Implementation checklist

Consult the following checklist to ensure you’re following best practices before going live.

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You’ve defined your searchable attributes

For better relevance and performance, select attributes that are useful for search as your searchable attributes. You can then order your attributes based on the priority or relevance to search.

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You’ve set most of your searchable attributes as unordered

Define most of your attributes as unordered, as this ensures that the position of a word within the attribute doesn’t affect the ranking.

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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.

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You haven’t changed the default ranking formula unless necessary

Unless you have explicit reasons not to, use the default ranking formula. It’s usually best to set it back to its default before going live.

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You haven’t changed Algolia’s engine defaults unless necessary

Keep the default settings unless you have a specific reason to change them. These are some important defaults you shouldn’t change unless necessary:

• typoTolerance
• minWordSizefor1Typo
• minWordSizefor2Typos
• queryType
• ranking
• advancedSyntax
• minProximity

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.

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You’re not revealing any sensitive information

By default, Algolia includes all attributes in the JSON response, even if you don’t display them in your user interface. To exclude some attributes from the response, set them as unretrievableAttributes.

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You’ve added all necessary synonyms

It’s best 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.

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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.

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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” as being equivalent for search purposes.

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You’re removing stop words

Stop words are small common words like “of” and “the”. If these words appear in queries, they can introduce irrelevant results. Tell the search engine to ignore stop words.

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You’ve tested the top 10 queries

Test your top 10 queries and other analytics metrics to see if you’re satisfied with the results.

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You’ve checked for insufficient results

Check to see if your search is returning no or unsatisfying results.

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You’re using highlighting in your results

Make sure you’re highlighting matched text in your results.

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You’ve implemented instant search results with facets

• Display full search results with every keystroke so users don’t need to press “Enter”.
• Add useful facets to help users filter results.

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You’ve hidden your admin key

Don’t use your admin API key in your frontend code.

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You’ve followed the security best practices

Keep the security best practices in mind.

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You haven’t hard-coded any API keys in your mobile app

Make sure your mobile applications are using API keys appropriately.

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You’re using the most recent versions of the software

Use the latest version of the Algolia libraries your implementation relies on.

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You’ve implemented and validated Click and Conversion events

To make the most of Algolia’s powerful features and analyze your search relevancy, send events and check whether you have sent them correctly.

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You’re using the same pseudonymous or anonymous user token for events and search requests

All events require a userToken that relates a user profile to an event. Don’t include personally identifiable information in a userToken. Use the same stable, pseudonymous, or anonymous userToken in events and search requests so Algolia can associate activity with the same user. Ensure that you get and send the appropriate pseudonymous or anonymous token.

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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.