Search Stop Words Question

[GiftSpecialists]

I have the word "got" in my stop list. But I have products that have the words "Got Beer" printed on them.

I cannot get only our "got beer" products to show up in the search results. I have put the phrase "got beer" in the search keywords, but

We sell lots of beer things, so when someone types in "got beer", they get just about every product we carry returned. If I remove the word "got" from the stop list, they get every product we carry with the word "got" in the description.

How is the best way to configure my search for a probalem like this?

FYI - I am new to the whole search thing, so any help in which fields are best to index, conguration settings that work best, etc would be greatly appreciated.

[Jim]

The stop list is a list of words that will not be indexed and will be ignored on searches. So the purpose of the list is to help ignore words that occur so frequently that they will not be useful in finding search results.

The search indexing in ShopSite is done on an individual word basis not phrases. So only individual words will be indexed not phrases. To increase the likelihood that a product will be found by a search you need to make sure that the indexed fields contain words which differentiate that product from other products. The words must also be something that a shopper is likely to enter when they want to find the product.

Search results are also returned on the word basis not on phrases. If someone searches for multiple words like "got beer" the results will be returned for all products that have the word "got" OR the word "beer" in an indexed search field. So if you had a product "Got MIlk" and another "Root Beer" and another "Got Beer" all of those items would be returned for the search "got beer" because "got" is in "Got MIlk" and "beer" is in "Root Beer" and both "Got" and "Beer" are in "Got Beer". There is an Advanced Search option that allows the use of logic terms in narrowing the the search results. (See: http://www.shopsite.com/help/11.1/en-US/sc/pro/advanced.search.help.html ) This would allow you to enter a search of "Got AND Beer" or "Got + Beer" which would then only return products which have both words in them, in our example only the one product "Got Beer". This type of advanced search can be use in Google and other search engines to limit the search results to more relevant items instead of the millions that can be returned.

Indexing only fields that have relevant data will help to make search results more accurate. If your description for all products has the same words in it then it won't be very helpful in limiting searchs, so put the most relevant terms in some other field and then index that field and not the description.

[GiftSpecialists]

Thanks Jim,

To clarify a couple things:

1) Is it true that the "Stop Words" override all fields... even the "Search Keywords"? So if I have the word "got" in the Search Keywords, but also in the Stop Words, SS will ignore the word "got".

2) I do not need to put keyword phrases in my "Search Keywords" field, only single words separated by commas?
i.e
Incorrect = beer gift,beer gifts,beer gift basket,beer gift baskets,
Correct = beer,gift,gifts,basket,baskets

3) Is it generally better to only index the "Search Keywords" field and not the description?

[Jim]

1. Yes, if a word is in the stoplist it will not be indexed at all, and will be ignored if a shopper uses it to search on.
2. Yes, since only words are indexed you don't need to put phrases in the search key words. Also punctuation is ignored so you don't need the commas either, just use a list of words separate by spaces.
3. Each store will be different when it comes to what field will be best to have indexed for searching. If your descriptions are unique enough to differentiate items then there is no need to even include search keywords. Using the descriptions makes it so you don't have to manually pickout special search words and enter them in a different field for the product. However, if your products are such that the descriptions are very similar you may want to put special search keywords to help limit the search results. Another use for the search keywords is to add frequent misspellings or plurals, etc that a shopper might enter when searching for a product.