Synonyms & redirects

Shoppers do not always use your words. Synonym groups teach the search your shoppers' words. Stopwords tell the search which words to ignore. Redirects send a query straight to a page.

Synonym groups

A synonym group is a set of words that the search treats as equal. If your products say "sofa" but shoppers type "couch", a synonym group connects the two. Synonym groups work on all plans. There are two types:

Use two-way groups for words that mean the same thing. Use one-way groups when a general word must find specific products, but not the reverse.

Create a synonym group

1. Open the PersonalizerAI dashboard.
2. Go to Search.
3. Open the Query rules tab.
4. Click Add synonym.
5. Select Two-way or One-way. The line below the choice tells you what the selected type does.
6. For a one-way group, type the Root term.
7. Type the synonym terms, one per line. Enter at least 2 terms.
8. Click Create.

The Create button stays disabled until the group is complete. A line above the button tells you what is missing: "Add at least two terms" or "Root term is required for one-way".

The new group applies to searches within a few seconds.

The Add synonym dialog with a two-way group.

Edit or delete a synonym group

1. Open the Query rules tab.
2. Find the group in the table.
3. Click the pencil icon to edit, or the trash icon to delete.
4. The app names the group and asks you to confirm. Click Delete synonym.

The synonyms table. Each row shows the type and the connected terms.

Synonyms for one language (Growth plan and up)

A synonym group can apply to one storefront language instead of all of them. Use this when a word means one thing in French and another thing in German.

The app offers the languages that you publish on your storefront in Shopify. It does not offer a fixed list. A store with one published language does not see this control at all.

1. Open the Query rules tab.
2. Click Add synonym, or click the pencil icon on a group.
3. Find the Language list at the end of the dialog.
4. Select one language, or select All languages.
5. Click Create or Update.

The table shows a Language column on a store with more than one language. Each row reads the language name, or All languages.

Stopwords — the words the search ignores

A stopword is a word that the search removes from a query before it matches products. Common words like "the", "and", and "for" add no meaning to a search. Your own brand name is often a good stopword: shoppers type it in every query, and it matches every product.

The stopword list is on the Language tab of the Search screen. The card is called Base stopwords. The words in it are ignored in every language that your storefront publishes.

1. Open the PersonalizerAI dashboard.
2. Go to Search.
3. Open the Language tab.
4. Type one word per line in the Base stopwords box. Click Load defaults to start from a standard list for your store language. If the box already has your own words, the app asks before it replaces them.
5. Click Save language settings.

Stopwords for one language (Growth plan and up)

A multilingual store also gets a Per-language stopwords card. It holds one box for each storefront language other than your default language. Your default language needs no box: the Base stopwords list is already its list.

A per-language list adds to the base list. It does not replace it. A search in French therefore ignores the base words and the French words.

1. Open the Language tab.
2. Find the Per-language stopwords card.
3. Type one word per line in the box for a language. Click that language's Load defaults button to start from a standard list. If the box already has your own words, the app asks before it replaces them.
4. Click Save language settings.

To remove a language's list, empty its box and click Save language settings. The app saves only the boxes that you change in a visit, so a list that you do not touch stays as it is.

Redirects

A redirect sends a query to a URL instead of a results page. Use redirects when the best answer is a page, not a product list. Examples:

• "returns" → your returns policy page.
• "sale" → your sale collection.
• "gift card" → your gift card product page.

A redirect fires only when the shopper submits the search. Preview results while typing never redirect. Each redirect has a match type:

• Exact match — the query must equal the redirect query. Case does not matter.
• Contains the words — the query must contain the redirect query as whole words. A sale redirect fires on summer sale but not on wholesale.

Create a redirect

1. Open the PersonalizerAI dashboard.
2. Go to Search.
3. Open the Query rules tab.
4. Click Add redirect.
5. Type the Search query, for example "sale".
6. Select the Match type.
7. Type the Destination URL as a storefront path, for example /collections/sale.
8. Click Create.

The Create button stays disabled until you enter both the search query and the URL.

The Add redirect dialog. The destination is a storefront path.

Turn a redirect off, edit it, or delete it

The redirects table has an Enabled switch per row. Turn the switch off to pause a redirect without deleting it. The search then shows normal results for that query.

1. Open the Query rules tab.
2. Find the redirect in the table.
3. Turn the Enabled switch off to pause it.
4. Click the pencil icon to edit, or the trash icon to delete.
5. To delete, the app names the search and the page it goes to and asks you to confirm. Click Delete redirect.

Import and export

Use a CSV file to back up a list, edit many entries in a spreadsheet, or bring your list from another search app. The Synonyms and Redirects cards on the Query rules tab each have Export CSV and Import CSV. One file holds one list. The first line must be the header row. Separate the words inside the terms cell with |.

• type is multi_way (two-way) or one_way. A one_way row needs a root. Leave root empty for multi_way.
• language is optional, for example fr. It applies on Growth and up. On a lower plan the column is ignored and the group applies to every language.
• match_type is exact or contains. Empty means exact. enabled is true or false. Empty means true.
• A file can have up to 2,000 rows and be up to 1 MB.

1. Click Import CSV. Click Download template if you need a starting file.
2. Choose your file. The app checks it and shows how many rows it will add, how many exact duplicates it skips, and every error with its line number.
3. Select Add to my synonyms (or Add to my redirects) to keep your list and add the new rows. Select Replace all my synonyms with this file (or redirects) to delete your whole list and keep only the file.
4. To replace, tick the box that confirms how many entries are removed.
5. Click Import or Replace with. The button shows the number of rows.

When to use which

Find candidate queries on the Insights tab of the Search screen. Start with the Relevance suggestions panel at the top: it names the queries that returned nothing and suggests the words to add. The Zero-Result Queries list below it shows the same queries with their counts. Click Add synonym or Add redirect on a row: the Query rules tab opens with that form open and the query filled in. See Ranking, curations & facets.