Adding synonyms for similar phrases

• You have a Special offers page. It appears in search results when searching for offer, but site visitors often enter deal when searching. Create a synonym list with phrase: deal; synonym: offer.
• Phrases: iPhone, Nexus, Galaxy (three 1-word phrases)
  Synonym: smart phone (2-word synonym)
  
• Phrases: email, telephone, people, twitter (four 1-word phrases)
  Synonym: contact (1-word synonym)

Unidirectional versus bidirectional synonyms

When creating a synonym list, you decide if it is unidirectional or bidirectional.

• Unidirectional. If a site visitor submits a phrase on the list, Episerver Find adds the synonym to the query. But, if a visitor submits the synonym, phrases on the list are not added to the query.
• Bidirectional. If a visitor submits the synonym or any term on the phrases list, the synonym and the term are added to the query.

On the Synonyms screen, an icon indicates a list's direction.

—Image: Synonyms, bidirectional and unidirectional—

Example

• If recycling is a unidirectional synonym to dump, you get hits for recycling when searching for dump, but you do not get hits for dump when searching for recycling.
• If recycling is a bidirectional synonym for dump, you get hits for dump when searching for recycling, and hits for recycling when searching for dump.

Keywords versus synonyms

The advantage of search keywords is that they are used by Episerver Find and external search engines (for example, Bing) to retrieve content on your site. However, you must add SEO keywords to each content item.

Synonyms apply to all site content, or content in the selected language, but are only used if someone uses the Find search on your site.

Adding Synonyms

Synonyms are usually language-specific but you can apply them to all languages.

1. From edit viewA section of the user interface where you edit content items, such as pages and blocks. To access edit view, log in and select CMS > Edit. (See admin view for comparison.), select Find > Manage. The Statistics screen appears.
2. If search terms you want to use for synonyms appear in the Search Phrase list, click them, then select Create synonyms. You can modify the search terms on the Optimization screen.

   Otherwise, select the Optimization screen > Synonyms.

   —Image: Synonyms tab—

   

3. In the Phrases field, enter one or more synonym phrases that do not occur in your site content but which site visitors might submit while searching. Each phrase can have up to three words. You can enter an unlimited number of phrases. To learn more about phrases and synonyms, see Adding synonyms for similar phrases.

   The search term must exactly match a phrase (stemming is not supported). For example, vegetable does not exactly match vegetables. As a workaround, enter two phrases: vegetable and vegetables.

4. In the Synonym field, enter a term (up to three words) that exists in your website content. Episerver Find adds the synonym to the query when a site visitor enters any phrase in the list.
5. If you want the synonym list to be bidirectional, check the Bidirectional box. See also: Unidirectional versus bidirectional synonyms.