How to Use Magento Live Search to Drive Conversions

On most eCommerce sites, search users are already halfway to buying. They’re not browsing casually. Instead, they’re looking for something specific. When search feels slow, confusing, or irrelevant, that intent disappears fast. Magento Live Search, built on Adobe Commerce Live Search, is designed to handle that exact moment. It replaces Magento’s traditional search engine with a SaaS-based service that focuses on relevance, speed, and product discovery at scale. When it’s configured well, it doesn’t just improve search results, it improves conversions.

This blog looks at Magento Live Search from a practical point of view, how it works, how to set it up correctly, and what actually makes it convert better than the default search.

What Magento Live Search Actually Does

Magento Live Search takes search and category browsing out of the Magento application layer and moves it to Adobe’s managed SaaS infrastructure. Product data is indexed externally, and storefront queries are served from that index instead of your database or Elasticsearch cluster.

What this changes in practice:

• Results load faster, even with large catalogs
• Relevance improves because ranking is handled by Adobe’s search models
• Facets, sorting, and autocomplete are handled consistently across search and category pages

Live Search powers:

• Search-as-you-type suggestions
• Search results pages
• Category listing pages (PLPs)

Once enabled, Magento no longer uses Elasticsearch or OpenSearch for storefront search.

Why Magento Live Search Improves Conversions

The biggest conversion win with Live Search is reduced effort. Shoppers don’t want to work to find products. They want the store to understand what they mean, show fewer irrelevant items, and let them narrow things down quickly. Live Search helps in three key ways:

1. Faster feedback – results update as users type, not after page reloads
2. Cleaner filtering – facets make large catalogs manageable
3. Better relevance – products that match intent appear earlier

All three shorten the path from search to product page, and that’s where conversion lift usually comes from.

Magento Live Search Implementation Overview

Before enabling Live Search, a few things must be in place:

• Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 or higher
• PHP 8.1+ supported by your Commerce version
• Cron jobs and indexers running correctly

Live Search cannot run alongside Elasticsearch or OpenSearch. Native search modules must be disabled before installation.

Installation Steps

composer require magento/live-search --no-update

composer update magento/live-search --with-dependencies

bin/magento setup:upgrade

After installation:

• API keys connect your store to Adobe’s Live Search service
• Product data is synced and indexed externally
• Search and category pages start using Live Search automatically once indexing completes

From this point on, most of the work happens in configuration.

Understanding Facets (And Why They Matter)

When a store has thousands of products, showing everything at once doesn’t help anyone. Facets exist to cut through that noise. If someone searches for “office chair,” they usually want to narrow things down immediately by price, material, brand, or availability.

Facets turn those decisions into clicks instead of new searches. In Magento Live Search, facets are built from filterable product attributes and appear on search and category pages. Each selection reduces the result set in real time.

Well-configured facets:

• Help shoppers reach the right product faster
• Reduce scrolling and pogo-clicking
• Increase the chance that a product page visit turns into a purchase

This is why facet strategy has a direct impact on conversion, especially for large or complex catalogs.

Magento Live Search Configuration That Impacts Conversions

Choosing the Right Searchable Attributes

Not every attribute deserves to be searchable.

Common good candidates include:

• Product name : Most shoppers search using product names or partial names. This should always be searchable.
• SKU : Useful for B2B buyers, repeat customers, or support teams searching for exact products.
• Brand : Many users start their search with a brand name, especially for electronics, fashion, and lifestyle products.
• Color : Shoppers often include color in their searches, particularly for apparel, furniture, and home décor.
• Size : Size-based searches are common in fashion and help narrow results quickly.

Attributes with long descriptions or inconsistent values often hurt relevance more than they help. Magento Live Search allows up to 200 searchable attributes, but using fewer and better ones usually produces cleaner results.

Facet Configuration

Live Search supports:

• Up to 100 facets
• Up to 100 values per facet

In practice, fewer facets work better. Focus on attributes that customers actually use to decide. Price, size, color, and brand usually matter more than internal classifications. Showing too many facets creates friction instead of clarity.

Synonyms and Search Language

Customers don’t always use catalog language. They type abbreviations, brand nicknames, or industry terms that never appear in product data. Synonyms bridge that gap.

Examples:

• “TV” → “Television”
• “Lappy” → “Laptop”
• Brand short forms and common misspellings

While Live Search handles basic typo tolerance, synonyms still play a big role in reducing zero-result searches.

Using Merchandising Rules to Guide Outcomes

Merchandising rules let teams influence what appears first, without changing product data.

Common use cases:

• Boost in-stock products
• Promote high-margin or fast-moving SKUs
• Push seasonal items during campaigns
• Demote discontinued products

The key is restraint. Too many rules stacked together can cancel each other out or create unexpected rankings. Test changes in staging and monitor results before rolling them out broadly.

Magento Live Search Personalization and Analytics

Live Search tracks how users interact with search results, like clicks, positions, and engagement. These signals feed into reporting inside the Admin panel.

Metrics worth watching:

• Search usage
• Click-through rate
• Average click position
• Zero-result searches
• Conversion rate from search sessions

Patterns here usually point to configuration gaps, missing synonyms, poor facets, or attributes that shouldn’t be searchable.

Known Boundaries and Limits

Live Search works well within its design, but it’s not unlimited.

Key limitations:

• CMS pages and blocks are not searchable
• Custom product types are not supported
• Tier pricing is not reflected in search results
• Maximum of 10,000 results per query
• Date attributes cannot be used as facets

Knowing these early helps avoid overengineering or unrealistic expectations.