Query won't search for resulsts

Hi,

I have the below query which is not working for me. When I search for a string I sometimes get results back. I'm 100% sure by columns exist and the data si there. It seems that only results where the alias matches is working correctly for me.

public function index()
{
    $query = request('q');

    $itemsQuery = Item::query()

    if ($query !== null) {
        $monitorsQuery->where('url ', 'LIKE', '%' . $query . '%')
            ->orWhere('alias', 'LIKE', '%' . $query . '%');
    }

    $items = $itemsQuery->orderBy('alias')->paginate(self::PER_PAGE);
}

Does anybody understand what the problem could be?