Using the setup menu in the left menu you can manage synonyms and misspellings, so words that are often misspelled can still give satisfactory results.

Conceptually, there is a distinction between real synonyms, and spelling errors. If you are a public company you should have access to a standard dictionary, which contains spelling errors and synonyms that often occur in the public sector vocabulary.

Synonyms and misspelled words can be created in the same way:

• Enter the misspelled word or the word for which a synonym is required.
• Enter the correct spelling or synonym, and click the Create button.

Both additions work with a short delay (2-3 minutes) after they are entered.

Synonyms should be used with care.

For example if your website refers to “abandoned vehicles” but you can see from search statistics that your users sometime search for “dumped cars”, this may be a specific synonym you want to implement.

However, very general synonyms should be avoided as they can quickly lead to skewing the search results and producing results that are not useful for the user.

A useful resource for reviewing the specific search terms people are using is the Statistics section in the left hand menu.

Here you can view search terms that produced results for your users, but more importantly in this case the search terms that did not produce results.