How does relevance ranking work?

Question

In keyword searches, how does relevance ranking work?

Answer

Factors used for keyword relevance ranking:

1. Word weight (derived from number of documents in the keyword files that contain the word)
2. Proximity to the other words queried (which of course is not used when a single word is queried)
3. Field weights where users can tune the search engine for their data
4. The * and + operators assigned to the terms.
   1. The * raises the relevancy of the term.
   2. The + requires the term to be in the results.

Additional Information

If you are not satisfied with your current results you can modify them by adding your own field weightings for keyword relevance.
See the Voyager Sysadmin User's Guide for more information on Field Weight set up.

• Article last edited: 17-May-2016