Search Engine Concepts

 

WebAlliance contains a true search engine which not only returns a list of search results based on a query entered by a user, but goes a step further in ranking the search results in a way that's most effective to your user base.

Note:  For the purposes of system efficiency, WebAlliance will only return up to 10,000 items in a search result.

System-Integrated Ranking Factors

WebAlliance is aware of dozens of pieces of information about each item. In addition to things like item descriptions and keywords, some "meta" information known about each item is used in returning the most effective rankings for your search results. This "meta" data includes, but is not limited to:

  • Stock Status (In Stock or Out of Stock/Special Order)
  • Item Popularity (the number of invoices, across your entire customer base, this item appeared on in the last year)
  • Customer Purchase History (whether the customer who is running the search purchased this item in the last year)
  • Item Data Enhancement (whether the item has enhanced web data, such as category associations)

These ranking influencers are not editable. They're built in to the system. However, the importance of fields like item descriptions, Brand/Supplier, category name, etc. are editable using the Search Preferences tool.

Admin Configurable Search Settings

Use the Search Preferences tool to determine:

  • Which fields containing item data (like descriptions and keywords) are searchable
  • The importance of each field in ranking the search results

User Initiated Search Options

1. When a user is using your site, they can set some personal preferences regarding which items they see:

  • In Stock Only - if selected, a user will see only items that are currently In Stock. Depending on your site's settings, whether an item is In Stock could be based on all available inventory across all locations, or only inventory for their default location.
  • Previously Purchased Only - if selected, a user will see only items that have been purchased by their Customer Code. This encompasses all types of orders, not just web orders.

2. A user can click the "Save" icon to save a search (including all of its filters) to their account. They can execute the same search again by visiting Search History from the My Account page.

Notes:

  • The above options are based strictly on user selections. There is no Admin interface to automatically enable the options for all user searches on the website.
  • As soon as a user clicks either filter box, though, their preferences will be immediately updated.
  • These settings are available for searches, categories, and brand/supplier pages.