation, each real visitor search query is sent to POST /v1/query so the service can score results and apply plan limits (unless blocked locally as junk; see below).
• Usage and configuration – When the admin loads usage, reindex eligibility, or optional cloud settings backup/sync features you use.

What is sent (summary)

• Site URL, API key, plugin version, site identifier, and technical headers needed for authentication and plan routing.
• Content and metadata you enable for indexing (titles, body areas, headings, product fields, media alt text, filenames, etc.).
• Visitor search query text for live search (not used for third-party advertising).
• Aggregated usage for quotas (e.g. query counts, indexed URL counts, reindex allowance).

What stays on your server

• Optional SearchUs analytics (if enabled) is stored in your WordPress database only.
• Query guard (core/query-guard.php) evaluates queries locally and does not send obvious bot/scanner probes to the API or third parties.
• A search result cache (transients) may store recent API responses locally for performance; it is not shared with advertisers.

Legal

• Terms of Service: https://searchus.funnelwon.com/tos/
• Privacy Policy: https://searchus.funnelwon.com/privacy/

For more detail, see the Privacy section below and the in-plugin FAQ.

Privacy

Licensing and API

When the plugin contacts FunnelWon’s (SearchUs) services—for license validation, indexing, search results, or configuration sync—it may send your site URL, API key (if you have entered one), plugin version, and other technical data needed to operate the service. Your site URL is used among other things to apply your plan and allowed environments (for example production, staging, and development URLs permitted under your license). After you complete license activation, indexing and visitor search send the content and metadata described in the plugin and settings (e.g. pages, posts, products) and each search query to the API as needed to build the index and return results; see the Description and External services sections above. Before activation, those API-backed search flows are not used for front-end ?s= requests.

Support (information you choose to share)

If you contact support, we may ask you to share diagnostic details so we can reproduce issues and spot conflicts—for example your hosting provider or environment, active WordPress theme (name and version), and list of active plugins, often by pasting Tools → Site Health → Info from your admin. You decide what to send; we use it only to troubleshoot (including cache and plugin conflicts) and improve compatibility. Unless a future feature clearly discloses it and asks for consent, the plugin does not automatically upload your theme or full plugin list to us solely for support.

What the plugin sends automatically (no separate ad or marketing profile)

• Site identity and licensing: your site URL (and any staging/dev URLs your license allows), API key if you enter one, plugin version, and related technical fields so we can validate the license, apply plan limits, and route API requests.
• Indexing: text and metadata from the content types you enable (e.g. titles, excerpts, body areas, headings, product fields, image alt text, file names)—only what is needed to build and update the search index.
• Search: each visitor search query is sent to the service to compute results once license activation is complete (same as any hosted search). Until an API key is stored after activation, front-end ?s= search uses WordPress’s built-in search and is not sent to SearchUs for ranking. Queries are not used for third-party advertising; they are processed to return search results and for plan usage (e.g. query volume limits) where applicable.
• Optional in-plugin analytics (if you turn it on): aggregated search and click metrics stored on your WordPress site in its database, as described in settings. A first-party cookie may be used for deduplication. This analytics data is not sent to FunnelWon for advertising; it stays on your server unless a future feature clearly says otherwise.

What we do not do

• We do not sell your site URL, license details, index payloads, search queries, or support diagnostics to third parties for advertising or to build ad profiles.
• The plugin does not load third-party advertising or behavioral-tracking scripts for FunnelWon’s benefit.
• We do not automatically upload your theme name, plugin list, or Site Health dump—only what you choose to send if you contact support.

Personal data (PII) in plain language

SearchUs is not designed to collect visitor identities for marketing. However, search queries can contain anything a visitor types, and indexed content may include names, emails, or other data you published on the site—those flows are part of normal search and indexing, not a separate “PII harvesting” feature. If you are a data controller for your site’s visitors, you should describe SearchUs in your privacy policy (and comply with applicable law). FunnelWon’s own handling of data received through the service is described in our policies below.

Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Use of the hosted SearchUs service is governed by our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy on the SearchSaaS dashboard site:

• Terms of Service: https://searchus.funnelwon.com/tos/
• Privacy Policy: https://searchus.funnelwon.com/privacy/

For retention, security, legal bases, subprocessors, and other details, see the Privacy Policy link above. That policy governs FunnelWon / SearchUs as the service provider; your site still needs its own policy where required. The Privacy Policy is also published at https://funnelwon.com/privacy/ for convenience.

Third-party libraries

The plugin bundles Driver.js (https://github.com/kamranahmedse/driver.js) under the MIT License for the in-admin setup walkthrough. Source is included under admin/vendor/driver/.