How to highlight search words in vim permanently?

For those wanting to visually keep highlighted their search:

:syn match stupid "ctrl + /"

:hi stupid ctermbg=Red guibg=Red

Explanation:

The first line add your regex to a syntax type called "stupid" (note that ctrl + / means you must press ctrl+R then / to get the content of the search registry).

The second line gives a red color to the "stupid" syntax regex.

If you want to highlight multiple searches (in parallel, with different colors), check out my Mark plugin; it also allows to persist the highlightings across Vim sessions through the viminfo file; cp. :help mark-persistence.

Set the command in .vimrc.

Use the following commands:

1. Open ~/.vimrc file (or create it if it didn't exist).
2. Add set hlsearch in the file.
3. Save the file.

Now your search will always be highlighted in vim.

For single time use, just use :set hlsearch in vim, which will be in effect for that instance only.