The Lumenare Search weighting system is highly configurable. Here’s how to tune it for your specific needs.
When to Adjust Weights
Increase Title Weight (Default: 3)
Consider increasing if:
- Your post titles are very descriptive and accurately represent content
- You want title matches to dominate search results
- You have well-optimized SEO titles
Recommended range: 3-5
Decrease Title Weight
Consider decreasing if:
- Your titles are short or generic (“Part 1”, “Update #5”)
- You want content matches to have more influence
Recommended range: 1-2
Increase Excerpt Weight (Default: 2)
Consider increasing if:
- Your excerpts are well-written summaries
- Excerpts accurately represent post content
- You want excerpt matches to be more important than content matches
Recommended range: 2-4
Decrease Excerpt Weight
Consider decreasing if:
- Your excerpts are auto-generated or not representative
- You want to rely more on titles and content
Recommended range: 1
Increase Content Weight (Default: 1)
Consider increasing if:
- Your content is keyword-rich and well-structured
- You want content matches to have more influence
- You have long-form content where keywords appear multiple times
Recommended range: 1-3
Decrease Content Weight
Consider decreasing if:
- Your content is very long and may have keyword dilution
- You want to prioritize titles and excerpts
Recommended range: 0-1 (0 disables content indexing)
Taxonomy Weighting Strategy
Category Weighting (Default: 5)
Categories represent broad topic classification. Higher category weights help users find posts by topic.
Recommended range: 3-10
Best for: News sites, blogs with clear categorization
Tag Weighting (Default: 3)
Tags represent specific topics or keywords. Lower than categories but still important for relevance.
Recommended range: 2-5
Best for: Sites with extensive tagging
Custom Taxonomy Weighting
Configure weights for custom taxonomies based on their importance to your content structure.
Examples:
- WooCommerce product categories might need higher weight than tags
- Portfolio types might equal category importance
- Event venues might be lower priority
Recommended range: 1-8
Common Weighting Profiles
Profile 1: Title-Focused
Best for SEO-optimized sites with descriptive titles.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Title Weight | 5 |
| Excerpt Weight | 2 |
| Content Weight | 1 |
| Category Weight | 4 |
| Tag Weight | 2 |
Use when: Titles are highly descriptive and SEO-optimized.
Profile 2: Balanced (Default)
Good for most sites with varied content.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Title Weight | 3 |
| Excerpt Weight | 2 |
| Content Weight | 1 |
| Category Weight | 5 |
| Tag Weight | 3 |
Use when: You want balanced relevance across all content areas.
Profile 3: Content-Rich
Best for long-form content, documentation, and articles.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Title Weight | 2 |
| Excerpt Weight | 2 |
| Content Weight | 2 |
| Category Weight | 4 |
| Tag Weight | 3 |
Use when: Content is keyword-rich and well-structured.
Profile 4: Taxonomy-Heavy
Best for heavily categorized sites where organization matters.
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Title Weight | 3 |
| Excerpt Weight | 2 |
| Content Weight | 1 |
| Category Weight | 8 |
| Tag Weight | 5 |
Use when: Taxonomy organization is crucial for finding content.
Phrase Boost Tuning
Increase Phrase Boost Multiplier (Default: 5)
Consider increasing if:
- You have specific important phrases users search for
- You want exact phrase matches to rank much higher
- Generic word matches are drowning out specific results
Recommended range: 5-10
Decrease Phrase Boost Multiplier
Consider decreasing if:
- You want more balanced results
- Phrase matches are over-prioritizing certain content
Recommended range: 2-5
Adding Effective Phrases
Good phrase candidates:
- Product names: “iPhone 15 Pro”, “PlayStation 5”
- Brand names: “Sega Genesis”, “Nintendo Switch”
- Technical terms: “machine learning”, “REST API”
- Multi-word concepts: “climate change”, “remote work”
Poor phrase candidates:
- Single words (use synonyms instead)
- Very common phrases
- Phrases not actually in your content
Trending Ranking Tuning
Enable Dynamic Trending Ranking
Consider enabling if:
- Your site has time-sensitive content
- You want popular searches to influence rankings
- You have enough search volume to establish trends
Trending Boost Strength (Default: 0.5)
| Range | Effect |
|---|---|
| 0.1-0.5 | Subtle boost – stable rankings with slight trending influence |
| 0.5-1.0 | Moderate boost – noticeable trending effects |
| 1.0-2.0 | Strong boost – trending content significantly prioritized |
Trending Decay Period (Default: 30 days)
| Range | Effect |
|---|---|
| 7-14 days | Fast decay – responsive to recent trends (news sites) |
| 30 days | Balanced – good for most sites |
| 60-90 days | Slow decay – stable trending topics (evergreen content) |
Minimum Searches for Trending (Default: 5)
| Range | Effect |
|---|---|
| 2-3 | Sensitive – more topics become trending |
| 5-10 | Moderate – established trends only |
| 10+ | Conservative – only very popular queries |
Step-by-Step Tuning Process
1. Start with Defaults
The default weights work well for most sites. Don’t change everything at once.
2. Monitor Search Analytics
Check which searches return poor results:
- Go to Settings → Lumenare Search → Analytics
- Review zero-result queries
- Note searches where users click results low in the list
3. Identify Patterns
Ask yourself:
- Are title matches ranking too high/low?
- Are content matches overwhelming title matches?
- Are taxonomy matches helping or hurting?
4. Make Small Adjustments
Change weights by 1-2 points at a time. Large changes make it hard to identify what helped.
5. Reindex After Changes
Weight changes require reindexing:
- Go to Index Management tab
- Click “Reindex All Content”
6. Test and Iterate
After reindexing:
- Test real searches from your analytics
- Check if problem queries now return better results
- Adjust further if needed
7. Monitor Over Time
Continue checking analytics to see if changes improved results. User behavior (clicks, zero-results) tells you if search is working.
Important Notes
Reindexing Required
After changing weights, you must reindex your content for changes to take effect.
How: Settings → Lumenare Search → Index Management → Reindex All Content
Relative Weights Matter
The ratio between weights is more important than absolute values.
| Configuration A | Configuration B |
|---|---|
| Title: 6 | Title: 3 |
| Excerpt: 4 | Excerpt: 2 |
| Content: 2 | Content: 1 |
Both configurations have the same effect – titles are 3× content weight.
Test with Real Searches
Use your site’s search analytics to identify actual user queries. Test how they rank with different weight configurations rather than guessing.
Quick Reference
Settings That Require Reindex
- Title weight
- Excerpt weight
- Content weight
- Stop words
- Post types
Settings Applied Immediately
- Match mode (ANY/ALL)
- Synonyms
- Search phrases
- Fuzzy matching
- Trending boost
- Highlighting