Result priority settings
What are Priorities?
Priorities let you boost specific content higher in your search results. Normally results are ordered by relevance; with a priority you can say "products in the Featured category should always rank near the top", or "these three pages should outrank everything else for the phrase pricing".
Priorities are organised into Priority Groups. Each group has a score, optional conditions (which search instance or search phrase it applies to), and a set of rules that select which content gets the boost — by individual post, by taxonomy term, or by custom field value.
Coming from an older version? Individual post priorities and priority groups used to be two separate things. They're now unified: a single Priority Groups system, where boosting a specific post is just a group with a Post rule.
You'll find it under Ajax Search Pro → Priorities in the WordPress admin menu, which has two panels:
Priority Groups — create and manage the rules that boost content.
Effective Priorities — preview which content actually gets boosted for a given search.
How the score works
Each group has a priority score from 1 to 5000 — higher ranks first. When a search runs, every group whose conditions and rules match the content contributes its score; a post's effective priority is the score of the matching group, and posts with higher effective priority are pushed up the results. Use small numbers for gentle nudges and large numbers for content that must dominate.
Priority Groups
The Priority Groups panel lists all your groups in a table:
(toggle)
Enable/disable the group without deleting it.
Name
The group's label.
Priority
Its score (1–5000).
Instance
Which search instance it applies to ("All" or a specific one).
Blog
(Multisite only) which site it applies to.
Phrase
The phrase condition, if any (logic + the phrase).
Rules
How many content-selection rules the group has.
Actions
Edit or delete the group.
Use + Add Group to create one, the row toggle to enable/disable, Edit/Delete per row, and Remove All to wipe every group (with confirmation).
Creating or editing a group
Clicking Add Group (or Edit) opens the group editor:
Name — a label for your reference.
Priority — the score from 1 to 5000 (higher = ranked first).
Enabled — whether the group is active.
Apply to instance — All instances, or restrict the boost to one specific search instance.
Apply to blog (multisite only) — All blogs, or restrict the boost to one site in the network.
Rule logic — how multiple rules combine: AND (content must match every rule) or OR (content matching any rule is boosted).
Phrase logic — restrict the boost to certain search phrases:
Disabled — applies to every search (no phrase condition).
Any — applies when the phrase appears anywhere in the query.
Exact — applies only when the query exactly matches the phrase.
Start / End — applies when the query starts or ends with the phrase.
When phrase logic is anything other than Disabled, a phrase field appears to type the phrase to match.
Rules — one or more content-selection rules (see below). Use + Add Rule to add them.
Click Save Group to store it.
Rule types
Each rule selects content using one of three field types. Switch the Field type to change which selector is shown.
Taxonomy
Boost content assigned to specific taxonomy terms.
Taxonomy — pick the taxonomy (categories, tags, or any custom taxonomy).
Operator — IN (content in the selected terms) or NOT IN (content not in them).
Terms — select one or more terms from the chosen taxonomy.
Example: boost everything in the "Featured" product category — Taxonomy = Product categories, Operator = IN, Terms = Featured.
Custom Field
Boost content whose custom field (meta) value matches a condition.
Meta key — search for, or type, the meta key (post meta keys and ACF fields are listed).
Operator — IN, NOT IN, or LIKE (partial match).
Value — the value to compare against.
Example: boost posts where featured equals yes — Meta key = featured, Operator = IN, Value = yes.
Post
Boost specific posts you pick by hand.
Operator — IN (boost these posts) or NOT IN (boost everything except these).
Search posts — type to search, then click results to add them. Selected posts appear as removable chips.
Example: boost three specific landing pages — Operator = IN, then search and add each page.
Effective Priorities
The Effective Priorities panel is a preview/simulation tool. It shows which posts are actually boosted (and which attribute-based groups match) for a given search context, so you can confirm your groups work as intended before relying on them.
Set the filters to simulate a real search, then click Load:
Instance — simulate for all instances or a specific one.
Phrase — the search phrase to test (so phrase-logic conditions are evaluated).
Post type — limit the preview to a post type (e.g.
post,page,product).Title contains — narrow to posts whose title matches.
Limit — how many posts to return (1–1000).
The results show two tables:
Posts — each matched post with its Title, Post Type, Effective Priority (the score it will be boosted by), and the Source Group that produced it.
Attribute Groups — groups that match by attribute (taxonomy/custom-field rules) rather than by specific post ID, with their name, priority and rule count. These apply dynamically to any content matching their rules.
Tips & notes
Higher score wins. If several groups could boost the same post, the score determines its final ranking, plan your numbers so the most important content has the highest score.
Use phrase logic for query-specific boosts. Leave it Disabled for an always-on boost; set it to Exact/Any/Start/End to only boost for particular searches.
AND vs OR matters. With several rules in one group, AND narrows the match (all rules must hold) while OR widens it (any rule is enough).
Verify with Effective Priorities. After setting up groups, simulate the search on the Effective Priorities panel to confirm the right content is boosted.
Disable instead of delete while testing — the per-row toggle lets you turn a group off without losing its configuration.
For an automated review, the Search AI Priorities Advisor scans your groups for problems (orphaned terms/posts, empty rules, misconfigured phrase logic, missing names) and suggests improvements.
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