The search could not be completed because the keywords were too short, too long, or too common.

[djbaxter]

If you are trying to search for most three-letter words, you will likely see this error message.

In a recently reported case, one of our members was searching for threads using the keyword AMP.

This is caused by a limitation in MySQL, the database software that virtually all PHP-based forums and all WordPress sites use and the default for most Linux servers.

However, there is a work-around. You can use Google search and the site: filter.

For the AMP search example, enter this in Google search: amp site:localsearchforum.com

Instead of the error message, this yields 3 pages of threads on LSF dealing with AMP.

amp site:localsearchforum.com - Google Search

 

[Rich Owings]

Yep. Been using that trick on forum searches for years.

 

[Wirenut]

Same here.

Google search is better than most forum searches anyway. It gets the gist of what you are looking for instead of just exact word/spelling matches like forum searches.

 

[Tim Colling]

Nice tip, thank you @djbaxter