Your complete guide to setting up product filters, analytics, smart search, and everything FilterKit Pro offers for your WooCommerce store.
You've installed FilterKit Pro — great choice. This guide will walk you through everything, from first setup to advanced features. Most stores are fully configured in under 5 minutes thanks to the automatic setup wizard.
If you're the type who likes to jump straight in: activate the plugin, enter your license key, and the wizard does the rest. Come back to this page whenever you need to explore specific features or troubleshoot something.
Most filter plugins only do one thing: add dropdowns or checkboxes to your shop page. If you want analytics, search, product comparison, waitlists, infinite scroll, or SEO-friendly URLs, you'd normally need to buy and maintain several separate plugins. FilterKit Pro puts all of that into one plugin — so everything works together and you only have one thing to configure.
Color swatches, image tiles, price sliders, checkboxes, radio buttons, dropdowns, star ratings, toggles, and category trees. Products update instantly — no page reloads.
Customers type "red leather jacket under $200 in medium" and it figures out color, material, category, price, and size. Handles typos too.
7-tab dashboard showing which filters drive sales, what customers can't find, and plain English recommendations to boost revenue.
Checks actual product variations. If Red + XL doesn't exist, it won't show up. Customers only see products they can actually buy.
When filters return nothing, customers see close matches, alternative suggestions, and a "Notify Me" form — instead of a blank page.
Customers select 2–8 products and compare them side by side — price, attributes, rating, stock. "Show only differences" toggle built in.
Ugly filter URLs become clean paths like /shop/color-red/size-large/. Auto-generates page titles, descriptions, and a sitemap for Google.
On phones, filters slide up from the bottom in a touch-optimized panel — like Google Maps. Larger tap targets, sticky apply bar, real-time count.
Weekly digest with revenue, top filters, and gaps. Instant alerts when zero-result searches hit your threshold. Uses your store's branding.
After purchase, you'll receive a .zip file and a license key. Here's the full process from start to finish:
In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Choose the FilterKit Pro .zip file, click Install Now, then click Activate.
Right after activation, you'll see a license activation screen. Paste the license key from your purchase email and click Activate. This unlocks the plugin and enables automatic updates.
The license activation screen appears right after you activate the plugin.
Once your license is active, the setup wizard launches. It scans your entire store and figures out the best filter setup for your products — no manual configuration needed.
The wizard detects your product attributes, categories, price range, theme, and page builder automatically.
The wizard picks the best filter type for each attribute: color swatches for "Color," checkboxes for "Brand," a price slider for price, star ratings for reviews. You'll see everything laid out — drag to reorder, change any filter type you want, then hit Save.
Drag filters to reorder. Change filter types with one click. Hit Save when you're happy.
That's it. Filters are on your shop page, the search bar is working, and analytics are collecting data. Visit your shop to see everything in action. The whole process usually takes under 5 minutes.
The FilterKit Pro dashboard — your home base for managing everything.
Each filter type is designed for a specific kind of product attribute. The wizard picks the best one automatically, but you can change any filter's type in WooCommerce → FilterKit Pro anytime.
Color swatches, checkboxes, price slider, and star ratings working together on a shop page.
A built-in sort dropdown lets customers sort by price (low/high), popularity, average rating, newest, or alphabetical. It appears alongside your filters automatically.
If a filter has 50+ options, you can keep it manageable. Set these per filter in WooCommerce → FilterKit Pro → click on any filter → Overflow Settings:
Matrix View is a special filter that shows two attributes together in a grid — like Size across the top and Color down the side. Customers can see at a glance which combinations are available and which are sold out. Especially useful for clothing, shoes, and accessories stores.
A Size × Color matrix. Available combinations are highlighted, sold-out ones are dimmed.
Choose the look that matches your store: Default, Editorial, Soft, Dots, Bold, Pills, or Heatmap (uses color intensity to show stock levels).
Use the shortcode anywhere on your site:
[filterkit_matrix_filter] — Displays the matrix grid. Availability is checked in real time, so customers never see combinations they can't buy.The setup wizard places filters on your shop page automatically. But if you want them somewhere specific — a custom page, a sidebar widget, or a page builder layout — use shortcodes or blocks.
Copy and paste these into any page, post, or widget area:
[filterkit_filters] — Shows the full filter sidebar.[filterkit_filtered_products] — Shows the product grid that updates when filters are used. Pair with the sidebar shortcode for a custom shop layout.[filterkit_active_filters] — Shows the active filter chips — little tags like "Color: Red ×" that customers can click to remove. Place above your product grid.[filterkit_search_bar] — Shows the smart search bar. Put it in your header, above the shop, or anywhere else.[filterkit_sort] — Shows a standalone sort dropdown. Useful when you want sorting placed separately from filters.[filterkit_matrix_filter] — Shows the Size × Color matrix grid.If you use the WordPress block editor, search for "FilterKit" in the block inserter. Four blocks are available:
All four blocks work with Full Site Editing (FSE) — place them in your theme's shop template, archive template, or any custom template.
If you use Elementor, Divi, Bricks, or another supported page builder, FilterKit Pro has native drag-and-drop widgets for each. Look for "FilterKit" in your builder's widget panel.
The search bar does two things, and they work together:
When a customer types a keyword like "jacket," matching products appear instantly in a dropdown — no page reload needed.
Products appear instantly as the customer types.
Customers can type full sentences like "red leather jacket under $200 in medium" and the search bar understands what they mean:
Filters activate automatically and the product grid updates. It even handles typos — "blek jacket" still matches "black jacket."
A natural language query parsed into filters automatically.
The search builds an index of your product attributes on activation. If you add new attributes or terms later, go to WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → General and click "Rebuild Index" so it recognizes the new terms.
The search runs entirely on your server. No external services, no per-search fees, and no customer data leaving your store. Turn it on or off in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Features.
Go to WooCommerce → FilterKit Analytics to see your data. Analytics start collecting automatically when the plugin is activated — give it 24–48 hours of real customer traffic to build up meaningful numbers.
The Overview tab — your headline numbers at a glance.
The dashboard has 7 tabs:
Three key numbers: how many times filters were used, what percentage of filter users ended up buying something, and how much revenue came from filter users. Below that, a usage trend chart and a list of your most popular filters.
Every search and filter combination that returned zero products, sorted by frequency. This shows you what customers want that you don't have. Example: "23 people searched for 'wireless earbuds under $30' — 0 results."
See exactly what your customers are looking for but can't find.
Similar to Zero Results, but focused on filter combinations. If 15 people tried "Red + XL + Jacket" and got nothing, this tab surfaces that. It groups similar searches together, shows week-over-week trends, and suggests similar products you already stock. You can create a draft product from any gap with one click, or export the full table as a CSV file.
Every customer who left their email on a zero-results page. Shows their email, what they wanted, when they signed up, and whether they've been notified.
The full journey: filter clicked → product viewed → added to cart → purchase completed. See which filter paths lead to sales and which are dead ends.
Track the full journey from filter click to purchase.
How much money each filter helped generate. If Color brought in $2,840 and Size brought in $1,920, you know Color is more valuable and deserves a more prominent position.
Plain English suggestions based on your data. Things like: "Move the Brand filter up — it's your 3rd highest earner." Or: "43 customers searched for 'Organic' — consider adding it as an attribute." Or: "14 people waiting for Red XL Jackets — consider restocking."
Real recommendations based on your store's data — not generic advice.
Every tab has an Export CSV button. Click it and the download starts immediately. Useful for sharing with your team or analyzing in a spreadsheet.
Fine-tune how analytics work in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Features:
By default, every filter shows on every page. Display Rules let you control which filters appear where. Set them per filter — go to WooCommerce → FilterKit Pro, click on any filter, and open the Display Rules panel.
Set display rules per filter — categories, devices, and conditions.
Show a filter only on specific categories. "Brand" only on Electronics, "Size" only on Clothing, "Storage" only on Phones. Each category page gets only the relevant filters.
Show on desktop, mobile, or both. Most stores show 6–8 filters on desktop and 2–3 on mobile to keep things clean on small screens.
Make filters depend on each other. Hide "Sub-Category" until the customer picks a main "Category." Hide "Size" until they select "Clothing." Keeps the sidebar short until the customer starts narrowing down.
If only 2 products in a category have a "Material" attribute, showing a Material filter there is pointless. Set a minimum (say, 5) and the filter hides itself automatically on pages with too few matching products.
This is one of FilterKit Pro's most important features if your store sells variable products — products with size/color combinations.
Without this, filtering by "Red" + "XL" shows every product that comes in Red and every product that comes in XL. But it doesn't check whether Red + XL exists as a real combination. Customers see results, click a product, and get "Sorry, this combination is unavailable." Frustrating. They leave.
With variation-aware filtering, the plugin checks your actual product variations. If a product doesn't come in Red + XL, it won't appear in results. Customers only see products they can actually buy.
Turn it on in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Features → Variation-Aware Filtering. If you have 10,000+ variations and filtering feels slow, also enable the Variation Cache in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Advanced.
When filters return zero products, most stores show "No products found." The customer leaves. FilterKit Pro does three things instead:
Close matches, alternative suggestions, and a "Notify Me" form — instead of a blank page.
Loosens one filter at a time to find nearby products. "Red XL Jacket" returns nothing? It tries "Red Large Jacket" and "Blue XL Jacket" with a note explaining the difference.
Clickable buttons linking to filter combinations with actual results: "Red + Large → 8 products" or "Blue + XL → 5 products."
A form for leaving an email address. When you restock what they wanted, the plugin automatically sends them an email with a direct link to buy. Completely automatic — no manual work.
All three are on by default. Toggle individually and customize in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Features.
On most WooCommerce stores, filter URLs turn into long ugly strings that search engines ignore. FilterKit Pro rewrites them into clean, readable paths that Google can actually find and show in search results:
yourstore.com/shop/?filter_color=red&filter_size=large&min_price=50&max_price=200yourstore.com/shop/color-red/size-large/under-200/
Clean URLs that customers can bookmark and search engines can index.
Result: someone Googling "red large jackets" could land directly on your filtered shop page. Configure in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → SEO & URLs.
You don't need to log into the dashboard every day. FilterKit Pro sends important numbers to your inbox automatically.
The email uses your store's branding automatically — logo, colors, header, and footer.
Get notified when a search hits a threshold. For example, if 10 people search for something you don't stock in a single day, you can get an alert immediately, as a daily digest, or weekly. Set the threshold and frequency in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Features.
Both use WooCommerce's email system, so they automatically match your store's branding. Configure recipients and frequency in WooCommerce → Settings → Emails → FilterKit Pro Reports.
FilterKit Pro is fully responsive and designed for touch screens. On phones, filters work differently to make the best use of small screens:
A "Filters" button replaces the sidebar on mobile. The number shows active filters.
The bottom sheet filter panel — designed for one-handed use.
Use Display Rules to control which filters appear on mobile (WooCommerce → FilterKit Pro → click any filter → Display Rules). Most stores show 2–3 on phones vs. 6–8 on desktop.
Customers can select 2–8 products and compare them side by side. No separate plugin needed.
Products compared side by side with price, attributes, rating, and Add to Cart.
Turn it on in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Comparison. Choose which attributes appear and set the maximum number of products (2–8).
FilterKit Pro learns which filters each visitor uses most and reorders the sidebar to put their favorites first.
Turn it on in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Features → Personalized Filter Ordering. You can set the minimum visits before it kicks in (default: 3), cookie duration, enable geo-based size defaults (US sizes for US visitors, EU for Europe), and reset data for all users.
Every feature has its own on/off switch in WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Features. Disabled features add zero weight to your pages.
Every feature has its own toggle. Only what you use gets loaded.
FilterKit Pro is fast out of the box. Most stores won't need to touch these settings. But if you have 5,000+ products, a few tweaks help. Go to WooCommerce → Settings → FilterKit Pro → Advanced.
Works with WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, W3 Total Cache, and most others. If filtered results look stale, add this to your caching plugin's exclusion list:
/?wc-ajax=filterkit_*FilterKit Pro is tested extensively with popular themes, builders, and plugins:
Detects these themes and applies fixes automatically:
Not on the list? "Generic" compatibility mode works with most WooCommerce themes. Email support if you have issues.
Elementor, Divi, Bricks, Breakdance, Beaver Builder, Oxygen, WPBakery, Gutenberg / Block Editor (with 4 native blocks).
Use your hosting's backup tool or a plugin like UpdraftPlus. Standard practice for all WordPress updates.
With an active license, updates appear in Dashboard → Updates. Click "Update Now." Or download the latest .zip and upload it via Plugins → Add New → Upload.
Updates never erase your configuration. All filter setups, analytics data, waitlist entries, and settings are preserved.
Clear your caching plugin and CDN cache. Variation Cache and Product Index rebuild automatically.
Plugins → Deactivate. Turns off filters on the front end but keeps all your settings and data. Reactivate anytime.
Plugins → Delete. Removes all plugin files AND all data: filters, analytics, waitlist, personalization, caches — everything. Your WooCommerce products and attributes are not affected.
No "keep data" option on delete — intentional for privacy compliance. Export analytics data first using the CSV button if you want to keep it.
/?wc-ajax=filterkit_* to your caching plugin's exclusion list[filterkit_filters] — Filter sidebar[filterkit_filtered_products] — Product grid[filterkit_active_filters] — Active filter chips[filterkit_search_bar] — Smart search bar[filterkit_sort] — Sort dropdown[filterkit_matrix_filter] — Size × Color matrix