Search Ranking When Every Product Looks the Same
Fifty products, same name, same price, same photo. The search has to pick an order, and the order decides who sells.
When every product looks the same, the ranking has to come from somewhere other than the product. The answer is in the merchandising rules: boost the products that sell, bury the ones that are out of stock, pin the ones that matter, and let the text relevance do the rest.
When the products are identical
When every product looks the same, the ranking has to come from somewhere other than the product. Fifty products with the same name, the same price, and the same photo are indistinguishable by text relevance, because the text is the same. The ranking has to come from the merchandising rules, and the rules have to be deliberate, because the default ranking will be arbitrary.
The order of operations is filter, then rank, then pin or hide. The filter narrows the results to the products that match the query. The ranking orders them by a combination of boost score and text relevance. The pin and hide rules adjust the order for the products that matter most or least. Each step is a decision, and the decisions add up to the order the shopper sees.
The boost score is the main tool. A boost can be based on sales, on margin, on inventory, or on a manual decision by the merchandiser. A product with a higher boost score ranks above a product with a lower one, even if the text relevance is the same. The boost is how the store says which product it wants to sell, when the products themselves do not say it.
The rules that decide the order
Merchandising rules are conditions that change the ranking, such as a boost for products with a certain title, vendor, price, or inventory level, or a rule based on the date the product was added. A new product can be boosted to give it visibility. A high-margin product can be boosted to improve profitability. A product that is about to be discontinued can be buried so it does not take a top position.
Pinning is the strongest rule. A pinned product is fixed to a specific position in the results, usually the top, regardless of its score. At most three positions should be pinned, because pinning more than that defeats the ranking. A search with five pinned products is not a search. It is a curated list, and the shopper knows it.
Hiding is the opposite. A product that should not appear in the results, because it is discontinued, or because it is a duplicate, or because it is not for sale, can be hidden from the results. Hiding is cleaner than burying, because a hidden product does not take a position that a real product could have.
Out of stock goes last
Out-of-stock products should rank last, by a bury rule or a negative boost. A shopper who searches and sees out-of-stock products first will assume the store has nothing to sell, and will leave. The in-stock products should be the ones they see, and the out-of-stock products should be the ones they see only if they scroll far enough to find them.
The reason is not just the shopper's experience. It is the store's conversion rate. A search that returns out-of-stock products as the top results has a lower conversion rate than a search that returns in-stock products, because the shopper who clicks on an out-of-stock product does not buy it. The ranking is a merchandising decision, and the merchandising decision should be to sell what is in stock.
The bury rule should be automatic, not manual. A rule that buries products with zero inventory will work every day, without anyone having to remember to apply it. A manual bury will work until someone forgets, and then the out-of-stock products will be at the top again.
The tiebreakers that matter
When the products are identical and the boost scores are equal, the ranking needs a tiebreaker. The most useful tiebreakers are sales velocity, recency, and margin, in that order. A product that sold yesterday should rank above a product that sold last month. A product that was added this week should rank above a product that was added last year, if the store wants to give new products visibility. A product with a higher margin should rank above a product with a lower margin, if the store wants to improve profitability.
The tiebreaker should be chosen deliberately, not left to the default. The default tiebreaker is usually the product ID or the date added, which is arbitrary, and an arbitrary ranking is a ranking that the store did not choose. The store should choose the tiebreaker that matches its goal, and it should be able to say why.
The ranking is the store's answer to the shopper's question, and when the products look the same, the answer is in the rules. Write the rules, test them, and change them when they stop working. The ranking is not a setting. It is a decision, and it should be made on purpose.
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Frequently asked questions
What is search result ranking?
Ranking is the order in which search results appear. It is decided by a combination of text relevance, boost score, merchandising rules, and availability. When the products look the same, the ranking has to come from the rules, not from the product data.
What is a boost score?
Boosting is increasing the score of a product so it ranks higher. A boost can be based on sales, on margin, on inventory, or on a manual decision. A product with a higher boost score ranks above a product with a lower one, even if the text relevance is the same.
What does it mean to pin a product?
Pinning is fixing a product to a specific position in the results, usually the top. A pinned product stays in that position regardless of its score. At most three positions should be pinned, because pinning more than that defeats the ranking.
Where should out-of-stock products rank?
Out-of-stock products should rank last, by a bury rule or a negative boost. A shopper who searches and sees out-of-stock products first will assume the store has nothing to sell, and will leave. The in-stock products should be the ones they see.
What is a merchandising rule?
A merchandising rule is a condition that changes the ranking, such as a boost for products with a certain title, vendor, price, or inventory level, or a rule based on the date the product was added. The rules are the store's decisions about what to show, expressed as conditions.
What is the order of operations in ranking?
Filter first, then rank, then pin or hide. The filter narrows the results to the products that match. The ranking orders them by score. The pin and hide rules adjust the order for the products that matter most or least.