Keywords allow you to make specific products searchable for terms that are not part of their standard product data. By adding keywords to a Primary List, you enrich all products in that list, making them easier to discover when customers search for those terms.
Unlike traditional page-based logic, keywords are applied to products, not pages. This means that when a keyword is matched in a search, Elevate returns relevant products from the Primary List — not the page itself.
How keywords work
When you add keywords to a Primary List:
The keywords are applied to all products in that list
The products become searchable for those terms
Elevate uses its relevance logic to return only the most relevant products
For example:
If you add the keyword “Black Friday” to a Primary List and a customer searches for:
“Black Friday shoes” → Elevate will return only the shoes from that list
Not all products in the list, and not all shoes in the catalog
Because keywords are strong signals, they override parts of the standard relevance calculation. You should use them carefully and primarily for time-sensitive campaigns, promotions, or specific concepts.
If a concept should always be searchable, we recommend adding it to your product data feed instead of maintaining it manually in Elevate.
How to add keywords to a Primary List
- Open the page.
- Go to the Primary List.
- Activate Keywords, using the toggle
- Choose one of the following options:
- Use page title as keyword
- Use page heading as keyword
- Add custom keywords manually
- Save your changes by clicking Done
Keywords must match search phrases exactly. If you want to cover variations such as Black Friday, Black Week, and Black Month, you need to add each one separately.
When should you NOT use keywords?
You should avoid using keywords for:
Basic product categories (e.g. “trousers”, “shoes”)
Basic product types, attributes and colours - concepts that Elevate already understand
Standard synonyms that Elevate already understands
Elevate’s search engine already handles:
Product types
Synonyms
Language variations
Adding keywords in these cases can override the natural relevance logic and lead to less optimal results.
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