How does the search engine work?
After you've typed your search words or phrase into the query box and clicked on the "Search" button, it searches for matches across the entire site. By default, the search engine looks for matches on all words in the query box. You are presented with a "Search Results" page displaying matches in a ranked list. The ranking is based upon a number of factors, with higher ranking going to pages with the phrase or words in the title of the page. The search engine is not case-sensitive.
If you receive too many or too few results, you can alter your search method by using some of the options described below.
Other ways to find information on the Mason Designs site include the
Site Index and the
Site Map.
General tips to improve searching.
When you receive too many results, try the following tips to reduce the number of results:
- Use more words in your query. Some words are used frequently and so are found on many pages. By increasing the number of words, you reduce the chance that those same words are on the same page, resulting in fewer pages for you to review.
- Limit the area of our website to be searched. The results page provides a "Limit Search to" drop-down list allowing you to search just one area of the site. Only pages found in those areas that match your query will be returned.
- "Entire Site" means all pages in the normal navigation.
- "News and Events" means Events, Company News, and Press Releases.
- Use the "Using" drop-down list to change your search method from the default "All Words" to "Some Words" or to "Exact Phrase." The Exact Phrase method will treat all your Search words as an exact phrase, and only pages containing that exact phrase will be returned.
- View results from a specific area. If more than 50 results are returned, the results are grouped by the areas seen in the "Limit Search to" list. Check the box for the area and click on the "Search" button to take you to just those results.
- Search again within the results. Click on the "Search within these results" check box, then enter new or additional text to your query. Click on the "Search" button to see your new results list.
When you receive too few results, try to follow these tips to increase the number of results:
- Check the spelling of your words. Mason Designs uses a list of common misspellings. The list is updated periodically, but some words may not be in our list. If a misspelled word that is not in our thesaurus, it will not register as a match.
- Change to search method from the default "All Words" to "Some Words." There are three search methods in the "Using" drop down list. The Some Words method will take all the words in your query and search for each separately. This is the same as putting an "OR" between words.
- If you've limited your search to a specific area of the site, such as Products, change the "Limit Search to" option to "Entire Site," then click the "Search" button.
- Use a wild card as part of your search. Use ? to substitute a single character or * to substitute one or more characters in a word. Example: Genera? or Gener?? will match the word general. Gen* will match generous or general.
