What is a backup search for my StoreFront?
What is a Backup Search
The StoreFront search settings screen contains several tabs.  The Primary Search, Backup 1, Backup 2, and Backup 3 all have identical screens.  These four screens allow you to customize up to four different search engines, if needed. Â
This is how the search will work: Â If the primary search returns zero hits, the Backup 1 search is executed, and so on down the path. Â This allows you to empathize different search criteria along the way. Â Â
For example: the Primary Search is almost always focused on store product. Â As such, it has fields such as item id boosted. Â This search is tweaked to return back the best results for product.Â
The Backup 1 search may be tweaked to provide the best company result, so if a customer is searching for something related to your company, it returns back the best results. Â And this continues down the line until search results are found.
Most merchants will just make use of the Primary Search. Â However, the backups fill a crucial need for those merchants will diverse searching needs.
Example of a Backup Search Configuration
In this example, an set of items that contained a string in the item description was not being returned by the primary search, which was emphasizing the item ID.
The backup search is set to search for a "phrase" as the search type, and search field is assigned to the "Description" with full Boost of 10.