Cross-reference search terms in SideNav help

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blindamood
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Cross-reference search terms in SideNav help

Post by blindamood »

Since the SideNav format does not include an Index, I'm looking for advice on how to enter cross-reference terms in order to bolster the full-text search capabilities. For instance, for "place an order", a user might want to look for "add an order" or "create an order". As far as I know, the full-text search only looks for the search terms within the body of the help topics, but does not consider other topic meta data (e.g., keywords). Does anyone know a good way to enable cross-reference terms to be searched for, even if they don't result in highlighted text when the search terms are found?
doc_guy
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Re: Cross-reference search terms in SideNav help

Post by doc_guy »

I believe index entries will still affect search results, even if there isn't an index in the output. They certainly do for top-nav, and side nav is just a re-branded top-nav. It uses the same underlying technology. So put your alternate terms in as index entries in the topic, and it should give you what you want.
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NorthEast
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Re: Cross-reference search terms in SideNav help

Post by NorthEast »

You can use synonyms to set up alternative terms for a single word, e.g. "add=create" - however, it doesn't work for phrases (multiple words).

https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... esults.htm

For phrases, I enter index keywords (as suggested by docguy).
Nita Beck
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Re: Cross-reference search terms in SideNav help

Post by Nita Beck »

Including index keywords most definitely will help with your SEO. I routinely add alternative keywords such as "create x" and "add x" or "remove x" and "delete x".

Flare's help has a topic on how to optimize one's content for SEO: https://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare20 ... ontent.htm
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blindamood
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Re: Cross-reference search terms in SideNav help

Post by blindamood »

doc_guy wrote:I believe index entries will still affect search results, even if there isn't an index in the output. They certainly do for top-nav, and side nav is just a re-branded top-nav. It uses the same underlying technology. So put your alternate terms in as index entries in the topic, and it should give you what you want.
Appreciate the quick responses, guys. I will definitely give this a shot and report back with the results. Have a great weekend!
doc_guy
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Re: Cross-reference search terms in SideNav help

Post by doc_guy »

Also, if you are using Flare 2019's micro content feature, you can create multiple phrases that will return the same micro content file. So that is another thought.
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