Use Ranking when relevant results exist but the right ones are not consistently appearing near the top. Ranking lets you increase the influence of selected fields, field values, or functions across many matching queries.
Before you add query-specific Rules or Promotions, make sure the Search Profile has a strong relevance baseline across many searches. A strong baseline helps SearchStax match useful content, score it with the right fields and settings, and provide stronger results for AI-powered features such as Smart Answers and Smart Ranking.
If you have not built a test query set or reviewed indexed fields yet, see Prepare to Tune Search Relevance before you change Ranking.
Choose the Right Control
SearchStax starts by matching a visitor's query against configured Search Fields. Ranking can then increase the influence of selected fields, values, or functions. Rules can change behavior when a query contains or exactly matches a trigger. Promotions can place selected items at the top of results for specific queries or campaigns.
Use each control for its job:
- Search Fields: Choose where SearchStax looks for query matches.
- Ranking: Apply consistent scoring policies across many matching queries.
- Rules: Apply conditional, query-triggered behavior.
- Promotions: Place selected indexed or external items at the top of results for targeted queries.
- Smart Ranking: Reorder results with AI-assisted, intent-aware ordering when the feature is available.
A Search Profile applies Data Filters first, then Ranking, Rules, Smart Ranking, and finally Promotions. Keep that order in mind when you review result order.
Understand Boost Types
A Ranking boost increases the influence of a relevance factor. It does not reserve a position in the result list, and it does not force a boosted result to outrank every other result.
Ranking supports three boost types:
- Search Field: If a query matches within a specific field, boost the item's relevance score.
- Field Value: If a result has the configured value in the configured field, boost the item's relevance score. The value does not need to match the visitor's query.
- Function: Boost the item's relevance score based on a value returned by a function.
Boost multipliers are 1 by default. In the Site Search interface, sliders let you set boost values from 0 to 100. A value of 0 effectively disables the boost, which can be useful when you want to keep a boost saved but inactive.
Note: Use the range to express relative importance: a higher value tells SearchStax to give that boost more influence than a lower value. Remember to test the change, because the final effect depends on the existing relevance factors.
Define Search Fields
In the Search Profile, review Search Fields before you adjust Ranking boosts. Prioritize fields that describe the main topic, purpose, or type of each result. Use unstructured body fields carefully. They can help SearchStax find more possible matches, but they can also return too many weak results.
For higher education content, useful Search Fields might include title, program_name, description, and main heading fields. Structured fields such as content_type and date_modified can still support Ranking, filtering, faceting, or display, but they usually do not belong in Search Fields for keyword matching.
If important text is not searchable, it cannot help a result match the query. If broad fields dominate matching, weak results can compete with pages that better satisfy visitor intent.
Boost High-Signal Text Fields
After Search Fields define where matching can happen, use Ranking to make stronger fields count more. Field boosts are useful when a match in one field is usually a better relevance factor than a match in another field.
For example, a title match is often stronger than a body-content match because the title usually describes the page's main topic. A heading or description match can also be stronger than a match in a long body field.
Start with clear separation between fields, such as giving title more influence than headings, headings more influence than description, and description more influence than body. Avoid boosting too many fields at once because that makes it harder to understand which field changed the result order.
Add Structured Fields That Represent Business Priorities
Text relevance is not the only factor that matters. Structured fields can help Ranking reflect broad business priorities.
Use a Field Value boost when the same value reliably identifies content you want to influence. Examples include:
- making event pages more visible for event-related searches
- making program pages more visible for academic-program searches
- making service pages more visible for healthcare searches
- using recency when newer content should usually rank higher
Use structured metadata before URL-based ranking logic when you can. URL patterns can help when no reliable metadata exists, such as pages under /events/, but they depend on site structure. They can break when URLs change, when content appears in multiple sections, or when the same path includes pages that should not receive the boost.
Use function boosts when the business priority depends on a calculated value. Common use cases include recency or distance, when the required field exists in the index and the profile is configured to use it. If you need to use URL structure for ranking, work with the team that manages your Site Search schema and indexing configuration. URL-based logic depends on the indexed field, schema, and configuration.
Example: Boost Event Pages
Suppose visitors search for events, but campus events, webinars, or open houses do not appear high enough. SearchStax does not automatically treat a content type value as a business priority because it resembles the visitor's query. Use Search Fields for matching and Ranking to add influence from reliable structured metadata.
To test an event-page boost:
- Choose test queries, such as
events,upcoming events,webinar,open house, and names of known event pages. - Record the current top results.
- Confirm that event pages have useful searchable text in fields such as title, description, headings, or summaries.
- Confirm that a content type or page type field exists in the index.
- Check several event pages and several non-event pages to make sure the value separates the content correctly.
- In Ranking, add a Field Value boost for the structured field value that identifies event pages.
- Retest the same queries and compare the result order with your baseline.
This approach is strongest when event pages match the query in useful text fields and also have reliable structured metadata. If the boost helps expected pages but also lifts unrelated pages with the same content type, the metadata is probably too broad. Narrow the metadata, adjust the boost, or use a Rule or Promotion for the narrower case.
Use a Rule when behavior should apply only to a specific query or a small query group. Use a Promotion when a specific event, campaign page, or editorial item must appear in a fixed promoted placement.
Test and Iterate
Run the same test queries you recorded before tuning. Review the top 5-10 results for each query.
Ask:
- Do the most useful results appear near the top?
- Do expected content types appear when they are relevant?
- Are broad body-content matches pushing weaker results too high?
- Did the change improve one query but weaken another important query?
- Do Smart Answers and Smart Ranking have useful top results to work from?
Make one meaningful change at a time. Then retest and record what changed. Use the same scope and date windows when you measure impact. Useful analytics checks include Average Click Position, Click-Through Rate, Searches with No Click, and Content Items.
If one group of related queries improves while another regresses, narrow the boost logic or keep separate profile-specific policies instead of making the boost broader.