Search ranking allows you to alter search rankings manually according to a number of criteria.
If you have created several Packages for search on your site, a list of these will appear when you enter the Search Ranking page. Learn more about Packages on the Package configuration help screen.
Select a package to alter search rankings for by clicking Configure search ranking under a package name.
If you only use one package for search on your site, you are taken straight to the Search Ranking setup page.
Ranking adjustments are made in the 8 steps of the Search ranking setup procedure. None of these steps are obligatory, and may be left blank if required.
Most options have an associated help text. Hover your mouse over the red question mark to display help texts.
- Title is searchable: Tick this box if you want to include the page title in the search index.
- Title ranking score: This allows you to assign a ranking score to the page title, ranging from -5000 to 5000. With high ranking scores, search term occurrence in the page title ensures a higher placement on search results pages.
- Search and replace: This allows you to replace certain terms or phrases in the title with a different word. If the Replace field is left blank, the term in the Search field is simply removed from the title. This may help to remove irrelevant, recurring words from the title (such as a company name or a slogan), and reduce the size of the search index. Click Create to add a search-and-replace item. Click Delete to remove an item.
Click Update to save your changes.
- URL is searchable: Tick this box if you want to include the page URL in the search index.
- URL ranking score: This allows you to assign a ranking score to the page title, ranging from -5000 to 5000. With high ranking scores, search term occurrence in the page URL ensures a higher placement on search results pages.
- Search and replace: This allows you to replace certain terms or phrases in the URL with a different phrase. If the Replace field is left blank, the term in the Search field is simply removed from the URL. This can be used to remove / (slash); _ (underscore); or other such separators from the URL and replacing them with a space. Also, you can remove prefixes and suffixes, so that only the section of the URL that is unique to a page is included in the index. Click Create to add a search-and-replace item. Click Delete to remove an item.
Click Update to save your changes.
The Body section is the main factor determines a page’s relevancy score. The Body ranking score should only be altered from the default 0 in very rare cases.
- Body ranking score: This allows you to assign a ranking score to the body section of the page (the section of the page within the <body></body> tags), ranging from -5000 to 5000. With high ranking scores, search term occurrence in the page body ensures a higher placement on search results pages.
- Search and replace: This allows you to replace or remove certain portions of the body text. If the Replace field is left blank, the text in the Search field is simply removed. This may be relevant for menu items that recur on every page, that have no bearing on page content. Click Create to add a search-and-replace item. Click Delete to remove an item.
Click Update to save your changes.
This step allows you to assign a ranking score between -5000 and 5000 to search term occurrence in designated meta tags. Meta tags must be made searchable in the Meta tags step of the Site configuration procedure for them to appear here.
Go to Site configuration help screen
Click the Create meta tag button to go to the Meta tags step in the Site configuration procedure.
Click Update to save your changes.
- Meta tag: Select the meta tag that is used to date the pages on your site. This meta tag must be created under the Meta tags step in the Site configuration procedure. The meta tag may be named Date or last-modified.
- Date format: Enter the date format that is used in the meta tag; e.g. dd-mm-yyyy, mm-dd-yyyy, etc.
- Age in days: Documents can be assigned a ranking score according to their age in days. Enter an age in days in this field.
- Ranking score: Assign a ranking score between -5000 and 5000 for documents that are newer than the Age in days entered above.
Date formats
- yyyy: 4-digit year.
- yy: 2-digit year.
- rr: 2-digit year, unambiguously between 1950 and 2049.
- mm: Month, e.g. 12 for December.
- mon: Short month, e.g. jan for January.
- month: Long month.
- dd: Day of the month.
- hh24: Hour, 24-hour format.
- hh: Hour, 12-hour format.
- mi: Minutes.
- ss: Seconds.
- am or pm: Meridian indicator, for use with 12-hour time format.
Click Create to add an age ranking score. You can add as many age ranking scores as required: e.g. a ranking score of 100 for pages less than 7 days old; 75 for pages that are between 7 and 15 days old; and/or a negative ranking score for pages that are more than 1 year old.
Existing items are displayed below the Create button. Click Delete to remove an item.
This option allows you to assign a ranking score to all pages belonging to a group. To find out how to set up groups, please see the Group setup help screen.
Go to Group setup help screen
Assign ranking scores to the groups listed on this page as required. Click Update to save your changes.
Click the Create groups button to go straight to the Group setup procedure.
This option allows you to assign a ranking score to portions of your pages, delimited by Body tags that are identified in the Site configuration process.
Go to the Site configuration help screen
Assign ranking scores to the body tags listed on this page as required. Click Update to save your changes.
Click the Create body tag button to go straight to the Body tags step of the Site configuration procedure.