What are some ways to improve this long mysql search query?

Looking to improve this mysql select statement for a search query:

Select * from table WHERE ( user = '$search_query'
OR user LIKE '$search_query %'
OR keyword LIKE '$search_query'
OR tag LIKE '$search_query'
OR tag LIKE '% $search_query'
OR tag LIKE '% $search_query%'
OR tag LIKE '$search_开发者_C百科query%'
OR REPLACE(question, ',' ,'') LIKE '$search_query %'
OR REPLACE(question, ',' ,'') LIKE '% $search_query'
OR REPLACE(question, ',' ,'') LIKE '% $search_query %' 
OR REPLACE( REPLACE( REPLACE( REPLACE( REPLACE( REPLACE( REPLACE(question, '\'', ''), ',', ''), '.',''), ':',''), ';',''), '!',''), '?','') LIKE '%$search_query%'
)

The reason it's broke down the way it is, is because say if someone searches for "art", I don't want it showing results for "heart" as well.

I really need to have of these same functions but running fewer resources.

If your table is MyISAM, you can create a FULLTEXT index on it:

CREATE FULLTEXT INDEX fx_mytable_user_tag_question ON mytable (user, tag, question)

SELECT  *
FROM    mytable
WHERE   MATCH(user, tag, question) AGAINST ('+some*' IN BOOLEAN MODE)

This query will return some and something but not awesome.

Actually, the first step (creating the index) is not required, however, it will speed up the queries and allow more complex searches (not limited to BOOLEAN MODE) and relevance ranging.

By default, minimal length of a search query is 4 characters, so art mentioned in your example would not be found.

To work around this, you will have to change parameter ft_min_word_len in server settings.

It looks like

OR tag LIKE '$search_query'
OR tag LIKE '$search_query%'

would return identical results to only running

OR tag LIKE '$search_query%'

Same with

OR tag LIKE '% $search_query'
OR tag LIKE '% $search_query%'

Searching around for this question, I learned that MySQL supports regular expression searches. Using these, if you are able to specify what pattern the % should match. This would help with all those pesky spaces, because you could just use \s?.

Restructure your database such that tags are stored in a separate table, with one row for each tag on a question, so that you can run a query like:

SELECT * FROM question
WHERE question_id IN (
  SELECT question_id FROM question_tags WHERE tag = '$search_query'
) OR <...>

Depending on how you want search keywords to work, you may be able to use a similar solution there.