What's the best way to understand why a specific result is shown?

[nhoizey]

I don't understand why the results in my site's search are generaly right, but they're not when I search for sphinx:

Here's the search: https://nicolas-hoizey.photo/search/?q=sphinx

It finds this content, which is not relevant: https://nicolas-hoizey.photo/galleries/travels/europe/spain/andalusia/the-arch-from-once-upon-a-time-in-the-west-in-texas-hollywood/

But it doesn't find this one, which should be found: https://nicolas-hoizey.photo/galleries/animals/arthropods/insects/butterflies-and-moths/a-sphinx-moth-in-the-making/

Any advice on how to understand why the results are wrong?

[bglw]

Ah, yes this is an interesting one.

At the moment, Pagefind doesn't include metadata in the searchable index — they're two separate systems, essentially.

In this case, your title:

<h1 class="p-name" data-pagefind-meta="title">A sphinx moth in the making</h1>

Is outside your indexed body:

<div class="description e-content" data-pagefind-body=""> ...

This puts it in the metadata, but not in the index. As a result, nothing is in the index with sphinx, and Pagefind regresses your search term all the way back to s to try find some result. (Possibly not the most helpful step, but Pagefind really likes giving some result over nothing).

Fix here is to chuck a data-pagefind-body on your h1 as well — multiple on the same page poses no issue.

This is a common pitfall, so the longer term fix for Pagefind is #532

[nhoizey]

I understand and I just did what you recommend, and it's much better indeed! 🙏

I would prefer if the title didn't appear twice, once as title and the second in the beginning of the excerpt, but it's much better with accurate results.

[rea1shane]

I would prefer if the title didn't appear twice, once as title and the second in the beginning of the excerpt

This will make the result neater, can make it possible?