Promotions

Updated

Promotions in the SearchStax Site Search Solution help you feature key content at the top of search results. Use them to promote content for seasonal events, high-impact keywords, or specific campaigns. See our Promotions video for a brief demonstration.

Promotions are a Profile-level feature. Changes to the list of promotions can be assigned to one or more Profiles as desired (see below).

Precedence of Features

A Search Profile applies Data Filters first, then Ranking, Rules, Smart Ranking, and finally Promotions.

How It Works

A promotion is triggered by a keyword or phrase that matches elements of the incoming query. The promoted item appears at the top of the search results list.

  • An indexed promotion is a document from the local website index.
  • An external promotion can be any webpage, identified by its URL.

When you open an indexed promotion in the Promotion Details view, Site Search validates the linked items for that promotion. If a linked item no longer exists in the search index, the detail view shows a warning banner, and the Missing status appears in the Promotions table and in the promotion itself so you can review or remove the outdated reference.

Smart Answers Integration

Promotions influence Smart Answers responses. When a relevant promotion exists for a query, Smart Answers automatically prioritizes that promotional content when generating AI-powered answers.

This means your promotions work in two ways when Smart Answers is enabled:

  • They appear at the top of search results (existing behavior)
  • They're prioritized as content sources for Smart Answers responses (new behavior)

Promotion Perspective

See the following related pages for case studies and technical perspectives about promotions:

Creating Simple Promotions

The Promotions screen lets you “promote” an item to the top of the search results list. Multiple results can be promoted, and their order can be defined. 

  1. Open the Promotions Screen
    • Go to Site Search > Optimizations > Promotions
    • Click the Create New Promotion button.
  2. Define Triggers
    • Add trigger phrases:
      • (Multiple triggers are ORd. Any of them can trigger the promotion.)
      • The Plus (+) button lets you add another trigger. Promotion Details interface showing triggers section with two search terms (
    • Set Matching Options:
      • Exact Match: Search query must exactly match the trigger.
      • Contains Match: Search query must contain the words from the trigger, but other words are allowed. Note: Matches whole words only, not substrings or regex patterns.
  3. Select Promoted Items:
    1. Under Promotion Definition, select the Indexed Items tab.
    2. Enter a keyword or phrase in the “Default” search field to get matching results. (The “Advanced” search is described below on this page.) The Indexed Items Pool tab displays a list of 507 indexed pages with pagination controls, while the Promoted Items section on the right shows selected i...
    3. Matching result-items are displayed in the left column. Click up to ten items to select them for this promotion.
    4. Selected items appear in the right column. You can change the order of the selected items by using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
  4. Publish the Promotion: Click the Publish button at the bottom of the screen.

Advanced Search

Advanced Search helps when dealing with large indexes by targeting specific items directly.

Advanced Search uses Solr’s field:value syntax, such as url:“https://www.searchstax.com/docs/backups/”. In the example below, we used the Advanced Search to locate that specific document and then add it to the promotion.

Indexed Items Definition interface showing a search field with a URL query, Indexed Items Pool on the left displaying search results, and Promoted Items...

Other examples of advanced searches:

  • id:”ed55498c-1f34-395d-963f-c79e1679ffee”
  • url:”https://www.searchstax.com/docs/searchstax-cloud-solr-backups/”
  • year_published:2022

Using External Promotions

External promotions allow you to highlight content from outside your indexed data, such as events, partner pages, or advertisements.

  1. Create an External Item:
    1. Open the External Items tab under Promotions.External Items tab with Create button and empty External Items Results container for adding promotion items.
    2. Click Create and enter:
      • Title
      • Description (optional)
      • URL. (Note that a URL may be used in only one promotion.)External item creation form with title, description, and URL fields for a Sitecore/Solr compatibility resource.
  2. Add the External Item to Results:
    1. Click the external item to move it to the Results List.
    2. Publish your changes to activate the external promotion.

Publishing Promotions

Promotions have two states:

  • Draft: Click the Save Draft button before you leave or refresh a page. Otherwise, changes can be lost.
  • Publish: The Publish button saves changes and makes the promotion active in the search experience.

If Site Search shows a missing-item warning for an indexed promotion, you can still save the promotion as a draft or publish it. The warning is informational and lets you review outdated linked items before they affect the search experience.

To handle a promotion with a Missing status, follow these steps:

  1. Open the promotion and review the warning in Promotion Details.
  2. Replace or remove the missing linked indexed item.
  3. Select Save Draft.
  4. Select Publish when ready.

The Promotions Tab lists all saved promotions and shows a status label for each item.

  • Enabled: The promotion is active.
  • Disabled: The promotion is inactive.
  • Missing: The promotion references one or more indexed items that are no longer present in the current search index.
  • Draft indicator (blue dot): The promotion has unpublished changes. The dot appears after you save changes as a draft and disappears after you publish.

When you save a draft, Site Search shows a blue dot in the navigation menu to indicate pending changes for the current app, language, and search profile. The configuration page also shows a banner. Status banners show pending draft, saved draft, and published states.

Promotions table showing an indexed promotion with a Missing status label

The Publish button below this table converts all draft promotions to active published status.

Publish to Multiple Profiles

Add-On Feature

This is an optional feature that can be added to your SearchStax account. Ask your Account Representative for details.

When you Publish changes to the Promotions list, Site Search gives you an opportunity to copy that single Promotion to your selection of profiles.

Publish to Profile(s) dialog showing options to select search profiles for applying promotion changes.

Simply check off the profiles where you want to share the Promotions settings and click the Publish button.

Best Practices for Managing Promotions

  • Use Descriptive Titles: Help organize and manage multiple promotions.
  • Review Periodically: Keep promotions relevant by updating or disabling them as needed.
  • Leverage Advanced Search: For large indexes, use precise field queries to quickly find the right content.

Troubleshooting Promotions

If you have any difficulty with Promotions, see Troubleshooting Promotions in the SearchStax Help Center.

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