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Search indexes

Search indexes are a critical component of your search subsystem. Their purpose is to optimize the speed and performance of finding relevant documents for a search query. Without an index, the search engine would have to scan every document in your store, which would consume significant time and computational resources.

Managing indexes​

Our search system can combine all the indexes configured in your setup to enhance search performance and deliver the most relevant results to your customers. These indexes are consolidated into a single grid, located under System -> Search Management -> Search indexes, where you can configure them.

Audience settings

Search indexes list

Each index, added to this grid, displays the following properties:

  • Title: the title of the search index

  • Type: indicates the type of the index

  • Position: the index's position in the search results.

  • Status: shows whether the index is ready for searching.

  • Action: the column provides common actions that can be performed directly from the grid, such as:

    • Edit: modify the index settings (default action).
    • Reindex: perform manual reindexing for the selected index.
    • Delete: remove the index from the Mirasvit Search extension.

Search usage statistics​

At the top of the page, a block with overall search statistics is displayed, which includes:

  • Time Period: the time range shown on the graphs
    • Today
    • Last 7 days
    • Last 30 days
    • Last 365 days
  • Searches: the total number of search queries made on the site within the selected period
  • Sessions with searches: the number of sessions during which a search was performed
  • Search conversions: the conversion rate percentage
  • Misspellings: the number of corrected typos in search queries

To view more detailed statistics, click on the graph.

Audience settings

Search usage statistics

Search index management​

Click on the index line or select Action -> Edit to view more details about the selected item. A few setting groups will be available:

General information​

  • Title: the title of the search index, which will be displayed as the tab header on the search results page

  • Type: indicates the type of the index (i.e., the searchable content type). Some values in this field will trigger specific options.

    Supported index types
    • Magento Indexes:
      • Product
      • Category
      • CMS Page
      • Attribute
      • Search terms
    • Mirasvit extensions:
      • Blog MX
      • Knowledge Base
      • Brand pages
    • External:
      • Wordpress Blog
    • Amasty:
      • Blog
      • FAQ
    • Magefun:
      • Blog
    • Mageplaza:
      • Blog
    • Aheadworks:
      • Blog
    • Ves extensions:
      • Blog
      • Ves Brand
    • Blackbird:
      • Content Manager

  • Active: sets whether the index should be activated

  • Position: the position of the index in the search results. Search results will be organized in tabs according to this property

Searchable attributes​

The table is used to assign search weights to selected attributes to control relevance in search results and consists of:

  • Attribute: the name of the attribute, selected from the properties of the chosen index type.

    note

    For example, if the Product type is selected, the attributes could include: Product name, SKU, Price, Tax Class, and so on.

  • Weight: the sort order that defines the importance of each attribute for product relevance. The maximum weight is 10 (highest priority), and the minimum weight is 0 (lowest priority).

    note

    Each index type comes with a predefined set of searchable options that will be displayed after completing the first stage. There must be at least one searchable attribute; otherwise, the search will not function properly.

Additional​

Additional search index settings

  • Sort by: determines the sort order of search results. The default value is Relevance.

Properties​

The type-dependent specific options section.

  • Product
    • Search by parent categories name: includes all parent categories in the search (useful when a store has a large category tree)
    • Search by child products: includes associated products from Bundled, Grouped, and Configurable products in the search
    • Search by Product ID: enables search by product ID (entity_id attribute, which is not listed as searchable by default in Magento)
    • Search by custom options: enables search by custom options (defined in addition to existing product options)
    • Exclude out of stock products: excludes out of stock products from the search results (useful when out of stock products are visible in the catalog but should not appear in search results)
  • Category
    • Ignored categories: excludes selected categories from search results
    • Include empty categories: includes categories without products in the search results
  • Pages
    • Ignored CMS pages: excludes selected CMS pages from search results