Common Phrases

Search Modes: Exact Match and Last Word

You can configure the common phrases feature to use different matching options:

• Exact Match: If you search on the exact phrase, only products that include the exact phrase are returned. The exact phrase is all the words in the phrase in the same order and next to one another. Search queries that include terms from the common phrase don't return any of the products that contain the common phrase. For example, if table lamps is a common phrase with exact match, then searching on table lamp returns only table lamps. Searching on table, lamp, or lamp table doesn't return table lamps. This is because during indexing, table lamp is indexed as a single phrase and not indexed for the individual terms.
• Last Word Match: if you search on the last word in the phrase or the exact phrase, products including the exact phrase are returned. For example, if table lamps is a common phrase with last word match, then searching on table lamp returns only table lamps. However, unlike exact match, searching on lamps returns all types of lamps, including table lamps. This is because during indexing, table lamp is indexed as a single phrase and as the last word in the phrase, but not any additional terms in the phrase.

Exact Match Example

For exact match, the customer must search for the common phrase exactly as it is configured, so that the words in the phrase are adjacent and in the same order. Normally, exact match is used for phrases with individual terms that produce items unrelated to the phrase. Customers are not searching for individual terms with the phrase, they are only searching for product described by the full phrase. In the following examples, exact match is a good choice for the bed in a bag phrase, because a customer is likely searching for the exact phrase.

Last Word Match Example

For last word match, the customer must search for the whole common phrase or the last word in the phrase for products including the common phrase to be returned. Normally, last word matching is used when the last word in the phrase is the most significant and you want to include the results for the exact phrase whenever the last term is searched for. In the following examples, last word match is a good choice for the dress shirt phrase, because a customer searching for dresses doesn't want to see dress shirts. If the customer is searching for shirts, you want to return shirts, including dress shirts.

Common Phrase Query Processing

Stemming

Stemming is applied before common phrases are processed, so that it doesn't matter whether the phrase is singular or plural when it's configured by the merchant or entered by the customer as a search term. Plurals in a search phrase only matter if they change the word stem. In the example below, the common phrase winter scarves isn't found for winter scarf, but winter gloves is found for winter glove.

Special Characters

Special characters are automatically removed from configured common phrase in the same way they are removed from search phrases by the query cleansing processor.

Compound Words

Compound word processing happens before common phrases, so that if the common phrase was entered as a single search term by the customer and a compound word is configured, it's still found.

For example, if a customer searches for babydoll:

• If baby doll is configured as a common phrase and baby-doll is configured as a compound word , then items containing baby doll or babydoll are found, but not items containing only baby or doll.
• If baby doll is configured as a common phrase and a compound word isn't configured, then only items containing baby doll are found and items with baby, dollor babydoll are not.
• If no common phrase is configured, but baby-doll is configured as a compound word, then items containing baby, doll, babydoll, or baby doll are found.

Stop Words

Stop words are not removed from a common phrase. For example, bed in a bag is different from bed bag.

Brand Correction

Brand correction processing is applied before common phrase processing, so that any brands in the entered search phrase are corrected and the common phrase can be found.

Synonyms

Synonyms do not apply to common phrases. If Christmas tree is defined as a common phrase and Christmas and X-mas are considered synonyms, that doesn't make X-mas tree a common phrase. X-mas tree must be defined as a common phrase separately.

None of the words in a common phrase are used to look up synonyms. For example, if tree and forest are defined as synonyms, and Christmas tree is defined as common phrase, forest isn't added to the search query because tree is part of the common phrase.

X-mas tree can be defined as a synonym of the common phrase Christmas tree. In this case, X-mas tree is added to the search query when searching for Christmas tree, but is not itself a common phrase.

Word Position and Multi-Word Search Phrases

Phrase Length Override