Install in 60 seconds
Glance lives in the WordPress plugin directory. Make sure WooCommerce is already installed and active: it's the only requirement.
- From your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New.
- Search for Glance Live Search.
- Click Install Now, then Activate.
- Open WooCommerce → Glance Search to see the settings screen.
Buying Pro
After purchase, you'll get a download link and a license key by email. Install the Pro ZIP from Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, then paste your key in WooCommerce → Glance Search → License. The Free version is replaced automatically. You don't lose any settings.
Where to put the search bar
You have four ways to add the search bar to your store. Pick whichever fits your theme. They all give you the same search bar.
Use the shortcode (works anywhere)
Paste this into any page, post, or block: content, sidebar, footer, anywhere you can type:
Use the Gutenberg block
In the block editor, click the + button and search for Glance Live Search. Drop it where you want and you're done.
Use the Elementor widget
Open Elementor, search Glance Live Search in the widget panel, and drag it into your layout.
Use a WordPress widget
Go to Appearance → Widgets and add the Glance Live Search widget to your header, sidebar, or footer area.
Configure the basics
All settings live under WooCommerce → Glance Search. The first tab is Behavior: this is where you tune how the search reacts to your customers.
- Minimum characters before search: How many letters a shopper has to type before results appear. Three is a good default; lower it to two if your store has lots of short product names.
- Search delay: How long Glance waits after the last keystroke before firing the search. Faster feels snappier; slower reduces server load. The default (250ms) feels native.
- Maximum results to show: Free goes up to 5, Pro up to 50. Five is enough for most catalogs. If you have many similar products, raising this in Pro helps.
- Search in: Toggle which product fields are searched: title, SKU, description, short description, tags. For a B2B store, leave SKU on. For a fashion store, descriptions help a lot.
- Mobile breakpoint: Below this screen width, Glance opens a full-screen search panel. The default (768px) covers all phones.
- Placeholder text: The grey text inside the empty search bar. Keep it short and inviting: “Search products…” works.
Make it look like your store
The second tab, Search Bar, controls the look. Start with a preset, then adjust if you need to.
Pick a preset
- Sharp: clean, rectangular, professional. Good fit for tech or B2B stores.
- Clean: soft rounded corners, modern and friendly. The default, and what most stores use.
- Pill Pro: fully rounded, very approachable, fashion-friendly.
- Custom Pro: design from scratch with full control.
Adjust the details
From the same tab, you can change:
- Bar height: to match your header navigation.
- Border radius: how rounded the corners are.
- Border color & width: keep it subtle, or skip it entirely.
- Colors (Pro): bar background, focus state, text, placeholder, search button.
- Search button style: text or icon, inside the bar or as a separate button.
Read what your customers search
The Analytics tab is the most under-used feature of the plugin, and one of the most useful. It shows you what shoppers type, how often, and what returned no results.
Top keywords
The list of searches your customers run, most popular first. This is gold for your catalog: if a term shows up often, make sure that product (or category) is easy to find from the menu too.
Zero-result searches
Queries that returned nothing. This is even more valuable. If 100 people searched for “winter coat” and you don't sell one, you just found a product gap.
Tips for your theme
Glance works with every theme we've tested. A few have native integrations that make setup even easier.
Shoptimizer
Go to Customize → Header → Display the search and pick Glance Live Search. Glance takes over the header search slot. You don't need to add a shortcode anywhere.
Astra & Kadence
Glance auto-adjusts to match your header height and alignment. Use the WordPress widget or a Gutenberg block in your header layout and it will look native.
Divi & Elementor
Both page builders are fully supported. For Elementor, the dedicated widget is the easiest. For Divi, drop the shortcode [glance_search] into a Code or Text module.
Block themes (Twenty Twenty-Four, etc.)
In the Site Editor, search for the Glance Live Search block and drop it into your header template. That's it.
Any other theme
The shortcode [glance_search] works in 100% of themes. If your theme has a header builder, check whether it has a widget area or HTML block. That's usually the best place.
When something looks off
The search bar looks unstyled or broken
This usually happens when the search bar is added by your theme in a way that loads before Glance's styles. The fix: use the shortcode [glance_search] instead. It always loads the styles correctly.
My customer searched for something obvious and got no results
- Check that the product is set to Published and not hidden from the catalog.
- In the Behavior tab, make sure SKU and description are enabled if customers might search by those.
- Clear your cache (if you use a caching plugin): sometimes you're seeing stale results.
The dropdown appears in the wrong place
Some page builders (Elementor, Divi) shift their content slightly. Glance auto-corrects in version 1.4. If you're running an older version, update first.
Another search plugin keeps interfering
If you have Relevanssi, SearchWP, or another search plugin active, deactivate them while testing Glance. Two search engines on the same site usually fight each other.
Still stuck?
Free users can post on the WordPress.org support forum — we read it every day. Pro users get priority email support: reply to your purchase email and we'll get back to you fast.
When to upgrade to Pro
The Free version is genuinely useful. Most stores never need to upgrade. You should look at Pro if:
- You sell variations (color, size, material) and customers search for them directly.
- You have a large catalog and 5 results per query isn't enough.
- You want the search bar to match your brand colors exactly.
- You want a category filter built into the search bar.
- You want to export your analytics to Excel or analyze longer time periods.
- Your store is multilingual (WPML or Polylang).