Optimizing Search Results

[Mozartman]

Optimizing Search Results

We use Zoom Search Engine Enterprise edition 7.1 (build 1022) for our college website. It works great. The only issue I have is relevance/scores of search results. Here is an example.

If you go to our home page here – https://www.oaklandcc.edu and search for foundation you will end up here:

https://www.oaklandcc.edu/zs/search....ery=foundation

First page of search results shows 10 results with links to different PDF files, but the main Foundation page link (https://www.oaklandcc.edu/foundation/default.aspx) is displayed on the second page of results as result #11.

What settings in Zoom Indexer do I need to configure in order for main Foundation page link to be displayed as first or one of the first results on the first results page?

I played with word weighting in the Weightings section and read the help topic (I put all weightings back to Normal now), put this code in Foundation main page:

<meta name="ZOOMPAGEBOOST" content="5">

But still cannot make this happen. And this is true for other search terms like Culinary or Nursing.

That’s why I implemented “Recommended links” feature for foundation and bunch of other words.

Please help.

Thanks.

[David]

Ignoring the #1 PDF result for the moment.

Let's compare the meta data for the #2 result with your preferred #11 result.

#2
URL: https://www.oaklandcc.edu/foundation/default.aspx
Code:
<title>OCC Foundation</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="Foundation, Fundraising, Scholarships, Donate, Oakland Community College, About Foundation">
<meta name="description" content="Oakland Community College Foundation ">


#11
URL https://www.oaklandcc.edu/foundation...investors.aspx
Code:
<title>Report to Investors</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="Report to Investors, OCC Foundation Report to Investors">
<meta name="description" content="OCC Foundation Report to Investors">

So the #2 result looks more than twice as relevant based on the metadata. So no surprise your preferred page ranks low. Playing with the weighting isn't going to solve this. For example making the page title or keywords more important will just make things even worse.

If you can't fix the title or keywords, can you add a new ZOOMWORDS tag to page #11?
e.g.
<meta name="ZOOMWORDS" content="Foundation Foundation Foundation">

Also you claim the ZOOMPAGEBOOST tag was on page #11, but I looked at the page, and the tag isn't in the code.

[Mozartman]

Thanks for reply David.

I put ZOOMPAGEBOOST in the main foundation page - https://www.oaklandcc.edu/foundation/default.aspx, #2, not #11.
I will test tag.

Thanks again.

[Mozartman]

ZOOMPAGEBOOST tag helped.

But I still need to figure out how to give HTML page advantage over PDF files.

Do you have any more tips how to tweak Zoom settings so search results page gives advantage to HTML pages?

[Ray]

But I still need to figure out how to give HTML page advantage over PDF files.

Do you have any more tips how to tweak Zoom settings so search results page gives advantage to HTML pages?

In the Zoom configuration, under "Weightings", try changing the "Content Density" setting to "Strong adjustment".

[sizbut]

May not be relevant to you but is a possibility depending on your full content set. I have a support documentation web site where every document is available in both HTML and PDF formats so naturally duplicate results on everything, but we really want to bias people to the HTML pages. So we used separate categories for HTML and PDF and through the string that launches the search form made HTML the default option used.

[Mozartman]

May not be relevant to you but is a possibility depending on your full content set. I have a support documentation web site where every document is available in both HTML and PDF formats so naturally duplicate results on everything, but we really want to bias people to the HTML pages. So we used separate categories for HTML and PDF and through the string that launches the search form made HTML the default option used.

Thanks Mark.

I implemented categories.

https://www.oaklandcc.edu/zs/search....ery=admissions

Could you provide string that you use to make HTML option to be default?

[sizbut]

We do it two ways.

For the simple hyperlinks to search we use search/search.php?zoom_cat=0

We also have a simple search form that launchs the full search form. In that we add <input type="hidden" name="zoom_cat" value="0" />

Naturally the category value (0 for my site) may differ depending on how you have arranged your categories.

[Mozartman]

Thanks Mark.