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This article details how Products matches are found and can be setup for your Blog Posts. 

The best way to learn is via demonstration - so we will be using a example blog post and then looking how products will be found to match to it.

First things first - some fundamentals

Matching Settings

For the Purpose of this demonstration we will be using the following settings. 

These are also the recommended settings if you want standard and accurate results.

Matching Accuracy - Balanced. 

This means products will only be shown if there is match found for them.  If this is set to Random or Fast then you will get guaranteed products displayed but its not as accurate. See (here) for more details

Match Post Tags to Product Tags - Best Match.  

Pick where you want matches to be made. Choosing 'Dont Match' means this will part of standard matching will be ignored.

Match Post Tags to Product Title - Better Match. 

Pick where you want matches to be made. Choosing 'Dont Match' means this will part of standard matching will be ignored.

Advanced Filtering - No Filter. 

This setting is used for controlling the focus of the search. When setting up - use 'No Filter' first and then tune it afterwards. For more detail on this setting - click (here)

The Sample Blog Post

Below is a sample blog post that we are going to be matching products with.

The key is the Tags section. Tags need to be populated by the store owner/administrator. 

Note: Unless you are using a Matching Accuracy of Random or Fast, or using the Advanced Dynamic Source option - Then your post MUST have tags applied to it for matching to occur.

Ways of Finding Products

Before we look at the actual matching, its important to understand the different ways the app looks to find products.

There are four ways of finding product that occur within the Related Products features.

General Inventory Search

Up to one thousand products within the inventory are checked to find matches against the post's tags. This is the standard search method and good if you dont need a a more focused approach.

Simply add tags to your posts that match tags, type or title of your products.

Collection Matching

Up to one thousand products within a named collection are checked to find matches against the post's tags. Because they are within a linked collection they will be considered a match regardless of tags and prioritised over products only found in the general inventory search.  Meaning products in named collections should appear before those in general search.

Collection handle

Post Tags

Handle matches are not case sensitive and dont need the '-'

Named Product

A product that has its handle directly named in the post tags will be considered a match regardless of tags and prioritised over products found in the general inventory search and collection matching.  Meaning it will appear before those options.

Product handle

Post Tags

Handle matches are not case sensitive and dont need the '-'

Dynamic Source List

An advanced feature that allows you to directly add listed products to a blog template or to reference a Metafield product list assigned to the blog post. No tagging required and Products added this way will be prioritised over all others in display.

It is beyond the scope of the scope of this article to cover Metafield creation. 

To create a Metafield product List

• Click on Settings within your Admin Dashboar
• Then click on the 'Custom data' option

• Click on the 'Blog posts' section

• Click on the 'Add definition' button

• Fill in the name field
• The name space and key will be auto generated. Change if you wish
• Click on the 'Select type'  and choose 'Product'

• Choose 'List of products' and then click 'Save'

• [Adding Products to the Metafield] Navigate to the blog post in question and navigate to the Metafields section at the bottom and click on 'Show all'

• Click in the field for the new Metafield you have created

• Select the products you wish to display on your blog post

• Click the 'Done' button and then save
• Congratulations you have just created a Metafield and used it on a Blog Post. To add products to other posts - simply repeat the process from the [Adding Products to the Metafield]  step.

For more information on Metafields - please find a Shopify guide (here)

How Products are matched to the Post Tags

Each product found is checked in two ways

• Match Post Tags to Product Tags
• Match Post Tags to Product Title

Each time a match is found it adds to the total relativity score of a product.

Match Post Tags to Product Tags

There are two areas where the Product tagging is done

1. Product tag matches a Post tag

Matches

2. Matching a Tag to the Product Type

While not exactly a tag to tag match - this adds an additional layer of relevance checking.

Matches

Match Post Tags to Product Title

Again there are two parts to this check

1. Check if a word in the Product title is equal to a Post tag

Matches

2. Check if the whole Product title matches a tag

Matches

What Products will be Displayed First?

In its most simple terms - the product with the highest relativity score will be displayed first, followed by the second, thirds etc etc. 

As a basic example - Product A will display before Product B

The additional layer to the above is how the product are found - this sets the starting score for each product before matching.

So if product B was found in a named collection it will automatically have a higher base score and be displayed before Product A.

Recommendation

For the best mix of relevant results and low admin overhead - we recommend adding a tag to your post that matches a product collection.

This way you dont need to tag your products unless you want even more granular results and only need to add a single tag to your post.

The added bonus is that you can then also use the 'Fast' matching accuracy setting because the collection mapping will override the other less accurate results. Giving you speed and accuracy.

Summary

Displaying related products on your posts is a powerful selling tool. It can be as complex and granular as you need it to be but in its most simple form - all you need to do is add a single tag to your post to get results.