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Using Search

This guide is for editors who tune site search and owners deciding what should be searchable. Every step uses the labels you see on screen.

  1. Open Extensions, select Search, then open Settings.
  2. Turn on each registered content source that should appear in public search.
  3. Set the driver, logging, retention, and result behavior.
  4. Save. Visitors can now find the enabled sources from the search box.
A site owner configures search settings, logging, retention, and result behaviour. A site owner configures search settings, logging, retention, and result behaviour.
  1. Open the main admin dashboard.
  2. Enable the Search dashboard widgets if your dashboard settings hide them.
  3. Review the most common searches, rising searches, and searches that returned nothing.
  4. Use those signals to decide what content, synonyms, typo corrections, or promoted results to add.

The Top searches widget shows your most searched terms. Trending searches compares the current dashboard period with the preceding one, and Zero result searches highlights terms that need content or curation.

An administrator reviews the top searched terms from query logs. An administrator reviews the top searched terms from query logs. An administrator reviews trending searches over the configured window. An administrator reviews trending searches over the configured window.
  1. Open Extensions → Search → Settings.
  2. In Search curation, add a Query and its equivalent queries (for example “tee” and “T-shirt”).
  3. Save. Now either word finds the same results.

The same Search curation section also lets you correct common typos and promote a chosen answer for a query.

A site owner sees how search curation controls query intent and promoted answers. A site owner sees how search curation controls query intent and promoted answers.
  1. Review the Zero result searches dashboard widget.
  2. Either add the missing content, or use Search curation to add a synonym, typo correction, or promoted result that leads visitors to existing content.
An administrator identifies search terms with no matching content. An administrator identifies search terms with no matching content.
  • A sensible set of searchable content. Make your key pages and products findable before fine-tuning.
NeedEnable
Different words for the same thingSynonyms
Understand visitor intentSearch dashboard widgets
  • Don’t make everything searchable at once. Too much low-value content makes results noisy. Add as needed.
RoleFirst useful screen
EditorSearch dashboard widgets and Search curation
Site ownerSearch settings: decide what is searchable
What you seeWhat it meansWhat to do
A search returns nothingThe content is not enabled, or visitors use different wordsEnable the source, then add content or a curation rule
Results feel noisy or irrelevantToo much low-value content is indexedNarrow the enabled sources in Search settings
A new page isn’t found in searchThe source has not refreshed its indexAsk a developer to check the source’s indexing behavior