Bury rules for search

This is for:

Merchandiser

In this article

Use case examples
Prerequisites
Create a bury rule
Manage existing bury rules

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

Bury 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

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

Bury out-of-season products: Lower the ranking of products that aren’t currently in season when a user searches for a generic term like "shoes."
Demote discontinued products: Lower the ranking of products that are being phased out.
Bury low-margin products: Lower the ranking of products with low margins.
Demote out-of-stock products: Lower the ranking of products that are out of stock.

Prerequisites

To create rules in the Coveo Merchandising Hub (CMH), you must meet the following prerequisites:

In the Coveo Administration Console, the metadata that you want to use as attributes in rules has been mapped 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, it must be mapped to a field with the Facet or Multi-value facet option enabled.
Query pipelines have been created.
You must choose the correct property to ensure that your changes affect the intended queries.

Create a bury rule

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 for which the bury rule will apply. By default, a rule applies to all available locales.
2. Audiences: Select the audience for which the bury rule will apply. By default, a rule applies to all visitors.
3. query: Depending on whether you want to apply the bury rule to one or more specific queries or all queries, select the appropriate option.
  If you choose Specific queries, select an Operator. Currently, only the Is operator is available. Next, select one or more queries to which the bury rule will apply.
  
  If you choose to apply the bury rule to All queries, you won’t be able to select an operator or any queries.
  Click Done.
Under Choose an action, select bury.
Under Attribute, select the attribute on which you want to apply the bury rule. For example, to affect the ranking of search results based on their 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 bury strength, select how much you want to affect the ranking of search results.

The extent to which 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 are applied to a query, the more the strength value must be increased to have a significant effect on the search results.

(Optional) To add more attribute-value pairs to the bury rule, click Add attribute and repeat the process.

Click Next: Review and publish.

Leading practices

You can preview the effect of your rules in the panel on the right side of the page. Use this panel to simulate queries and see how the rule affects the search results for a given locale.

Review your rule configuration and then 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.

Manage existing bury rules

In the CMH, access the Search manager.
From the navigation tabs, select ranking rules.
Locate the rule you want to manage.
Click Modify. You now have to option to modify the rule configuration, modify the publish settings, or delete the rule:
- To modify the rule configuration, click Rule.
- To modify the publish settings, such as the rule name or rule schedule, click Publish settings.
- To delete the rule, click Delete.