Synonyms

Synonyms are exclusive to the index table engine, supporting any custom post type and media attachment contents.

Synonyms only work with Custom Post Type results: Posts, Pages, Products, Media Attachments etc... Taxonomy terms, user and other type of results are currently not supported!

Prerequisites

To use synonyms, the index table engine is required. Before you start with this tutorial, I highly suggest reading up the introduction to the index table.

The synonyms interface can be accessed on the Index Table submenu, under the Synonyms panel.

Synonyms menu access

Managing Synonyms

After making changes (adding/removing) to the synonyms, the index table must be re-created, by clicking on the Create new index option, otherwise it has no effect.

Make sure to create a new index, after adding/changing the synonyms

Adding new synonym

To add a new synonym, simply click on the +Add new button on the top of the panel. Enter the desired original word and the synonyms (max. 15), then hit the Save button.

Synonym editor window

For multi-language environments using WPML or Polylang plugins, you can choose the synonym language as well. Otherwise this option is set to Default (empty).

Editing a synonym

To edit a synonym row, click on the Edit button on the right side of the row. The same editor will appear, that is used to add a new synonym.

To open the synonym editor

Synonym editor

Deleting a synonym or deleting all synonyms

To delete an individual synonym row, click on the Delete button. Alternatively, you can delete all synonyms by clicking the Delete all button on the top right side of the panel.

Delete a synonym or delete all synonyms

Synonyms as keywords option

This option can be very resource-heavy, when using lots of synonyms (100s of definitions). Make sure to avoid using it, unless it is indeed useful in your case.

Synonyms as keywords option

This option comes in handy, when the defined original => synonyms pairs should be used as synonyms => original as well.

For example, if there is a definition of keywords and synonyms as:

original => synonym1, synonym2

..then, if this option is enabled, the plugin will also generate these additional definitions during indexing:

synonym1 => original, synonym2
synonym2 => original, synonym1

In other words, the plugin will also look for keywords synonym1 and synonym2 and index the original keyword and the rest of the synonyms with them.

Export and Import

Export and import feature lets you export the content of the synonyms database, and import it on a different installation, or for simply back-up purposes.

Export

Click on the Export button on the top right side of the panel.

The export button

A pop-up window will open. Click the Generate New button, to generate a new export file.

Click the Generate new button

After a short time, a link will appear. Click on it to save the export file on your computer.

Click on the link to download the latest export file

The exported file is a .txt file, please do not change the file type.

Import

Duplicate items within the database and the import file are ignored, and not overwritten

To import previously exported synonyms, click on the Import button on the top right side of the panel.

Import button location

A pop-up window will open. Click on the upload button to upload the import file via the media library uploader, and select it.

Click the upload button to open the media library uploader

After selecting the file, click the Import button. After a short time, the success message should appear, with the number of imported items.

Importing the items