Boost rules for search

This is for:

Merchandiser

In this article

Use case examples
Prerequisites
Create boost rules
Modify boost rules
Copy boost rules
Delete boost rules

In the Search manager of the Coveo Merchandising Hub (CMH), merchandisers can define boost ranking rules to make products that match specific criteria appear higher in search results. These criteria are based on product attributes that are available in the indexed metadata, such as brand, category, or price.

Boost ranking rules can apply to all queries or to one or more specific queries. They can also be scheduled for a specific time, letting merchandisers plan and execute their strategies more effectively.

Use case examples

Boost ranking rules can be used to address a variety of use cases. Here are a few examples:

Boost promoted products: Enhance the ranking of products that are part of a specific promotion.
Feature specific brands: Boost the ranking of products from specific brands when the brand is searched for.
Feature high-margin products: Enhance the ranking of products with higher profit margins.
Highlight new arrivals: Increase the visibility of newly added products to the inventory.
Boost high stock products: Promote products that have a high inventory to encourage sales.

Prerequisites

Before you create rules in the Coveo Merchandising Hub (CMH):

In the Coveo Administration Console, map the metadata that you want to use as attributes in rules to the corresponding fields. These fields must have the Facet or Multi-value facet option enabled. For example, to use the color metadata as an attribute in a rule, map it to a field with the Facet or Multi-value facet option enabled.
Create query pipelines.
Choose the correct property to ensure that your changes affect the intended queries.

Create boost rules

To create boost rules

In the CMH, access the Search manager.
From the navigation tabs, select ranking rules and then click Create ranking rule.
Under This rule will apply to, define the scope of the rule.
1. Locale: Select the locale that the boost rule applies to. By default, a rule applies to all available locales.
2. Audiences: Select the audience that the boost rule will target. You can choose between predefined audience profiles or create custom profiles. You can only select one audience profile per rule.
  
  The Audience option is currently in early access. Contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to enable this option.
  - All visitors: By default, the rule applies to all visitors.
  - Device & technology: Target visitors visiting a storefront using a specific device type. The device type is determined by the information sent by the visitor's browser, not by the device’s screen size. Available options are:
    
    Desktop: Encompasses desktop computers and laptops.
    
    Mobile: Encompasses all mobile phones.
    
    Tablet: Encompasses all tablets.
  - Visitor type: Target the visitors who are logged into the storefront or those who aren’t.
  - Your audiences: Create a custom audience profile that you can reuse in other rules sharing the same property. After a custom audience profile is created, it can’t be changed once the rule is published. If all rules containing a custom audience profile are deleted, the custom audience profile will no longer be available as an option when creating new rules.
    
    Visitor URL: Target visitors based on the URL of the storefront page they’re on.
    
    Referrer URL: Target visitors based on the URL they came from before landing on the storefront.
3. query: Choose whether the boost rule applies to all queries or to one or more specific queries.
  - To apply the boost rule to all queries:
    
    Select All queries. You won’t be able to select an operator or any specific queries.
    
    Click Done.
  - To apply the boost rule to specific queries:
    
    Select Specific queries.
    
    Select an Operator.
    
    Is: This operator identifies queries that exactly match the specified value. For example, you can use it to create a rule that only targets the query accessories.
    
    Contains: This operator identifies queries where the specified value is found within the full value of the query. For example, you can use it to create a rule that targets all queries containing the term accessories, including Surf accessories and Parts & accessories.
    
    Select one or more queries that the boost rule applies to.
    
    Click Done.
Under Choose an action, select boost.
Under Attribute, select the attribute on which you want to apply the boost rule. For example, to affect the ranking of search results by brand, select ec_brand.
Under Operator, select the operator that you want to use.
Under Value, select one or more attribute values that you want to use to affect product ranking. For example, to affect the ranking of search results based on the ec_brand attribute, enter the brand value that you want to use, such as Barca Sports.

Under boost strength, select how strongly you want to affect the ranking of search results.

How strongly the search results are affected by a given strength value depends on other ranking rules that are applied to the same query.

The more ranking rules you apply to a query, the more you must increase the strength value to have a significant effect on the search results.

(Optional) To add more attribute-value pairs to the boost rule, click Add attribute and repeat the process.
Click Next: Review and publish.

Review your rule configuration.

Leading practices

Use the panel on the right to preview how the rule affects the search results for a given locale.

The preview is an approximate simulation that won’t cover every scenario encountered in a live environment.

Click Next: Publish.
Under Rule name, enter a meaningful name for your rule.
Under Choose when to publish, select one of the following:
- To apply the rule immediately, select Publish now.
- To set a schedule for the rule, select Set a schedule, and then select the time frame in which the rule should apply.
Click Publish now.

The rule now applies or will apply as scheduled.

Modify boost rules

To modify boost rules

In the CMH, access the Search manager.
From the navigation tabs, select ranking rules.
Locate the rule that you want to modify.
Click , and then click Modify.
You can modify the rule’s scope (Locale, Audiences, or query) or its configuration by clicking Edit on the relevant card. These are the same settings covered in the rule creation section.

The Audience option is currently in early access. Contact your Customer Success Manager (CSM) to enable this option.
When you’ve finished editing the rule, or to modify its publishing settings, click Next: Publish.
Update the publishing settings, if applicable, and then click Publish now.

The modified rule now applies, or will apply as scheduled.

Copy boost rules

To copy boost rules

In the CMH, access the Search manager.
From the navigation tabs, select ranking rules.
Locate the rule that you want to copy.
Click , and then click Copy to….

In the Copy rule modal that opens, you can choose whether to copy the rule to other properties or queries. If the rule applies to all queries, you won’t see the option to copy the rule to other queries.

To copy the rule to other properties:

Select Property and click Next.

Use the dropdown menu to select one or more properties.

If the rule is scoped to one or more queries that don’t exist in the target property, you’ll see an error message and be unable to proceed with the copy.

The error message will list the queries that are missing from the destination property.

Click Confirm copy.

To copy the rule to other queries (if applicable):
1. Select query and click Next.
2. Use the dropdown menu to select one or more queries.
3. Click Confirm copy.

The rule is copied to the target properties or queries.

Delete boost rules

To delete boost rules

In the CMH, access the Search manager.
From the navigation tabs, select ranking rules.
Locate the rule that you want to delete.
Click , and then click Delete.
Click Delete again to confirm.

The rule is deleted.