Search and Replace Plugin for WordPress

search and replace plugin for WordPress

Have been looking for a good search and replace plugin for WordPress? There are many search and replace WordPress plugins but most of them fail to fulfill your needs. For example if you need to search and replace a url within serialized data then most of the worlds cannot handle that.

I have been developing WordPress for last 8 years so over the time I have found some great plugins and tools which I often use to search and replace strings in databases. For example sometimes I need to update urls in database from one to another.

1- Search & Replace

Search & Replace not only lets you search and replace non-serialized data in database but also lets you search and replace serialized data. Searching and replacing serialized data is very important and this plugin does this important job for us.

2- Search and Replace for WordPress

Search and Replace for WordPress

Search and Replace for WordPress is a plugin which actually doesn’t change the content in the database. It does the searching and replacement on the fly before the content is shown to website users. It can search and replace strings in following content parts of a WordPress website:

  • Full content (The complete html page)
  • Post/Page content
  • Post excerpt
  • Tags
  • Post title
  • Blog title
  • Comment excerpt
  • Comment text

There are many ways that you can use this plugin but here are a few:

  1. Automaticly convert the word themeforest to a themeforest referral link
  2. Auto replace bad words in comments only. This way you can still use bad words in your posts and pages content
  3. In some post you want to place an Google Adsense block. Create a string myadsenseblock that will automaticly be replaced by an Adsense code.
  4. Add some custom smilies to your blog



3- Database Search and Replace Script in PHP

Database Search and Replace Script in PHP is not WordPress plugin rather it is a PHP script which is very easy to setup and use. It is very powerful tool. This is the tool which I use most of the time because it not helps with search and replace serialized data but can also let me run a dry test before committing the actual change. Another great feature this tool offers is the before and after view which can be used in conjunction with dry run feature to see where the changes will be made. Furthermore this tool lets you make changes to whole database as well as to select tables.

I just upload this tool to my sites’ root folder and it picks the database settings itself. I then just browse this tool in browser and start using it.

What is your favorite search and replace plugin for WordPress?

Do you know of any other powerful search and replace plugin for WordPress? If so then please share with us in the comments section below.

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