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Search ranking strategy

Ranking strategies help you make sure that the most relevant products appear at the top of your search results, increasing clicks and conversions.

Create and configure a ranking strategy​

  • Log in to Search Studio and select your project.
  • Go to Ranking Strategies and click on + New Ranking Strategy.
  • Name your strategy and provide a brief description.
  • Click "+Add Attribute" to define the attributes that will determine product ranking.

Ranking strategy

For Boolean attributes (yes/no), you can determine whether "Yes is better" or "No is better". For numeric attributes, such as Price, you can decide whether a higher or lower value ranks higher.

  • Assign a percentage value to determine each attribute's importance in the ranking process.

For example, if you prioritize the "wireless" attribute at 60% and "price" at 40%, the more expensive wireless keyboards will appear higher in the search results:

  • Wireless keyboards with the highest prices.
  • Wireless keyboards with lower prices.
  • Non-wireless keyboards with the highest prices.
  • Non-wireless keyboards with lower prices.

Develop ranking strategies without initial data​

If you don't have existing data to create a ranking strategy, Zoovu provides machine-learning attributes that you can use. They help you create dynamic ranking strategies that continuously update based on customer behavior.

  • sxAddedtoCart: Tracks how many times a product was added to the cart.
  • sxSold: Tracks how many times a product was sold.
  • sxLearnedImportance: Adjusts based on a product's click-through rate over the last 100 days, considering both the number of clicks and the position in search results where it was clicked.

Default ranking strategy​

If you don't have a custom ranking strategy, Zoovu's default ranking strategy will prioritize products that match the detected category over those that merely contain the search keyword. For example, a search for "smartphone" will prioritize actual phones over accessories like "smartphone cases."

Implement multiple ranking strategies​

You can create multiple ranking strategies and toggle them on or off as needed, e.g. for different seasons, promotions, or events.

Single strategy pattern: Applies one ranking strategy across the board. Multiple strategy patterns: Alternates top results from different strategies.

Ranking strategies for specific queries​

If you need to fine-tune results for specific search queries, use the (Result Manager)[../search-ranking/result-manager.md] to apply a special ranking strategy to those queries. For example, you could create a ranking strategy focused on DVD sales and apply it specifically to searches like "movie" or "DVD."

Use textual attributes to boost or penalize certain product types​

Textual attributes (like brand, category, or product_type) can be used to influence how different product groups are ranked in your search results.

  • Go to Ranking Strategies.
  • Create a new strategy or add an attribute to the existing one:
    • Click "Add Attribute".
    • Select a textual attribute and click on any of its values to add them to the strategy.
    • Select one of the boxes: "Penalize selected values" or "Boost selected values".

When you add a textual attribute to your strategy, you can:

  • Boost specific values to promote products that are more strategic or profitable. For example, if you want your own private-label brands to show up higher, you can boost the brand name.
  • Penalize specific values to deprioritize products temporarily or for business reasons. For example, if you sell Christmas decorations year-round, but want to lower their visibility outside of the holiday season, you can apply a negative weight to the "Christmas" category.

Ranking strategy