![\"How](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/how-to-enable-search-by-author-featured.png\")
<\/figure>\nQuick Summary:<\/strong> The default WordPress search does not include author names. To fix this, I recommend using SearchWP<\/a><\/strong> to add \u2018Author\u2019 as a searchable attribute in your algorithm settings. This allows readers to find posts by their favorite writers instantly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When you allow search by blog post author, you improve how readers find and explore content on your site. When visitors can search for specific authors, they discover more relevant posts and spend more time reading.<\/p>\n This feature is especially valuable if you run a multi-author blog<\/a>. Readers often connect with particular writing styles and want to find more content from writers they enjoy.<\/p>\n Here are the key benefits of enabling author search:<\/p>\n Now, here\u2019s how to allow search by blog post author in WordPress:<\/p>\n To add an author search to WordPress, I recommend using SearchWP<\/a>. It is the best search plugin for WordPress because it enhances default WordPress search by indexing content types like authors, custom fields, and PDFs. This gives you complete control over your search results.<\/p>\n We use SearchWP on some of our partner websites for better site search. To read more about our experience, see our complete SearchWP review<\/a>.<\/p>\n First, you\u2019ll need to purchase a SearchWP plan. On the SearchWP website<\/a>, click the \u2018Get SearchWP Now\u2019 button, pick a plan, and complete the registration steps.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcdd Note:<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019ll need the SearchWP Standard plan or higher<\/a> to make author names searchable. SearchWP does offer a free Live AJAX Search<\/a> plugin, but it only adds instant live search functionality without the ability to customize search sources.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Once you sign up, you can access your account dashboard and license key. Go ahead and download the SearchWP plugin ZIP file from your account area. The file will be saved to your computer\u2019s downloads folder.<\/p>\n Next, you\u2019ll need to install and activate the plugin on your WordPress site<\/a>.<\/p>\n From your WordPress admin dashboard, go to Plugins \u00bb Add Plugin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Next, let\u2019s click the \u2018Upload Plugin\u2019 button.<\/p>\n In the file uploader, click \u2018Choose File\u2019 and \u2018Install Now.\u2019<\/p>\n When it finishes installing, click \u2018Activate.\u2019 If you need help, see our beginner\u2019s guide on how to install a WordPress plugin<\/a>.<\/p>\n After activation, go to SearchWP \u00bb Settings<\/strong> to enter your license key. Simply paste the key you received when purchasing the plugin and click \u2018Activate License\u2019.<\/p>\n The plugin will then launch an onboarding wizard to help you get started. You can follow the setup steps or skip them for now \u2013 we\u2019ll configure everything in the next step anyway.<\/p>\n Now that SearchWP is active, you\u2019ll need to configure it to include author names in your search results. This is where you tell the plugin to look at the author information<\/a> when someone performs a search.<\/p>\n In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to\u00a0SearchWP \u00bb Algorithm<\/strong>. This is where you control what content SearchWP indexes and searches through.<\/p>\n On this page, you\u2019ll see the \u2018Default\u2019 search engine \u2013 this is the one you\u2019ll customize for author search.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s click the \u2018Sources & Settings\u2019 button to view all the content types that SearchWP can search through.<\/p>\n By default, it includes posts, pages, and media, but you can add more sources. For example, if you\u2019re running a WooCommerce<\/a> store, you can also check the \u2018Products\u2019 box.<\/p>\n You can also uncheck any options you want to exclude from search results. When you\u2019re ready, click \u2018Done\u2019 to save your changes.<\/p>\n Next, under the \u2018Posts\u2019 source section, click the \u2018Add\/Remove Attributes\u2019 button.<\/p>\n This will let you choose which details SearchWP should include in its search results.<\/p>\n In the popup that appears, look for the \u2018Author\u2019 option in the available sources.<\/p>\n Simply check the box next to \u2018Author\u2019 to add author names as a searchable attribute, then click \u2018Done\u2019 to close the popup.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve added the author attribute, you\u2019ll see a relevance weight slider next to it. This slider controls how important author matches are compared to other search results.<\/p>\n I recommend setting the slider somewhere in the middle range<\/strong>. This makes sure that when someone searches for an author\u2019s name, those results appear prominently without completely overshadowing other relevant content.<\/p>\n After adjusting the weight, click the \u2018Save Changes\u2019 button at the top of the page.<\/p>\n SearchWP will now begin indexing your authors\u2019 names.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udd17 Related:<\/strong>\u00a0If you also want to search by categories, custom post types, or comments, SearchWP makes those easy to add, too. See our step-by-step guides on:<\/p>\n After configuring SearchWP, it\u2019s important to test that the author search is working correctly. This ensures your readers will be able to find content by their favorite writers.<\/p>\n Start by visiting your website\u2019s front end. Look for the search form<\/a> on your site \u2013 it\u2019s usually located in the header, sidebar, or footer area.<\/p>\n In the search box<\/a>, type the name of one of your blog\u2019s authors. SearchWP will look for the author\u2019s Public Display Name, so try searching for that.<\/p>\n Press enter or click the search button to see the results. If everything is set up correctly, you should see blog posts written by that author appearing in the search results.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s it \u2013 you\u2019ve successfully created an author search for your WordPress blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n I recommend testing with a few different author names to make sure the feature works consistently. Try searching for authors who have written different numbers of blog posts to verify that all results appear.<\/p>\n If an author\u2019s name doesn\u2019t return results immediately, give it a few minutes. SearchWP needs to build its index in the background. You should also double-check that the author has actually published posts on your site.<\/p>\n You can also test partial name searches<\/a>. For example, searching for just \u201cJohn\u201d should return posts by anyone named John Brown.<\/p>\n Now that your author search is working, you may want to find more ways to improve your WordPress search even further.<\/p>\n The default WordPress search<\/a> is very limited.<\/p>\n It often returns incomplete or irrelevant results, loads slowly, and doesn\u2019t give visitors much context beyond post titles and excerpts. In some cases, searches may even return no results<\/em>, despite relevant content existing on your site.<\/p>\n You can fix these issues by customizing the search results page and replacing the default search with a faster, more powerful solution. <\/p>\n You can improve result relevance, promote important content, search in more places like custom fields or PDFs<\/a>, and create a smoother search experience.<\/p>\n For a complete walkthrough on improving your search results page design and functionality, see our guide on\u00a0how to customize the search results page in WordPress<\/a>.<\/p>\n Expert Tip:<\/strong> If you want an alternative to author search, WPFilters<\/a> enables you to create custom content filters (including author-based) without coding, using drag-and-drop blocks that inherit your theme styling. To learn more, see our complete WPFilters review<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Before we wrap up, here are some common questions readers have about searching blog posts by author.<\/p>\n Will the author search work with custom post types?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes, author search will work with custom post types<\/a> as long as you configure SearchWP to include those post types in your search algorithm. You can add custom post types in the same \u2018Sources & Settings\u2019 area where you enabled author search.<\/p>\n Can I limit the author search to internal teams or private content libraries?<\/strong><\/p>\n Yes. SearchWP automatically respects WordPress content visibility settings<\/strong>. If you mark posts as \u2018Private\u2019 or use a membership plugin<\/a> to restrict content, SearchWP makes sure that only authorized users (like logged-in team members) can see those results.<\/p>\n Does author search affect SEO or site performance?<\/strong><\/p>\n No, enabling author search doesn\u2019t negatively affect SEO<\/a> or site performance. SearchWP runs efficiently in the background and doesn\u2019t change how search engines like Google index your site \u2013 it only improves the search experience for your visitors.<\/p>\n I hope this tutorial helped you learn how to allow search by blog post author in WordPress. <\/p>\n You might also want to see our other helpful guides on:<\/p>\n If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our\u00a0YouTube Channel<\/a>\u00a0for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post How I Enabled Search by Blog Post Author in WordPress (in 3 Easy Steps)<\/a> first appeared on WPBeginner<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I started running a multi-author WordPress blog, I learned something important: readers develop favorite writers. But when they type an author\u2019s name into your WordPress search box, nothing shows up, even if that author has published many posts. This happens because the default WordPress search feature does not include author names. Even if the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailysutoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Allow Search by Blog Post Author in WordPress?<\/h4>\n
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Step 1: Install and Activate the SearchWP Plugin<\/h4>\n
![\"Is](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/searchwp-homepage-newdesign.png\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/wpadmin-plugins-addnew.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Select](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/wp-plugins-addplugins-uploadplugin-choosefile.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Enter](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/03\/searchwp-settings-license-key.png\")
<\/figure>\nStep 2: Customize Search Engine to Include Authors<\/h4>\n
![\"SearchWP](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/wp-searchwp-algorithm-engines.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/searchwp-algo-default-sourcesandsettings.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Customizing](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/searchwp-algo-default-sourcesandsettings-edit.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/searchwp-algo-default-addremoveattributes.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Adding](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/searchwp-algo-default-addremoveattributes-edit.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Setting](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/searchwp-algo-default-authorattr.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Saving](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/searchwp-algo-default-customized-saved.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n
Step 3: Test Your New Search<\/h4>\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/livesite-search-function.png\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Search](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/livesite-searchbyauthor-results.png\")
<\/figure>\nBonus Tip: Customize WordPress Search Results Page Further<\/h4>\n
![\"No](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/no-search-results-for-custom-post-type.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n![\"Adding](\"https:\/\/www.wpbeginner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/searchwp-managemetadataattribute-pdf-metadata-contents.png\")
<\/figure>\nFAQs About Searching Blog Posts by Author<\/h4>\n
Related Articles for Improving WordPress Search<\/h4>\n
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