I have read https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONF42/Ranking+of+Search+Results but it seems as though I am not getting the expected results in ranked searches. Is there a more comprehensive and definite way in which one can influence the way search results appear? Is there a way to either break down the existing ranking system further or is there a way to influence the way search ranks appear?
Hi Jake,
I was given this info from Atlassian when I asked a similar question a few months ago. Hope it helps.
Here's a very brief run down on how search results are weighted. There are no parameters to manage the ordering of the search results.
Newer Documents will be given a slightly higher score than older documents. Keep in mind that doesn't mean that newer documents will appear first, just that they give a slightly higher weight.
Confluence will look at the number of words within a title (excluding minor words, such as "the", "and" etc), and will check how many times a word appears in the title. Titles that are shorter (around 4 words or less) will rank higher than titles with more than 5 words.
As with the title, Confluence will look at the number of words within the content, and check how many times the number of words appear in the content. Longer pieces of content should rank lower than shorter documents with the same number of references.
Pages with the same content will be ranked according to their popularity within Confluence. A page that has more incoming links will be ranked higher than other pages that share similar content.
The search results were documented previously by Atlassian (refer to: Ranking of Search Results and to Confluence 5.2 Release+Notes for further information), but due to changes to search in v5.2 it was decided not to document the search - as it's quite complex).
This was perfect Debbie, thanks so much
how is this possible that you don't document the Search because it's too complex? nothing should stop you from documenting such a crucial feature like the Search tool. My colleagues give me negative feedback about the Search tool all the time... How could I help them find their way if you don't provide me with the complete knowledge after each release?
I'd tend to agree with that, a lot of people complain about Confluence search not returning things in the right order for them, and without understanding what the search is doing, it's hard to explain to your users. "We don't know because Atlassian don't tell us" is not a good explanation. Although I'd rather have effort spend on getting the search to actually work than document why it doesn't work well.
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