Slow search queries

Hey guys, I'm currently going through a local database which contains around 1000 game titles. For each game title I do a /search query using the title to find description data. However I'm getting very slow performance. It takes several minutes for just 50 records.

I'm doing it in PHP, like this: http://pastebin.com/Ahrs5wU9

I've noticed a performance difference with different encoding of the game title. e.g "Elder%20Scrolls%20Online" queries faster than "%22Elder%20Scrolls%20Online%22" however the %22 string causes some game titles to return a JSON object with an empty results field.

Can anyone share any info on improving the performance of my queries?

Thanks