3 min read

Search & discovery

Install Search & discovery from the App store. It has five pages: Overview, Synonyms, Filters, Boosts and Recommendations.

Overview

What shoppers search for on your store and what happens next, for the last 7, 30 or 90 days, compared with the period before.

• Search funnel: sessions that searched, then clicked a result, added a product to the cart and placed an order. A step counts when it comes within 30 minutes of the step before.
• Top searches: the most searched words, with how many products they found and how often shoppers clicked a result.
• Searches with no results: shoppers looked for something and found nothing. Click Add synonym to tie their word to one your products use (Synonyms opens with the word ready), or Pin a product to show a product for it anyway.
• Searches with no clicks: the search found products but nobody clicked one. Usually the best match is missing from the top: Pin a product.
• Recommendations: how often the “You may also like” and “Pairs well with” rows on product pages were seen, clicked, and led to an add to cart.

Only shoppers who allow analytics in the cookie banner are counted. The log keeps the search words (never ones that look like an email address or a phone number), how many products were found, and an anonymous browser code. No names, no IP addresses. Entries are deleted after 90 days.

Synonyms

Words that mean the same thing to your shoppers, one group per line (kb, keyboard). A search for any word in a group also finds the others.

Filters

Choose which filters appear on collection and search pages, and in what order. Until you save your own list, the store shows the default filters: availability, price, every variant option, then product type, brand and tags.

Click Add filter to pick where a filter’s values come from:

• Built in: availability, price, product type, brand, gift cards or products, or every tag.
• Tag groups: tags shaped prefix-value become one filter. hand-large, hand-medium and hand-small give a filter Hand with Large, Medium and Small. Rename it (for example to “Hand size”) in the name box. You can also type any other prefix.
• Product fields: product extra fields of a simple type (text, choice, number, yes/no).
• Variant options: Size, Colour and the rest.

Use the arrows to change the order and the bin to remove a filter. A filter with nothing to pick on a page is hidden there. Use default filters goes back to the default list.

The same list drives our themes and imported Shopify themes (collection.filters and search.filters).

Boosts

Put the right products first in search results.

• Pinned products: click Pin products, type a search (capitals, extra spaces and a question mark do not matter) and choose up to 10 products in order. For that search they show first, even when its words would not find them. Up to 200 searches can have pins.
• Boost and bury: products with a tag, product type or vendor move up (Boost) or go to the end (Bury) in every search. The value must match the product exactly, so pick it from the list. A boosted product climbs past weaker matches; a buried one always comes after the rest. Up to 50 rules.

Boosts change the order only when results are sorted by relevance (the default); sorting by price or name ignores them. Collection pages are not affected.

Recommendations

Choose the products shown under a product page: You may also like (similar items, other colours or sizes) and Pairs well with (add-ons, accessories, refills). Click Choose a product, then Add products in either row, order them with the arrows and click Save. Up to 10 per row.

Your picks show first, then the store fills the row by itself (products from the same collections, type, brand and tags, then best sellers). Draft and archived picks are skipped on the store. Picks brought over from a Shopify import still work until you save your own for that row. Imported Shopify themes use the same picks.