iCM automatically ranks the items returned in search results so that the most relevant will appear first. It looks at how often a search term appears in an article, how many times a search term appears in an article in relation to the article's overall length and how rare the search term is across all documents. There's a more detailed look at these rules in the Search Ranking article.
The "Search" tab provides a way to boost or suppress the article's position within the search results in relation to its normal position.
Access to the search tab is granted via an iCM content privilege.
There are two mechanisms available to influence the article's ranking, namely: "Boosted keywords" and a "Boost value". Each mechanism acts independently.
Boosted Keywords
Boosted keywords are used to positively weight the article so it moves up the search results if the user supplies one or more of the specified keywords in their search criteria.
To add a word to the boosted keywords list, click the "Create" button to the right of the boosted keywords list.
It is possible to add more than one keyword to the boosted keywords list in one go. This is achieved by clicking on the "Create" button, then entering a comma-separated list of keywords (i.e. "keyword1,keyword2,keyword3...").
To help choose suitable keywords, use the "Suggest" button.
Boost Value
The boost value either negatively or positively weights the article so that it appears at a higher or lower position within the site's search results. A boost value will boost all words within the article and should be used with caution.
Moving the slider to the left (negative values) will suppress the article's search ranking, causing it to appear lower in the search results. Moving the slider as far left as it will go (the lowest possible negative weighting) will exclude the article completely from the search results.
Moving the slider to the right (positive values) will boost the article's search ranking, causing it to appear higher in the search results.
By default, the slider is centred to ensure the article appears in its normal (un-influenced) position. The majority of articles (if not all) should use the default boost value setting, so that their search ranking is governed only by the relevance of the content to the search criteria.
Search optimisation of any kind should be used with caution. It's better to have good article content to determine its position within the site's search results. If it is used, we've found it best to boost keywords rather than the entire article.
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