In the context of PHP programming, why is the OR operator not suitable for the search query in the code snippet provided by the user?

The issue with using the OR operator in the search query is that it will return results that match either of the conditions separately, which may not be the desired behavior. To search for results that match both conditions, the AND operator should be used instead.

$search_query = "SELECT * FROM products WHERE category_id = 1 AND name LIKE '%keyword%'";