Search & AI search
Recipe discovery that keeps readers on your site
Allspice Search gives readers a modern, recipe-first way to find what to cook - searching your archive by title, ingredient, or plain-language intent - without bouncing to Google, Pinterest, or ChatGPT.
On this page
What readers experience
A reader opens Search from the Allspice widget - or straight from your site's navigation or existing search bar - and types the way they actually think:
- “easy chicken dinners”
- “something cozy for a cold night”
- “vegetarian meals that are high protein”
- “quick weeknight meals my kids might like”
Results come back from your recipe archive only, laid out in a visual, recipe-first grid. Readers can tap into a recipe, save it, add ingredients to a grocery list, or start cooking - all without leaving your site.
Search is part of the free core Allspice experience for readers, including AI-powered search results. It is not gated behind the AI chat message limit.
Standard Search vs. AI Search
Every site gets standard recipe search: fast matching on recipe titles, ingredients, descriptions, and indexed recipe metadata. Even standard search is more recipe-aware than a default WordPress search, which mostly matches keywords in posts.
AI Search goes further. Instead of matching exact words, it interprets intent - ingredients, cuisine style, meal type, difficulty, dietary preferences, cooking time, and the kind of dish the reader is trying to make.
AI Search is available for sites with more than 150 indexed recipes, which ensures enough coverage to return varied, high-quality results. Smaller sites use standard search automatically. If you've recently crossed 150 recipes, allow time for indexing, or use Sync with Allspice in the WordPress plugin to speed things up.
Search pills
Readers who don't know what to search for get a head start: Allspice displays suggested search pills generated from what your site does well. If your archive has real depth in air fryer dinners, gluten-free baking, or meal prep, pills will reflect those strengths - specific enough to feel useful, broad enough to lead into multiple recipes.
Pills are regenerated every few weeks, so as your library grows, suggestions evolve with it. They're built from your archive's actual strengths, not generic food categories every site would show.
Conversational follow-up
After an initial AI search, readers can keep going like a conversation:
- Narrow: “make it vegetarian” · “only show quick options”
- Expand: “show more like this” · “include meal prep options”
- Pivot: “actually, show me desserts for a party”
Search stops being a static results page and becomes an interactive discovery assistant - one that only ever recommends your recipes.
When available, AI Search also factors in stored preferences and prior interactions, so returning readers who lean gluten-free or quick-dinner get results that reflect it.
How results are ranked
Ranking blends relevance with what actually performs on your site:
- recipe title, description, ingredients, and ingredient groupings
- categories and tags
- semantic match to the reader's query
- site-specific recipe performance statistics
- recent reader behavior and search trends
- freshness of indexed recipe data
Performance statistics refresh regularly (generally weekly), so results improve over time based on what your readers search, click, save, and cook - and shift naturally with seasons and trends.
Result layout
Results appear in a visual mosaic where better matches can render in larger cells, helping readers spot the most likely fit at a glance. It reads more like an editorial discovery page than a list of links - and it all happens inside your site experience.
Why it matters for your site
- Discovery stays on your domain. Readers who would have gone back to Google or Pinterest to find “the next recipe” find it on your site instead.
- More recipes per visit. Follow-up search and pills naturally lead readers deeper into your archive, including older recipes standard search would never surface.
- Your long tail works harder. Semantic matching surfaces recipes that don't share exact keywords with the query.
- It's free for readers. AI search results are part of the core free experience - no paywall friction between a reader and your content.
What you can configure
Publishers control how search shows up on their site from the Publisher Portal and WordPress:
- Add search to your navigation. A standard Custom Link pointing to
#allspice-searchopens Allspice Search from any menu (classic menus or block themes). Use link text like “Search Recipes.” - Replace your existing site search. In Domain Settings → search_replacement, map your current search UI to Allspice with three selector fields - Form Selectors (submitting your search form opens Allspice with the query prefilled), Input Selectors (which field holds the query, e.g.
input[name='s']), and Trigger Selectors (search icons/buttons that open Allspice directly). - Pre-filled search links. Link from posts, roundups, or emails straight into a search with the query already filled in.
- Entry points. Search is reachable from any Allspice entry point you enable - the Rail, Floating Button, Overview block, or custom triggers - all styleable to your brand colors.
Give readers one obvious place to search. Once Allspice Search is live, remove or de-emphasize competing search plugins so engagement isn't split across experiences.
FAQ
Does AI Search cost my readers anything?
No. AI-powered search results are part of the free reader experience. (Open-ended AI chat is the feature with a monthly free-tier limit - see Reader access.)
Does search ever return recipes from other sites?
No. Search runs against your indexed recipe archive only.
How fast do new recipes show up?
New and updated recipes appear after the next crawl/index pass. WordPress publishers can use Sync with Allspice to apply changes faster.
Can I choose my own search pills?
Pills are currently generated automatically from archive strengths and refreshed every few weeks. They evolve as you publish.