Facets for search

This is for:

Merchandiser

In the Search manager of the Coveo Merchandising Hub (CMH), merchandisers can configure a facet collection to optimize the filtering experience for visitors on search result pages. facets are dynamic filters that help users narrow down their search results based on specific attributes such as brand, price, category, or other custom product attributes.

Facet collection displayed for a search| Coveo

With this tool, merchandisers can configure the Default facet collection, which applies to all queries sent from a given property. This default facet collection will be used for all search result pages, regardless of the specific query or context.

Facets in a facet collection can be configured to be either manually pinned or selected by relevance:

  • Manually pinned facets are manually selected by the merchandiser and will always appear in the facet collection. They will always appear at the top of the facet list, regardless of the visitor’s query. This lets you ensure that certain facets are always visible and easily accessible to visitors. See Manually pinned facets for more information.

  • Facets selected by relevance are dynamically determined by Coveo based on the visitor’s query. Merchandisers can decide how many of these to display in the facet collection. See Facets selected by relevance for more information.

Example

A merchandiser managing an outdoor gear site wants to improve its facet selection.

To help visitors easily refine their search results, the merchandiser creates a facet collection in the CMH and manually pins the Brand, Size, and Price facets, ensuring that these always appear at the top of the facet list.

To further optimize the shopping experience, the merchandiser activates the Facets selected by relevance feature and sets the number of dynamically selected facets to 2. These facets will be added alongside the manually pinned ones. In total, 5 facets will appear on any search result pages using this facet collection.

When a visitor searches for "backpacks", Coveo automatically determines which additional facets to display and the order in which they appear. In this case, the most relevant facets are Waterproofing and Volume. These are added to the manually pinned facets, resulting in the following facet list:

  • Brand

  • Size

  • Price

  • Waterproofing

  • Volume

Prerequisites

To successfully use this feature, your Coveo organization must:

  • Have the Facet or Multi-value facet option enabled on the Fields (platform-ca | platform-eu | platform-au) page for every field intended to be used as a facet. For a facet to be used as a relevance-based facet, the following options must also be selected:

    • The Facet Generator option.

    • The Search operator option. Activating this option requires that the source be rebuilt in order for the changes to take effect.

  • Have a compatible version of Headless. We recommend version 3.24.1 or later.

Create a facet collection

To create a facet collection from within the Search page of the CMH:

  1. From the navigation tabs, select Facets.

  2. Click Create facet collection.

Configure a facet collection

To configure a facet collection:

  1. Select up to 30 facet fields that will be included in the collection. These facet fields will always be pinned on top of the facet section. See manually pinned facets for more information.

  2. Once all the facets you want to pin are selected, click Next: order and settings.

  3. On the Facets order and settings page, you can:

    • Set the order of pinned facets. This determines the order in which pinned facets should appear in the facet section.

    • Enable the Facets selected by relevance option. This lets you define dynamic spots that will be filled by Coveo with the most relevant facets based on the visitor’s query. See Facets selected by relevance for more information.

    • Click Edit next to a pinned facet to edit its settings.

    Important

    When a facet field’s settings are edited, the changes are applied throughout the selected property.

  4. Click Publish now.

Edit a facet collection

To edit an existing facet collection from within the Search page of the CMH:

  1. From the navigation tabs, select Facets.

  2. Locate the facet collection that you want to edit, click the dots button, and select Edit.

  3. Proceed to edit the facet collection as indicated in the Configure a facet collection section using the Edit buttons assigned to configurable items.

Delete a facet collection

To delete an existing facet collection from within the Search page of the CMH:

  1. From the navigation tabs, select Facets.

  2. Locate the facet collection that you want to delete, click the dots button, and select Delete.