Bury rules for search

This is for:

Merchandiser

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 the search results.

These criteria are based on product attributes available in the indexed metadata, such as brand, category, or price.

Bury ranking rules can apply to all queries or to specific queries only.

Bury rules | Coveo

Use case examples

Boost 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, merchandisers must ensure they have properly configured their query pipeline and chosen the correct tracking ID to ensure that their changes impact the intended queries.

Create a bury rule

To create a rule:

  1. In the CMH, access the Search manager.

  2. From the navigation tabs, select Ranking rules.

  3. Click Create ranking rule, and then, depending on whether you want to apply the bury rule to a specific query or to all queries, select the appropriate option.

  4. Select the Locale for which the bury rule will apply, and then click Done. By default, a rule applies to all available locales.

  5. Select the Query to which the bury rule will apply, and then click Done. Note that if you selected to apply the bury rule to all queries, you won’t be able to select a query.

  6. Under Choose an action, select Bury.

  7. Under Attribute, select the attribute on which you want to apply the bury rule. For example, if you want to affect ranking of search results based on the color attribute, select color.

  8. Under Operator, select the operator that you want to use.

  9. Under Value, select the attribute value on which you want to apply the bury rule. For example, if you want to affect ranking of search results based on the color attribute, enter the color value that you want to use, such as red. Note that you can select multiple values for the attribute.

  10. Under Bury strength, select how much you want to affect the ranking of search results.

    Important

    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 impact on the search results.

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

  12. Click Done.

    Tip
    Leading practice

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

  13. Review the rule configuration, and then click Publish.

  14. In the Publish now panel, enter a meaningful name for the rule.

  15. Click Publish. The rule is created and now applies.

Manage existing bury rules

To manage an existing bury rule:

  1. In the CMH, access the Search manager.

  2. From the navigation tabs, select Bury rules.

  3. Locate the rule you want to manage.

  4. Click Modify. You can now decide to edit the rule or delete it.