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Last Updated On: Aug 26, 2025

This article explains how our search works and shares tips for making content easier to find.

Overview

Many users wonder how search works in the Gainsight Customer Community (CC) platform and how to make their content easier to find. Because our search algorithm evaluates multiple factors, it can sometimes be difficult to understand why certain topics do, or do not, appear in results.

This article explains the key factors driving search behavior and offers best practices for improving content visibility across the platform.

Searchable Attributes

When a user submits a query, the search engine examines multiple attributes across both community and federated (external) content to identify matches. Understanding these attributes helps content creators optimize posts for better performance.

Searchable attributes include:

  • Title of the topic: Highly weighted for relevance scoring.

  • Content: The full content is indexed, allowing users to discover posts based on in-depth context.

  • Whether it is an article: Prioritized as it is company-generated content.

  • Whether it has the best answer (if it is a question): Key for searching solved queries.

  • Replies: Captures ongoing conversation and relevance within threads.

  • Source, Tags, Product Area, and Category: Used for filtering and refining search results.

These attributes apply to all indexed content, regardless of origin. Consistent tagging, categorization, and formatting help improve discoverability and filtering.

Ranking Result

Once matching content is found, the system applies a scoring model to determine the order in which results are shown. This model uses weighted factors applied consistently across all content sources and types.

Ranking factors include:

  • Number of matching search terms: More matches usually mean higher relevance.

  • Proximity of terms within content: Phrases where keywords appear close together are ranked higher than scattered terms.

  • Content type: Articles and solved questions are often prioritized as definitive answers.

  • Content source: External (federated) content is prioritized over user-generated content in the community

  • Date of last update: Recently updated content is considered more relevant.

  • Engagement metrics include:

    • Number of likes

    • Number of replies

    • Number of views

    • Recency of activity within the thread

  • Spelling similarity: Allows for slight typos and misspellings without penalizing results.

Search results are sorted by relevance, not by content type or source. Community and federated content appear together in a unified list. Each content type (For example, article, question, discussion) is visually labeled for clarity.

Best Practices for Optimizing Search Results

 

Search behavior is driven by content structure and metadata. While the algorithm itself cannot be customized, the following best practices can help improve search visibility:

  • Use clear, keyword-rich titles: Include commonly searched terms relevant to your topic.
  • Convert valuable posts into articles: Articles rank higher and are perceived as authoritative.
  • Mark the best answers in resolved questions: This improves ranking and helps others quickly identify solutions.
  • Apply consistent, relevant tags and categories: Use a controlled vocabulary to enhance filter functionality and avoid fragmentation.
  • Remove outdated content: Implement a proactive recommendation for a regular content audit schedule (For example, quarterly review).
  • Maintain structured formatting and terminology: Use consistent headings, bullet points, and language across internal and external content. This enhances readability and improves indexing accuracy.

External content should follow these same guidelines to ensure accurate indexing and inclusion in relevant searches. Regular moderation and audits help maintain content quality across the platform.

Leveraging Search Filters

Advanced filters allow users to refine results for more targeted discovery:

  • Source Filters: Located directly below the search input; useful when federated (external) content is involved.
  • Community Filters: Displayed on the left-hand side of the search results page for narrowing community-originated content.
  • Filter by Post Type: Select to view only articles, discussions, or questions. This is particularly useful when you are looking for a specific format of information.
  • Filter by Category: Select to view only content posted in a specific community or knowledge base category.
  • Filter by Product Area: Select to view only content that was tagged with a specific product area.
  • Filter by Public tag: Select to view only content that was tagged with a specific product area.

Tips for Effective Searching

To get the most out of the Gainsight CC Platform's search, consider these practical tips:

  • Use quotation marks for exact phrases: For example, search for "customer success platform" to find results where these words appear together in that exact same order.
  • Start broad, then narrow down: If your initial search yields too many results, use the advanced filters or add more specific keywords to refine your query.
  • Check categories and tags: Sometimes, navigating directly to a relevant category or applying a tag filter can be quicker than a keyword search for broad topics.
  • Understand ranking behaviour: If content does not appear, consider whether the keywords are prominent in the title, content, or marked best answer.

​How Do Federated Search Results Appear in your Community Search?

The search results in the community appear either as Live Search dropdown or can be viewed in the Search page.

Live Search Dropdown

Federated content will be listed in the live search dropdown alongside content that is posted in the community. Federated content can be recognised by its icon. The federated source will be displayed in metadata color behind the title.

Search Result Page

Federated content will be listed alongside content that is posted in the community. A filter on the top, just below the search bar, allows you to filter and display only results from different federated sources. Remove all HTML tags from federated content before indexing. HTML formatting does not appear in search results and may hinder visibility.

What's New in Search

Recent updates to our search functionality provide better precision, control, and clarity:

  • New Filter Options: Narrow results by source, content type (article, discussion, solved question), product area, tags, and categories.
  • Improved Relevance Ranking: Updated algorithm prioritizes content based on recency and user engagement.
  • Enhanced Visual Cues: Content types are now more clearly marked in search results, helping you identify what you are viewing at a glance.

Is it possible to change the order of the left column so tags are higher in the order displayed?

Hi @Charles Dane - that’s not something that’s directly configurable.  It is sometimes possible to make creative adjustments with scripts and CSS, but that can be a little hacky and we don’t always recommend it.

Hi - can you provide more clarity on what the third bullet point under “Result Ranking” means?

 

  • Attribute Weighting based on the Searchable attribute list above :uparrow: The ranking will also be influenced by the  (ordered by most important first and location within the field of the search term does not matter):

 

Is this saying that the searchable attribute list is stack ranked in order of importance (i.e. a keyword in the title is more important than the same keyword in the first post), but the location of the search term within the title or within the first post doesn’t matter?

Hi ​@mbuuck1 yes I believe that’s right.  I’ve edited the article slightly to make it a bit more clear (hopefully).

Hey community! 

We have updated this article with information based on new Improvements to the Community Search Experience. Dive into the updates that will help you get the most out of your community experience.

➡️ Most important of all -- don't forget to subscribe to this article!

Is it correct to assume community content is favored above external content. In the example below, we have an exact match to the search query in our user guide, but it only ranks 6th and is hence not shown directly when searching.

Is there a way to shift the balance a bit?

 

Thank you ​@Jef Vanlaer for reaching out, tagging PM for more clarification ​@Yoeri 

Hey ​@Jef Vanlaer - apologies for the late response.  It is possible for community content to get higher priority as the nature of the algorithm is to take into account factors such as best answers, content type, views and recent activity in the community.  With federated search results this additional data is not available.  Articles in the community, for example, will get some extra priority, which seems to be what is happening in your screenshot example.  There’s no easy way to adjust this at the moment, other than to make adjustments on the content side.  For example, if you have a definitive article in your external search that you want to always show up for certain terms, you could curate your content to reduce the community articles on that topic. 

We may adjust how this weighting works in the future.  Do you have any input on how you’d ideally expect it to work?

Hi ​@Jef Vanlaer I was on PTO, followed by our annual Pulse conference. I see my colleagues already responded to you. Wanted to let you know that we’ll look into optimising the search algorithm now that community- and federated content are unified. Let us know if you have any thoughts on this.

Thanks for the response, ​@Kenneth R and @Yoeri.

I understand that the community doesn’t have a lot of context on the content that’s coming in through the federated search, but I can imagine that this will often be product documentation that would be the source of truth for product-related questions (as it is for us). Maybe it would make sense to have an explicit weighing or prioritization factor for all sources (maybe even some of the factors that are now used in the algorithm) for admins to configure/override? Especially when the search query fully matches the title of the federated search content, I’d expect it to show up higher.

Question related to articles and product updates - do labels carry any weight in search results rankings? Is that another opportunity to add in a keyword, or are those labels purely visual for the end user?

Hi ​@mbuuck1 - Our search algorithm does not include labels as a factor in search results or weighting.  Tags, however, are included.  

​@Kenneth R Are “product areas” for Product Feedback and Product Updates included in the algorithm?

Hi ​@mbuuck1 - no, Product Areas are not included as a factor in search.

Hey Community!

We have just enhanced your search experience! 🧭✨

This article has been updated to reflect exciting improvements to our search functionality:

  • New Filters let you refine results by source, content type, tags, and more.

  • Smarter Ranking means the most relevant and timely content rises to the top.

  • Clearer Visuals help you instantly recognize articles, discussions, and solved questions.

Hi all, we deployed a small improvement to our search algorithm to give more “weight” to external (federated) content over non-articles community content (community articles are still prioritised as most authoritative). As a result external (federated) content will be displayed higher in the list of search results than before.

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