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Search Assist - synonyms and misspellings
Search Assist - synonyms and misspellings

Help your customers by adding synonyms and misspellings for common searches.

Niall Diamond avatar
Written by Niall Diamond
Updated over a week ago

Add synonyms and misspellings to deliver better search results to your customers. You will increase conversions and drive more customers through your checkout.

What are search assist "Types"

We have two "types" these are...

  • Synonyms β€”Β this means both the term and the alias can be used interchangeably in your product catalog data

  • Misspelling β€” this means that the customer might use this term but it doesn't appear in the product catalog data

What is a "Synonym"

A synonym is a word or phrase that means roughly the same thing as another word or phrase. In Search Assist we treat synonyms and misspellings differently.

Synonyms are used in both directions. By adding the term and alias once you are enabling both to work in search. For synonyms we will first combine the results for the term and the alias when returning the results.

Example: Let's say that normally the following happens.

  • Search for "Letter trays" returns 11 results

  • Search for "Filing trays" returns 10 results

If you then create a Search assist like the below

Term

Alias

Select a type

Letter trays

Filing trays

Synonym

If you now search for "Letter trays" you will see a combined result of the following.

"Letter trays" returns 11 results + "Filing trays" returns 10 results = 21 results shown

πŸ‘ Important: If you then search "Filing trays" notice that we will search "Filling trays" + "Letter trays" because this is a synonym.

πŸ‘ Important: The results that are returned are returned in the order of the combination. Thus, is a customer searches "Filing trays" they will see first the results for "Filing trays" followed by the results for "Letter trays". The opposite happens when the customer searches "Letter trays". They will first see the results for "Letter trays" followed by the results for "Filing trays"

What is a "Misspelling"

This is simply another common spelling or misspelling for a product which is used by the customer. Note that your product catalog data does not use misspellings, if it does then this is a synonym, not a misspelling.

For a misspelling we ignore the results that might have been returned for the "Term" and instead return the results for the "Alias" only.

Example: Let's say that normally the following happens.

  • Search for "Letter trays" returns 11 results

  • Search for "Filing trays" returns 10 results

If you then create a Search assist like the below

Term

Alias

Select a type

Letter trays

Filing trays

Misspelling

If you now search for "Letter trays" you will see only the results returned for "Filing trays"

"Filing trays" returns 10 results = 10 results shown

Setup Search Assist

You can find Search Assist in the Product Search area of the Admin β†’ Store Settings β†’ General β†’ Product Search β†’ Search Assist

  1. Enable Search Assist and click the "Save" button

  2. Click the "New Assist" button to add a term

You can export and import terms as well as using the admin for adding individual terms.

To change the alias for a term simply add the term again and we'll update the alias to the new value.

Your changes are instantly available on the storefront if Search Assist is enabled.

Advanced Search Assist Concepts

Longest Phrase Wins

Search Assist supports adding terms as single words or phrases up to 5 words long. Where a phrase includes terms that also exist as words or smaller phrases than the longest one matched in the search will be used (the most specific term, the longest phrase).

Term

Alias

Type

Search Example

gray

silver

synonym

Term "gray" is also found in "gray hat" and so if "gray hat" is searched then this entry is not used.

gray hat

black hat

synonym

A search for "gray hat" will return results for "gray hat" OR "black hat"

Using OR Condition in the Alias value

You can provide several Aliases for a single synonym using the OR pipe character. This means two or more words are being added to the search rather than one when searching the synonym term.

Note that when you use the OR pipe character you no longer get the benefit of synonyms working in both directions. Let's look at an example.

Example: You want to return products of similar colors. Where a customer searches Red, Pink, or Orange you want products of these similar colours to all be returned instead of just the one they specified. To do this you need a term for each color

  • Add the Term "red" with the Alias: "pink | orange"

  • Add the Term "pink" with the Alias: "red | orange"

  • Add the Term "orange" with the Alias: "red | pink"

Now when someone searches for any of the colors red, pink or orange, the search will include the color they searched plus the other two so that similar products can be returned. Note that we don't recommend using the OR pipe character as the Term value.

Term

Alias

Type

Search Example

red

pink | orange

synonym

"red hat" will also return results similar to searches for "pink hat" and "orange hat".

pink

red | orange

synonym

Also include the other terms as their own record.

orange

red | pink

synonym

Also include the other terms as their own record.

Combinations of Terms

Where more than one term is found in a search we will replace all of those found excluding those which are found within a term which is found as a longer phrase (see "longest phrase wins" section above).

Example Search "big gray hat" results in two synonym matches:

Term

Alias

Type

Search Example

big

large

synonym

search will include "big" OR "large"

gray hat

black hat

synonym

this term is used and the search is similar to searching both "gray hat" OR "black hat"

One Term Replacement Used per Match

Search Assist will make one attempt to match as many terms as it can but will not replace a term twice. Using the example below we show how the misspelling replacement is respected but the synonym is not because the term "grey" has already been replaced with the alias.

Example Search "grey hat" will replace the misspelling but not the synonym as well:

Term

Alias

Type

Search Example

grey

gray

misspelling

"grey hat" will search "gray hat"

gray hat

black hat

synonym

This entry is not used for "grey hat" because the mispelling entry is used. This entry is used for the search "gray hat".

Search Redirects or Search Assist Terms

Search redirect is a popular way to provide better content for a search term. A synonym will not result in a search redirect so if this is desired then add then term as another search redirect instead. Search Assist terms always return the search results page.

Understanding Search Assist Processing

The Search assists are being applied before the scrubbing of the results through catalogue containers (e.g. catalogue, search priority), and search priority (e.g. relevance, brand priority). Using features such as search item priority and brand priority will effect the results and might cause unexpected results.

To better understand search and where the Search assist feature applies in the overall process of returning results, see the steps EvoX goes through before returning results to your end customer.

EvolutionX Search Processing Steps

  1. Full catalogs are indexed in our Cloud Search Databases

    1. Product data

    2. Product "keywords"

    3. EvoX search enhancement (i.e. This is some of our secret sauce πŸ’ͺ )

  2. User enters a search term e.g. "red pen"

  3. We look for a matching Search Assists

  4. We query the full index with the following

    1. Store Search recipe

    2. Also Search with the Search assist alias ( if it exist )

  5. We take the list of results from the above steps and we scrub them based on Catalog Container and Product Visibility rules which includes:

    1. Deduplicate based on catalog priority

      1. We deduplicate products between catalogs by one of the following SKU, Product ID, or Manufacturer ID

    2. We apply rules (e.g. Inclusion or exclusion)

    3. We priorities based on "Search priority"

    4. Brand deactivation

    5. We apply "Product Search Sort" (e.g. relevance, brand priority, etc)

    6. Apply Product Visibility rules

  6. Apply Product Item priorities

  7. Finally, return results to the customer.

Search assist will help you to master a great customer experience, increase revenue, and return real value to your customers. πŸŽ‰

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