Merchant controls

Change one search behaviour without guessing at the rest.

Query tools, ranking, synonyms, redirects, merchandising, and experiments give your team focused ways to improve discovery while keeping the change reviewable.

The control path

Choose a control that matches the symptom.

A synonym is not a redirect. A ranking change is not a product-data repair. The path stays clear when the intervention matches the evidence.

Observe

Symptom

Choose

Control

Preview

Compare

Publish

Scope

Verify

Learn

The merchant answer

The safest search change is usually the smallest one that fixes the observed problem. ParticleSearch lets a merchant inspect a query, choose the right intervention, preview the outcome, publish it, and keep the change easy to revisit.

Guides and field notes

Go deeper when the decision needs detail.

These articles stay in the blog and search index, but they work like practical guides: context, merchant decisions, and acceptance tests for the capability you are evaluating.

Query tools guide

Inspect a query, draft the smallest change, and publish safely.

Experiments guide

Design a controlled test with a decision rule and guardrails.

The path

Keep the intervention smaller than the problem.

A focused control is easier to preview, explain, and reverse when the evidence only points to one query, collection, or audience.

Inspect one query

Start with the shopper phrase, returned products, evidence, and the surface where the behaviour breaks.

Choose the right intervention

Use a synonym for a true substitute, a redirect for clear navigation intent, ranking for product order, or merchandising for a campaign or collection goal.

Preview, publish, and learn

Compare the expected result, publish with a clear scope, and use history, diagnostics, or experiments to decide what to keep.

Decision guide

Questions this capability should answer

Use these questions to decide whether this capability is the right next move for your store.

Which control fits the observed symptom?

Use synonyms for true substitutes, redirects for navigation intent, ranking for product order, and merchandising for a commercial context.

How much scope does the change need?

Prefer one query, collection, audience, market, or experiment when the evidence does not justify a broader change.

What should be checked before publish?

Compare the intended result, protect important queries, and make sure the active change is easy to explain and revisit.

What is included

A toolkit for precise, explainable changes

Different symptoms need different controls. The dashboard keeps them together without pretending that a ranking boost can repair missing product data.

Built around a merchant decision

Query tools

Inspect a query and its result evidence before choosing an intervention. Start from the symptom, not from a favourite setting.

Ranking and merchandising

Change product order for a focused query, collection, campaign, audience, or market when the business context calls for it.

Synonyms for true substitutes

Connect terms shoppers use interchangeably, with a review step before the group affects live search.

Redirects for navigation intent

Send a known phrase to one useful destination when the shopper is looking for a collection, page, or other intentional route.

Experiments and protected queries

Test search or recommendation changes with controlled variants, and protect important queries with repeatable checks before a broader rollout.

Publish history and diagnostics

Keep published changes reviewable, find conflicts or stale rules, and make it easier to understand what is active.

A useful boundary

Good product decisions include what the feature cannot solve.

ParticleSearch gives your team more evidence and control. It does not remove the need for accurate product data, a clear merchandising goal, or a review of the result on your own store.

A rule is not a substitute for clean titles, identifiers, variants, availability, or useful product attributes.
Synonyms should describe genuine equivalence. A broad related term can create false positives and should be tested as a different problem.
Experiments and protected queries support safer decisions, but the merchant still chooses the scope, audience, and success question.

Keep exploring

See how this fits with the rest of the product.

All capabilities

Search analytics

Find the signals that deserve a change.

Search quality

Fix the data and relevance boundary first.

How it works

See the complete review and publish loop.

See it on your store

Give your team a clearer way to improve search.

Start with the storefront experience, then use the merchant workflow to understand what deserves attention next.

Start free trial How it works