Synonyms for Help Articles

Hi,

How do synonyms work with Answers? What is the difference between one-way synonyms and synonym sets? And how do I add, remove, or update these in the backend?

Thanks!

Hi -

There are two types of synonyms that the Answers Backend uses:

  1. One-Way Synonyms (A → B): term A means the same as term B, but term B does not mean the same as term A. You will want to use one-way synonyms when one term or phrase might mean another, but that second phrase may have multiple meanings. For example, “Big Apple” → “New York”: if someone searches for “big apple”, you want to surface “New York”…however, you wouldn’t want the query “New York” to search for “big” and/or “apple”.

  2. Synonym Set (A ↔ B): terms A and B mean the same thing. You will want to use synonym sets when multiple terms have the exact same meaning. For example, “facility”, “office”, “location” and “store” might all have the same meaning, so you would want to group these as a synonym set.

To edit synonyms:

  1. Go to Answers > Experiences
  2. Click on ‘Synonyms’ on the left-hand side under ‘Configuration’
  3. Add a one-way synonym or synonym set depending on your needs

For more information, visit our training on Synonyms here.

Let us know if you have any other questions!