Ranking, curations & facets

The app orders results by relevance. This page shows the controls that change that order, the filters that shoppers see, and the panel that tells you which query to fix next.

How a result list gets its order

Matching produces a list of products in relevance order. Your controls then adjust that list:

Hidden products never appear, whatever their relevance.

Pinned products beat the ranking controls, but not the sold-out setting. What happens to a pinned product that is sold out depends only on which setting you chose:

• With Show, the pin always holds. This is the setting to choose if you want a pin on top whatever the stock level.
• With Hide, the pinned product does not appear. Hide removes sold-out products before anything else runs.
• With Demote, the pinned product moves to the sold-out group at the end of the list. It keeps its pinned position inside that group.

Ranking controls

The ranking controls live in the Ranking card on the Relevance tab of the Search screen.

1. Open the PersonalizerAI dashboard.
2. Go to Search.
3. Open the Relevance tab.
4. Adjust the controls in the Ranking card.
5. Click Save ranking.

The Ranking card on the Relevance tab.

Sold-out products

You choose what happens to a product that is sold out. The control is on the Basics tab of the Search screen. It works on all plans.

1. Open the PersonalizerAI dashboard.
2. Go to Search.
3. Open the Basics tab.
4. Find the Out-of-stock products card.
5. Select Show, Demote, or Hide. The change saves at once.

Expect these effects on your search results:

• With Demote, a shopper's sort applies inside each block. A shopper who selects Price: low to high sees the in-stock products in price order, then the sold-out products in price order. The two blocks are not one continuous price order.
• With Hide, the filter counts change. A vendor with no in-stock products stops showing in the filters.
• The setting does not change the autocomplete drop-down. The drop-down shows popular searches, not products.

Field weights

The search reads these product fields: title, description, vendor, product type, tags, SKU, barcode, colors, sizes and materials. Each field has a weight from 0 to 10. A higher weight makes matches in that field count more. Titles have the highest default weight. A weight of 0 means the field is not searched at all — the slider shows Not searched.

1. Open the Relevance tab.
2. Under Field weights, move the slider for each field.
3. Click Save field weights.

At least one field must stay above 0. To go back to the standard weights, click Reset to defaults, then Save field weights.

Facets — the filters shoppers see

A facet is a filter category, for example vendor, product type, color, size, or price. The app detects the facets in your catalog. You choose which ones appear in the storefront search. Your selection also applies to the collection page filters. See Collection page filters.

1. Open the Filters tab.
2. Under Storefront filters, turn on each facet you want.
3. Under Filter order and names, move facets up or down. Shoppers see the filters in this order. A facet you turn on goes to the end.
4. Optional: type a name for a facet, for example "Material" for a metafield. The name is shown as you typed it in every storefront language. Leave it empty to keep the default: the standard facets are translated, and a metafield shows its key in words ("fabric_type" becomes "Fabric Type").
5. Click Save filters.

Choose the filters that shoppers see. The app lists every detected facet.

Curations — pin and hide products for a query

A curation controls the results of one exact query. Pinned products move to the top, in the order you set. Hidden products never appear for that query. One curation holds up to 20 pinned and 50 hidden products.

1. Open the Query rules tab.
2. Under Curations, click Add curation.
3. Type the search query under Search query (exact match).
4. Search and select products under Pinned products (shown first, in this order).
5. Search and select products under Hidden products (never shown for this query).
6. Click Create.

The curation dialog: search query, then the pinned and hidden product pickers.

The table shows each curation with its pinned and hidden counts. Click the pencil icon to edit a curation. The dialog opens with your saved query and products already filled in. To remove a curation, click the trash icon. The app names the curation and asks you to confirm; click Delete curation. The products then return to normal ranking.

The Curations card lists each curated query with its pinned and hidden counts, plus edit and delete actions.

Import and export curations

The Curations card has Export CSV and Import CSV. The file names products by their handle — the last part of the product URL, for example storm-shell-jacket in /products/storm-shell-jacket. Handles stay the same when you move the file to another store. Separate several handles with |.

Each row needs at least one pinned or hidden product, and one query can have only one curation. Up to 20 pinned and 50 hidden products per row, 2,000 rows and 1 MB per file. The import works the same way as for synonyms: the app checks the file first, then you choose to add the rows to your curations or to replace all your curations with the file. See Synonyms & redirects.

Relevance suggestions — what to fix next

The app reads your real search traffic every night and lists the queries that need attention. The list is the Relevance suggestions panel, at the top of the Insights tab of the Search screen. The tab label carries a count when the panel has open rows.

The panel finds three kinds of problem. Each row shows the query, its numbers, and one plain-language action.

1. Open the PersonalizerAI dashboard.
2. Go to Search.
3. Open the Insights tab.
4. Read the rows in Relevance suggestions.
5. Click the row's button to open the tab that fixes it.
6. Make the change, then return to the Insights tab.
7. Click Mark done on the row.

A No results row can also have a Create synonym: … ↔ … button, when shoppers who got nothing searched again with another word that worked. Click it to create that two-way synonym group and mark the row done in one step.

Mark done removes the row from the list. The nightly job does not bring a row back after you mark it done.

Relevance suggestions: one row per query, with the action that fixes it.

Test your changes with Test search

Test search runs the same search your shoppers get, with your saved settings. This includes AI query understanding, the reading of phrases such as "under 50" or "in stock", your merchandising rules, curations and redirects. Use it after every ranking or facet change. Save your changes first: the test does not use unsaved changes.

The Test search button is at the top of the Search screen, on every tab. It opens a side panel over the tab you are on, so anything you have not saved yet stays where it is.

1. Click Test search.
2. Type a query.
3. Click Search.
4. Review the result grid and the Filters shoppers see list. The filters have the names your shoppers see, with all their values.

Above the results, How we read this search shows the words the search matched, the filters and sort it took from the query, and whether AI understanding was used. If it was not used, the line says why. The preview also shows the notes shoppers get, such as "No exact match for …" and "Did you mean …". If the query matches one of your redirects, the preview shows the page that shoppers go to.

Preview searches are not in Search analytics. The first 200 preview searches each day do not count toward your plan's monthly searches. This daily allowance is shared with Preview on my store. After that, preview searches count like normal searches, and the preview shows a note when a search counted.

A product card shows Pinned when one of your curations pins it for this exact search, and Sold out when it is out of stock, so you can check your curations and your sold-out setting. Products placed by a merchandising rule are not marked.

You can close the panel, change a setting and open it again: your search and its results are still there until you leave the page.

If the preview says Preview is unavailable right now, the search did not answer. Try again in a minute.

Select Show debug output to see the technical detail of the search, such as timings and how the query was understood.

Test search, with how the search read the query.