Synonyms
What are Synonyms?
Synonyms allow you to connect two or more search term that cover the same topic, making sure that no matter how your visitors phrase themselves, they will receive relevant results.
By setting up synonyms, the group of search terms will be used interchangeably to show search results for all of the terms in the group.
Example
If all content regarding waste management always includes the word “waste”, but a visitor searches for “garbage” or “trash”, they would not see any results.
When creating a synonym between “waste”, “garbage”, and “trash”, a search for “trash” or “garbage” will also show results for “waste”.
Synonyms are language-based and will affect all engines in the language the synonym is set up for.
How to set up a synonym
Synonyms are useful for linking multiple different search terms together in order to ensure all relevant results are shown to the visitor. This article will describe how to set them up.
- In the navigation of MyCludo, select Tools › Synonyms.
- Ensure the correct language is selected in the dropdown at the top right of the screen.
- Click the New button at the top of the table.
- Type the first search term to create a synonym for.
- Type enter or clicking the plus icon.
- Repeat the previous two steps until all the needed terms are added.
- Click the Create button.
You have now added a new synonym group. All of your search engines using this language will use these synonyms from now on.
Best practice for synonyms
Synonyms is a very helpful feature to include more search results when performing a search. Your visitors will not always use the same terms as those used in your content. For this reason, you can benefit from defining synonyms to include results for other terms with the same meaning.
What to consider before setting up Synonyms
As with most Cludo features, first, consider if you actually need to implement a new synonym group. Try searching for the different terms and check if the search engine already shows the expected results. Abbreviations, for example, are already covered by Cludo, using a feature known as stemming.
Example
Searching for “cat” will automatically also show results for “cats”. You do not need to create a synonym group for such search terms. If you are in doubt, test it out with your search engine.
Searching for “trash” will not automatically show results for “bins”, “waste” or “recycling”. A municipality would benefit from having a synonym group for these terms to make sure all users get relevant results despite what term they use.
Tip: Try to base your synonyms on the activity you see in MyCludo. You could spend hours and hours coming up with different synonyms for what you believe are important search terms, but some of these terms may never be used. By leveraging your Cludo analytics, you can quickly see if anyone has ever used the terms before. Focus on search terms with high activity or those that frequently return poor results. This ensures your synonym configurations are impactful and address actual user behavior, rather than hypothetical scenarios.