Implementation Checklist
Consult this checklist to ensure you’re following best practices before going live.
You’ve defined your searchable attributes
Make sure every attribute in your list of searchable attributes is useful for search. Not every attribute in your index is on the list, and attributes with the best information should be at the top.
You’ve set most of your searchable attributes as unordered
You should define most of your attributes as unordered, as this ensures that the position of a word within the attribute doesn’t affect the ranking.
You’ve set up your custom ranking with business metrics
Make sure you’ve added business metrics to your index, such as most-liked, most-watched, best-sold, and similar. These metrics enable you to customize your ranking. Custom ranking is second only to searchable attributes in importance, as it gives you direct control over every set of results and is critical to ranking and relevance.
You haven’t changed the default ranking formula unless necessary
Unless you have explicit reasons not to, you should use the default ranking formula. It’s usually best to set it back to its default before going live.
You haven’t changed Algolia’s engine defaults unless necessary
Algolia’s search is designed to work out-of-the-box. It’s strongly recommend to keep the default settings unless you have no alternative. These are some important defaults you shouldn’t change unless necessary:
typoToleranceminWordSizefor1TypominWordSizefor2TyposqueryTyperankingadvancedSyntaxminProximity
If you change any of the defaults—for testing purposes or to solve a particular problem—make sure to set them back to their original values unless those changes are necessary.
You’re not revealing any sensitive information
By default, Algolia returns all a record’s attributes in the JSON response, even if you don’t display them. Suppose you have some attributes that are useful for ranking or other purposes, but you don’t want a savvy user to access them. In that case, set them as unretrievableAttributes.
You’ve added all necessary synonyms
You need to think about synonyms right away. Every index has alternative words for the same meaning. For example, you may want to treat “film” and “movie” as equivalents. Synonyms also help you avoid queries with no results.
You’re using the common language or languages of your users
Set the language of your search solution to the most common language or languages of your users.
You’re treating singulars and plurals as the same
Make sure to treat plurals and singulars equivalently. For example, you may want the engine to consider “film” and “films” equivalent for search purposes.
You’re removing stop words
Stop words are small common words like “of” and “the”. If these words appear in queries it can introduce irrelevant results. Tell the search engine to ignore stop words.
You’ve tested the top 10 queries
Test your top 10 queries and other analytics metrics to see if you are satisfied with the results.
You’ve checked for insufficient results
Check to see if your search is returning no or unsatisfying results.
You’re using highlighting in your results
Make sure you’re highlighting matched text in your results.
You’ve implemented instant search results with facets
Make sure you’re displaying a full display of search results instantly, with every keystroke. No “Enter” key is required. Set up helpful facets on your front end.
You’ve hidden your admin key
Don’t use your admin API key in your front-end code.
You’ve followed the security best practices
Make sure there isn’t some security measure that you failed to consider before or after getting started. Keep the security best practices in mind.
You haven’t hard-coded any API keys in your mobile app
Make sure your mobile applications are using API keys appropriately.
You’re using the most recent versions of the software
Make sure you use the most recent versions of all software in Algolia’s ecosystem.
You’ve turned off the default browser behavior for search inputs
If you’re implementing a search bar on web-based applications, make sure to override the default browser behavior by applying the HTML input attributes detailed in the search input guide.
You’ve implemented and validated Click and Conversion events
To make the most of Algolia’s Analytics, make sure you send events and check whether you have sent them correctly.
When sending events, you’re using a pseudonymous or anonymous userToken
All events require a userToken that relates a user profile to an event; however, you must never include personally identifiable information in a userToken. Make sure that you get and send the appropriate pseudonymous or anonymous token.
You’ve optimized search request usage
The number of calls made to Algolia per search request affects your billing, so make sure that you have optimized your Algolia implementation.
