Boosting Relevancy of Documents in Search Results

Owned by Cooper Labenske
Apr 06, 2022
1 min read

Boosting involves promoting specific query results so that they show up higher in the Index. To boost the relevancy of results and find the documents most relevant to your specific needs, you can use the following functions in Voyager's Query Settings:

Query Fields 

Use Query Fields to set the relative weight of matches in specific fields during a search. To enter a weight to a field, add a ^ symbol followed by a number, for example title^7 or name^5.  

Boost Query

Boost Queries use a factor by which a term or phrase should be boosted in importance when considering a match. In Voyager, Boost Queries can be used with the Append Parameters option in Query Settings.

A simple Boost Query takes the form of bq=parameter:value, for example:

  • bq=tag_flags:*^99
    (boosts all results that have been flagged)

  • bq=hasThumb:true^10
    (boosts all results with thumbnails)

  • bq=keywords:Copper^2
    (boosts results that have the keyword Copper)

Boost Functions

Boost Functions can also be included in a query with Append Parameters. Any function supported natively by Solr can be used, along with a boost value, e.g.: recip(rord(myfield),1,2,3)^1.5

See Also