Modified scoring function

We have been revising the search engine's scoring function that determines the order pages are listed when they match a search query. PDF files, in particular, are troublesome because they often are archival documents and not a good match for the search queries of typical site visitors. For that reason, PDF files are penalized in their score relative to an HTML document with the same content. The penalty function has recently been rewritten. In general, PDF files are usually scored lower in the new function, but now always. Your feedback on the search results is always welcome.

If you are not happy with the default scoring, you can influence the search engine's scoring of pages by using the "/pdf" option, adding keywords and keyphrases to pages, and by setting page weights explicitly. Each of these techniques is described briefly in the Search Guide, and in more detail in the library document Fine tuning with page weights and meta tags.