Product tags are great for organizing a catalog, but they are not included in WooCommerce’s default front-end search.

In a standard WooCommerce setup, customers searching for a tag term will not see products returned just because that term is assigned as a product tag. Unless the same word also appears in searchable product content, such as the product title or description, the search won't return any relevant matches.

Because of this, store owners who use product tags often look for a way to make those tags searchable.

Why Search by Product Tag?

Searching by product tag can be useful in several situations:

• It helps customers discover groups of related products
• It supports broader search terms that may not appear in product titles
• It improves navigation in stores with larger or more varied catalogs
• It gives store owners more flexibility in how products are organized and found

In many cases, tags act as an extra layer of product classification that can make search more helpful and intuitive.

Options for Searching by Product Tag

There are two main ways to add product tag search to WooCommerce:

• code customization
• search plugin

Code Customization

One option is to customize the search query so it also checks product tags when customers perform a search.

This can allow you to:

• include product tags in search behavior
• control how tag matches influence results
• tailor search logic to your catalog structure

However, this approach also has drawbacks:

• it requires technical knowledge
• it can create compatibility issues with themes or plugins
• it may need maintenance over time as your site changes

For many store owners, this is more complicated than necessary.

Search Plugin

A search plugin is usually the easier and more flexible way to make product tags searchable.

Many search plugins allow you to:

• add tags to the searchable fields
• control how tag matches affect relevance
• combine tag search with title, category, or attribute search
• adjust search behavior without editing code

This makes it much easier to return useful results when customers search with broader descriptive terms rather than exact product names.

Elevated Product Search for WooCommerce

Elevated Product Search for WooCommerce makes it easy to search by product tags simply by enabling the Tags option in its Product Search Settings:

Once you do this, searching by product tag becomes just like any other search:

Final Thoughts

Product tags can be useful for organizing products, but customers cannot search for them in the default WooCommerce setup.

If tag-based search matters for your store, you will need to add that functionality through custom code or a search plugin.

For most store owners, a search plugin is the simpler solution. It allows you to make tags searchable, improve discovery, and fine-tune results without the added complexity of custom development. Elevated Product Search for WooCommerce is a good example of how this can be implemented.

See our 5 Best WooCommerce Product Search Plugins article for other options.