Search Relevance Engineering

We help teams deliver measurably better search experiences through relevance tuning, query understanding, and evaluation-driven optimization.

Search Relevance Engineering

At Cognitivi, we specialize in transforming search from a basic utility into a strategic competitive advantage. Our search relevance consulting practice combines deep expertise in information retrieval with practical, production-grade engineering. We work with your team to audit existing search systems, establish baseline evaluation metrics (NDCG, MRR, MAP), and build a roadmap for measurable improvement. Whether you are running Elasticsearch, Solr, OpenSearch, or a vector search engine, we bring the domain expertise to move the needle on the metrics that matter most to your business.

Our engagements typically begin with a comprehensive relevance audit: we analyze query logs, review click-through data, and conduct judgment-based evaluations to understand where your search experience falls short. From there, we design and implement relevance improvements across the full stack -- from query understanding and intent classification, to field weighting and boosting strategies, to learning-to-rank models that continuously adapt to user behavior. We also help teams establish A/B testing frameworks and offline evaluation pipelines so that every change is validated before it reaches production. The result is a search system your users trust, with relevance gains you can quantify.

How it Works

Relevance Tuning

We analyze your query logs, click data, and user behavior to fine-tune ranking signals, field boosts, and function scores for measurably better results.

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Query Analysis & Understanding

From synonym expansion and spell correction to intent classification and entity recognition, we build query pipelines that understand what your users really mean.

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Evaluation & A/B Testing

We establish offline evaluation pipelines using NDCG, MRR, and MAP, and set up online A/B testing frameworks so every relevance change is validated with data.

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Why Choose Us

We are practitioners, not just advisors. Our team has hands-on experience building and scaling search systems at leading technology companies and e-commerce platforms. We focus exclusively on search relevance -- not general-purpose data engineering or SEO. Every engagement is grounded in measurable outcomes: we define success with evaluation metrics like NDCG and MRR from day one, and we do not consider the work done until the numbers move in the right direction.
Absolutely. We are platform-agnostic and have deep experience with Elasticsearch, Apache Solr, OpenSearch, Vespa, Typesense, and vector databases like Pinecone and Weaviate. We also work with managed services such as Amazon CloudSearch and Azure Cognitive Search. Our goal is to optimize what you already have before recommending any migration, ensuring minimal disruption and maximum ROI.
We use a combination of offline and online evaluation methods. Offline, we build judgment sets and compute standard information retrieval metrics -- NDCG (Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain), MRR (Mean Reciprocal Rank), and MAP (Mean Average Precision) -- to benchmark changes before they go live. Online, we set up A/B tests and monitor click-through rate, conversion rate, and zero-result rate to confirm that improvements hold up with real user traffic. This dual approach ensures both precision and business impact.

Key Capabilities

End-to-end search relevance expertise, from query understanding to production deployment

  • Learning-to-rank model development and deployment (XGBoost, LambdaMART, neural re-rankers)
  • Search infrastructure optimization for latency, throughput, and cost efficiency
  • Semantic and hybrid search integration using dense vector embeddings alongside keyword retrieval

Cognitivi helped us unify search across our outdoor sports catalog. Their learning-to-rank models and synonym expansion work means our customers now find the right gear whether they search by brand, product type, or activity.

Cabela's
- E-commerce Team

At our scale, even small relevance improvements translate to massive business impact. Cognitivi delivered measurable gains in NDCG and conversion, and their evaluation framework became a core part of how our team iterates on search quality.

Walmart
- Search Relevance Engineering

From plumbing fittings to power tools, our search needs to handle an enormous range of intent. Cognitivi built a query understanding pipeline that routes searches intelligently and surfaces the most relevant products every time.

The Home Depot
- Search & Personalization

Contact Info

Ready to improve your search relevance? Drop us a line and we will schedule a free initial consultation to review your search system and identify quick wins.

  • Email: info@cognitivi.ai
  • Support: +1 (877) 51 - SEARCH
  • Address: 4444 Geary Blvd #202, San Francisco, CA 94118

Contact Us

Tell us about your search challenges and we will show you how we can help.

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