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 no results or a low click-through rate (ineffective searches), as they indicate the visitors do not find what they need.