Poor search results when using THE as the first word

[interfabParticipant]

I noticed that searches that begin with “the” return poor results.

I’m using this plugin on a movie site which is a problem since countless movies start with “the”.

Is there a way to either ignore this prefix or maybe make it count more when combined with other words?

[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

Hi,

You have mutliple options in this case:

When using the regular engine
These work best, when using the regular engine (default). If you use the index table engine, then please proceed to the next section.
1. Keyword exceptions
Basically, this option is to replace whole/partial word matches with an empty string. If the user types in ‘the’, it is replaced simply with ”.
You can find this under the Advanced Options -> Keyword exceptions panel: https://i.imgur.com/7wUEBxq.png

2. Exact matches + secondary logic
If the search performance is decent, then exact matches + secondary logic will more likely return a better results pool. A configuration like so: https://i.imgur.com/612W2zo.png

3. Decreasing the content and other fields relevance
To make sure, that the title relevance is much higher than the other fields, lowering the other field values can do the trick: https://i.imgur.com/WAhd1Yq.png

When using the index table engine
These are the best practices when using the index table engine.

1. Excluding common words completely (includes word ‘the’)
On the index table advanced options panel, there is a common word filter, that will exclude the defined common words from the index: https://i.imgur.com/HwggG8k.png

2. Increasing the title relevance significantly
The index table engine includes word occurence. Because ‘the’ is a very common word, it is possible, that the title relevance will be much smaller compared to other fields, because of the occurrence count. I suggest trying this configuration: https://i.imgur.com/h3LheIY.png

I hope this helps!

Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

[interfabParticipant]

This worked!! Thank you for the quick help

[Ernest MarcinkoKeymaster]

You cannot access this content. Best,
Ernest Marcinko
If you like my products, don't forget to rate them on codecanyon :)

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