Understand the searchable field ranking list

Every place where a shopper uses search on your site is associated with a searchable field ranking list.

The searchable field ranking list determines which records are returned in search results – matches, and influences the order of these search results -- rank.

The searchable field ranking list is composed of an ordered list of fields:

• These fields are considered when a search term entered by a shopper is matched against records.
• The order of these fields in the list affects the ranking of results.

You can view, add or delete fields from this list. Your site has at least two searchable field ranking lists:

• All is the default searchable field ranking list for catalog searches.
• TypeAhead is a separate, auto-suggest searchable field ranking list.

For example, TypeAhead can return results in a type-ahead format when a shopper types into a dropdown box.

Your site might have additional searchable field ranking lists for other types of searches.

Note: In addition to the user interfaces described in this chapter, Commerce also provides search Rest APIs that you can use to manage your searchable field ranking. In the APIs, the searchable field ranking is known as a search interface. See Use the REST APIs for more information.

Cross-field matching

Cross-field is the priority that is assigned to a matching record if the match is split across multiple fields. A cross-field match can be configured to appear higher in the results than some single-field matches.

Cross-field matching example

Consider two exact matches. One is product name + product color; the other match is product description. The record that displays first depends on whether or not you use and how you use cross-field matching.

A shopper enters “blue suede shoes” in the search box. Two records are matches, but which one should have the higher priority? Here are the two records:

Record	product.name	product.color	product.description
One	Suede shoes	Blue	Customer favorite
Two	Suede shoes	Red	Tired of your blue suede shoes? Try these!

Record One is a match where “blue suede shoes” is split across multiple fields. Record Two is a match where “blue suede shoes” occurs in a single product.description field. Record One is the better match and should have the higher priority, but it will only display first if the following conditions are met:

• Your searchable field ranking list uses cross-field matching.
• Cross-field matches have a higher priority than a single product.description field match.

There are no rules for which fields in a searchable field ranking list should be given a higher priority than cross-field matches, but you likely want to consider structured fields such as category, brand, color, or features. Fields that allow more unstructured or free-form content, such as a product description, should be given a lower priority and should display after cross-field matches.

Cross-field matching is enabled by default for each searchable field ranking list. To disable cross-field matching, you must use the search REST APIs.

Relevance Ranking

Search field ranking is taken into account by configurable modules that sort the records in search results as part of a relevance ranking strategy. For information about how to configure the sorting of search results, see Specify which index fields are included in searches.