Try AI Search on This Page
This is a live demo of TESSA’s AI website search widget, running on tessa.tech’s own pages and posts. Type a question in natural language, or just a few keywords. The matching search results appear first, then a short answer written from our content, with numbered links to the pages it drew on.
Not sure what to ask? Try “What does local SEO include?”, “Do you build WordPress websites?” or “case studies”.
The same widget is available as a custom install for your WordPress site. The rest of this page covers the features visitors see, what you control as the owner and how our team sets it up for you.
What Is AI Website Search?
AI website search is a search bar for your own site that uses artificial intelligence to do two jobs: match a visitor’s question to the most relevant pages, and write a short answer from those pages, with numbered sources so the visitor can see where it came from. In effect, it is an AI search engine for one website: yours.
Traditional site search, like the standard WordPress search box, lists the posts and pages that contain the words a visitor typed. If the visitor uses different words from the ones on your page, the list comes back thin or empty. AI-powered site search uses the meaning of the query as well as its keywords, so a visitor can ask in natural language (“what does local SEO include?”) and still find the pages that cover it. Behind the scenes, the widget turns your content and each query into vector embeddings, numeric representations of meaning, so this kind of semantic search can weigh how close in meaning a page is to the question, not only which words they share. Results show a relevance label such as “Highly relevant”, so it is clear how closely a page matches.
One distinction worth making: this is search on your website. Getting your business named in the AI answers people see in Google, ChatGPT and other AI engines is a separate job, called generative engine optimization, and we cover it on its own page.
How AI-Powered Site Search Works
From the visitor’s side there are four steps, and you can watch each one happen in the demo above.
1. The visitor asks a question
They type into the search bar in their own words: a full question, a phrase or a single term. Plain language works.
2. The matching pages appear
The search results list the pages and posts that fit the meaning of the query, ten to a page by default, with a short excerpt and a relevance label. A filter toggle narrows them by content type or by how recent they are.
3. An AI summary follows
Once the results are up, the widget writes a short answer from the matching content: a few sentences on what your site says about the topic, under an “AI Answer” heading so the visitor knows what they are reading. The method is called retrieval-augmented generation: the AI is given the passages the search found on your site and writes the answer from them.
4. Numbered sources show where it came from
Under the answer, a sources control opens a numbered list of the pages the answer drew on, each with its title and a link. The visitor can open a source and read it in full, or press Regenerate for a fresh version of the answer.
What Visitors Get From AI-Powered Search
The widget gives people a way to find information on your site without opening ten pages to work out which one has the answer.
AI summaries from your own content
The AI answer is written from the pages, posts and documents you have published and chosen to include, so the answer draws on what your site says, in a few plain sentences, with the sources listed so it can be checked.
Numbered sources
Answers carry numbered citations: the title and link of each page the answer drew on. Anyone who wants the full detail is one click from the page, and anyone who wants to check the answer can.
Filters for content type and date
A filter panel opens from a toggle and narrows the search results to a content type or a recent period (past week, month or year), with a badge showing how many filters are on and a clear link to reset them.
When the answer is not on your site
When a question falls outside your content, the AI answer is set up to say it could not find that on the site and to offer a way to get in touch, instead of guessing, and to treat off-topic questions and attempts to push the AI off its instructions the same way.
Labeled as AI, with a Regenerate button
Each answer sits under an “AI Answer” heading with a note asking the visitor to verify important details, and a Regenerate button produces a fresh version of the answer.
Their recent searches, close at hand
The widget keeps a visitor’s last ten searches in their own browser and offers them as suggestions when they start typing again, with a clear button to wipe the list.
What You Control as the Site Owner
The settings live in your WordPress admin, so the people who run your site decide what gets searched and what the answers sound like.
- Which content is searched. Choose the content types to include, posts and pages by default, and text held in custom fields is indexed along with the body copy.
- PDFs and Word documents. Upload brochures, guides, spec sheets or policies, and the widget indexes them alongside your pages, so an answer can cite a document too.
- Publishing updates the index. When you publish, the new content is indexed; when you unpublish, it is removed. A full re-index runs from the admin screen whenever you want one.
- Search reports. The analytics screen shows total searches, top queries and the searches that returned nothing, by period, so you can study search behavior on your site: what visitors want and what to write next.
- A call to action under the results. Turn on a box beneath the results with your own heading, text, button label and link.
- Answer instructions for your business. A plain-text instruction set tells the AI what your business does, what the answers should cover and the tone they should take.
- A limit on searches per minute. Each connection (IP address) gets a set number of searches a minute, which you can adjust, to deter automated abuse.
- Your site’s normal search box. Turn on the search override and visitors who use the regular WordPress search box are sent to the AI search page instead.
Per-page options set the widget’s placeholder text, whether it shows the AI answer and the filters, and which content types it searches.
How TESSA Sets Up AI Site Search on Your WordPress Site
Every install is custom: our team shapes the search experience around your site and your business, and hands it over working.
We install it on your WordPress site
The widget is made for WordPress and goes in as a block or a shortcode. Our WordPress development team installs it, connects the search service and tests it before anyone else sees it.
We connect your content
We choose the content types with you, upload the PDFs and documents that matter and run the first full index, so the widget knows your site before it goes live.
We write the answer instructions
The instructions behind every answer are written for your business: what you do, who you serve, how formal the answers should sound and which topics the answers should stay on.
We point the contact offers at your team
When a question is not on your site, the answer offers a way to reach you. We point that offer, and the call to action under the results, to your contact page and your team.
We style it to fit your site
Our team styles the search bar, results and answer panel to match your fonts, colors and spacing, so the widget reads as part of your site.
We place it where it belongs
Give it a page of its own, put it behind your existing search box so the site’s regular searches land on it, or both. We set up the override and test it.
If your project calls for more than search, for example a tool that works from your own records or completes a task for a customer, that is a custom AI application, and our team develops those too.
Who AI Site Search Is For
AI site search suits WordPress sites where people arrive with questions and the answers are spread across many pages.
- Service businesses with a deep site: dozens of service pages, location pages and guides that customers would otherwise have to browse one by one.
- Publishers and resource libraries: hundreds of posts, articles or how-to guides where the right one is hard to find by title alone.
- Sites with documents: product sheets, policies, forms and brochures in PDF or Word that the standard WordPress search does not look inside.
- Member and customer sites: where visitors ask the same questions again and again and the answers already exist on the site.
- Sites where traditional search falls short: the standard search box returns a list of titles when what the visitor wanted was an answer.
Not sure it fits your site? Once AI website search is live, the search reports show what visitors asked for and which questions found nothing.
Questions About AI Search for WordPress Sites
Where do the answers come from?
From your own published content. The widget indexes the posts, pages and other content types you choose, plus any PDF or Word documents you upload, and uses artificial intelligence to write each answer from the content that matches the question. The numbered sources under an answer list the pages it used, so a visitor or a site owner can check it against the original.
What happens when someone asks about something that is not on my site?
The AI answer is set up to say it could not find that on the site and offer a way to reach your team, rather than guess. It is set up to decline off-topic questions and attempts to steer the AI away from its instructions in the same way. Answers also carry a note asking the visitor to verify important details.
Does it keep up when I publish new content?
Yes. When a post or page is published, it is indexed automatically, and when one is unpublished, it is removed from the index. Uploaded documents can be re-indexed one at a time, and a full re-index runs from the admin screen in batches, with a progress bar and a cancel button, whenever you want a fresh start.
Which websites does it work on?
The AI-powered search widget is made for WordPress sites. It is delivered as a block for the block editor and as a shortcode that can go on any page. It needs a current version of WordPress, and our team checks that on your site first. Our team installs and configures it as part of the setup, so there is nothing for you to wire up.
Can I see what visitors are searching for?
Yes. The Search Analytics screen in your WordPress admin shows total searches, unique queries, the average number of results, the top queries and the searches that returned nothing, by period. The zero-result list is the useful one: a plain record of what people wanted and could not find, which doubles as a list of pages to write next.
Will it match my site’s design?
Yes. As part of each install our team styles the search bar, filters, results and answer panel to match your site’s fonts, colors and spacing, and checks it on phones as well as desktops before it goes live.
Put Smarter Search on Your WordPress Site
Tell us about your WordPress site and the questions your visitors keep asking, and we will walk you through how the widget would fit your pages.
