Semantic search: what it is and what it changes

Plan requirement

Subscription Suite Growth or higher, Guide Professional or higher
Access Admin

Semantic search matches meaning rather than words, which forgives vocabulary mismatch without removing the need for good titles.

What changes

Older search matched words. Somebody typing "cannot log in" found articles containing those words, and missed one titled "Password reset".

Semantic search understands that those are the same question, so the article is found anyway.

What it does not fix

  • Articles that do not exist. It finds what you have written, not what you have not.
  • Articles covering five subjects. A vague article matches vaguely.
  • Your own jargon, where a term means something specific in your product that it does not mean generally.

Labels still earn their place for that last one, and for product names and error codes.

How it changes what you write

Less anxiety about exact keywords, more value in writing clearly. An article that explains one thing well is now easier to find than one stuffed with phrasings.

Which is the direction good writing was already going.

Rolling out

Availability differs by language and by plan, and it has been arriving gradually. Worth checking what applies to your help centre rather than assuming, particularly if you run more than one language.

See also

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