Include content age in Lucene search score

Lucene.net search service is setup with Sitefinity CMS out-of-the-box. However, you have the option to choose whether content age is considered when calculating search score of pages, which affects how search results are ordered. Thus, with this option switched on, when visitors search for content or a page on the frontend, newer pages (or recently modified) are listed higher in the search results, similar to the way other search engines order results based on content age and relevancy.

For new projects, this setting is enabled by default and pages are listed with newer content higher in the list.

To switch on and off the content age option:

1. In Sitefinity CMS backend, navigate to Administration » Settings » Advanced » Search » Search Services » LuceneSearchService.
2. Expand the Parameters node and click on excludeContentAgeFromScoreCalculation.
3. In the Value input field, enter:
   • False
     Content age is considered when calculating the search score.
   • True
     Content age is excluded when calculating search score.

     IMPORTANT: For new Sitefinity CMS 11.1 projects, the value is False by default. For projects upgraded to Sitefinity CMS version 11.1, the value is True.