Recommendations guides for WordPress & WooCommerce

Amazon Personalize Recommendation AI

Did you know that you can “officially” rerank Opensearch search (AWS or locally hosted) with Amazon Personalize?

Steps: 1. Install the “opensearch-search-processor” plugin into Opensearch 2. Create an Opensearch reranking pipeline targeting an Amazon Personalize campaign 3. Configure Opensearch queries to use the reranking pipeline 4. Pass meta informations to queries like the user-id And now the good news for WordPress lovers: both OpenSearch search (AWS and open source)  and Amazon Personalize are integrated into WPSolr Enterprise.

A proposal to produce a full-lifecycle LTR with Metarank Labs and Vespa.ai for WordPress

Vespa.ai is the perfect solution for personalized search and recommendations with XGBoost or LightGBM models, but it requires external code to create the models. Metarank Labs is the perfect no-code solution for training LTR models, thanks to its predefined feature store recipes, but it lacks the flexibility of pure vector search to provide perfect accurate results. So we propose to combine the two as the first no-code Learning to Rank solution that supports the full cycle: Ingest items in Metarank and Vespa Ingest events in Metarank Transform items and events with feature store recipes as yaml parameters Train models on the feature store Export the model to Vespa.ai as an internal ONNX embedder Rank/rerank the search/recommendations with ranking expressions including the trained model

How AI content recommendations can increase your blog traffic

In today’s saturated blogging landscape, capturing and maintaining a reader’s interest is more challenging than ever, with new blogs emerging daily. Utilizing AI recommendations can provide a competitive advantage by promptly suggesting relevant and captivating content to users upon their website visit. Artificial Intelligence recommendation engines offer advanced systems for content recommendations, enhancing user experience through personalization and driving increased traffic to your blog. This article delves into how AI can elevate your blog’s traffic through intelligent content suggestions.   Understanding AI powered content recommendations Amidst the vast array of blogs available on the internet today, elevating a blog’s rank and attracting new users can be a daunting challenge. Since their emergence in the late 90s, blogs have garnered widespread popularity, now utilized by both

8 Best Related Posts Plugins for WordPress (2024)

Are you searching for the best related posts plugin for WordPress to improve your clicks and user engagement? WordPress already has quite a few of them. How would you like a tour? We have tested and reviewed many related posts plugins and ranked the best. You can learn more about it down below.   1. WPSolr Pro+ Case studies from Recombee showing click rate increase by 40%. WPSolr offers a related posts plugin. It offers perfectly accurate recommendations using powerful AI recommenders such as Recombee and Algolia. WPSolr Pro+ powers the recommendations on the side of this post (or any other on this website). The advantage of AI recommenders are that they not only take into account the content of the posts but also the

The most advanced related posts plugin for WordPress

WordPress is the world’s leading solution when it comes to website creation. It is first and foremost a blog CMS so what if you wanted to link posts or any other types of products together to not only improve your SEO but also guide your users, thus greatly increasing user satisfaction? WPSolr can help with that. WPSolr offers a recommendation plugin that uses AI to accurately suggest related posts (and products if you have Woocommerce installed).   Why have related posts (recommendations) for your WordPress Most popular websites offer some form of recommendations to the users. They are an automated technology designed to suggest content that is in some way related to what the user is currently viewing. This technology can seem very similar to

Algolia logo : search & recommendations provider

Algolia recommendations guide

Algolia is one of the leading providers of search and recommendation solutions, with a significant market share in the industry. So considering using Algolia to power your website’s search & recommendations is a no brainer.   Why use AI recommendations ?   AI recommendation models are trained on user interactions or clicks to recommend the most relevant products or items for each user.   You can usually find them in e-commerce websites, at the bottom of products detailed view or in the homepage. But they can also be found on streaming websites (movie and music) or services, news and many other industries.   Algolia AI recommendations in Gymshark   Recommendations are useful since they can increase user engagement and drive conversions. Since users are continously

Woocommerce x Algolia

Integrate Woocommerce with Algolia

Algolia is the most popular cloud search & recommendations provider. You could want to integrate it into your Woocommerce or WordPress website.   Why use Algolia ?   Search   Algolia provides search of all kinds : simple keyword search, AI/vector search & personalized search.   Keyword search is available in the free tier. Keyword search works by matching the keywords in a search query to the ones present in the indexed items/documents. It can be simple and limited without any configuration but Algolia offers multiple features to fine-tune it. For keyword search, you could define synonyms which is useful for expert websites. For example, if you have a medical website, you could need to set “acute myocardial infarction” as a synonym for heart attack.

Woocommerce recommendation engines

How to add a recommendation engine to your Woocommerce ?

One of the best technologies to boost sales for e-commerce today are recommendation systems. But how could you add a recommendation engine to your woocommerce website?  You’re at the right place. First we will define what recommendation engines are, then we can establish strategies and solutions to add recommendation engines to Woocommerce.   What is a recommendation engine?   A recommendation engine, also called a recommender system, will suggest (or recommend) items that it predicts users will be inclined to view or buy. These predictions are based on patterns of users’ past behaviors and preferences.   This technology is based on personalization and is closely related to personalized search.   What are the benefits of a recommendation engine for Woocommerce?   Recommendations greatly boosts sales

Algolia vs Recombee pricing

Recombee vs Algolia pricing

Algolia and Recombee both offer similar functionalities : search and recommendations. Which solution you should go for would depend on your use case :   Overall   Overall, Recombee offers a better price to performance ratio compared to Algolia. It’s free tier includes personalized search and recommendations with almost all features available (models optimized for general purposes, e-commerce, streaming, ads, etc…) and very generous usage limits (100 000 recommendation requests per month, etc…) which is more than enough for most (smaller) websites.   Algolia also works very well (you can check out case studies for both Algolia and Recombee) but is a more costly solution, good for bigger websites.   If you want to learn more about Recombee, you should check out our detailed review.

Recombee - Visually similar recommendations

Recommend visually similar products using Recombee

Recombee is an AI recommender that offers many models for personalized search and recommendations. Some of them are “similar”, “popular” or “personal” (based on the users preferences). But one that is severly underrated is the “visually similar” model which uses AI to recommend similar items not based on their content but on the appearance of their featured image.   Our Recombee visually similar recommendations demo (Woocommerce)     If you are interested in viewing how Recombee visually similar recommendations perform, you could check our Recombee & Woocommerce demo (view all our demos). You can find them in a product detailed view.   Why use visually similar recommendations ?   When browsing for products, the first thing we notice are the thumbnails. Recommending items with similar

WPSolr vs WebToffee 'Related products for Woocommerce'

WebToffee’s “Related Products for WooCommerce” vs WPSolr : WordPress recommendation plugins

You could want to equip your Woocommerce website with product recommendations but don’t know which solution is the right one for you. This comparison guide will detail the differences between the two recommendation plugins : WebToffee’s ‘Related Products for WooCommerce’ and WPSolr.   You could also view our top 5 WordPress recommendations plugins list.   WebToffee’s ‘Related Products for WooCommerce’   WebToffee’s ‘Related Products for WooCommerce’ plugin‘s overrides the default Woocommerce related products. It is a simple and intuitive plugin that will filter products based on taxonomies   Specialized in Woocommerce : can only index product types. The recommendation engine is stored on the WordPress server which decreases performance greatly. Display recommendations in a slider. Recommend products in store and in product detailed view. Place

WPSolr vs Woocommerce Product Recommendations

“WooCommerce Product Recommendations” vs WPSolr : WordPress recommendation plugins

You could want to equip your Woocommerce website with product recommendations but don’t know which solution is the right one for you. This comparison guide will detail the differences between the two recommendation plugins : WooCommerce Product Recommendations and WPSolr.   You could also view our top 5 WordPress recommendations plugins list.   WooCommerce Product Recommendations   Woocommerce Product recommendations is an official Woocommerce plugin. This recommendation plugin is content-based (based on keywords) and it has the distinctive advantage of being made by the Woocommerce team.   Specialized in Woocommerce (index products and orders). Engine shares the same server as WordPress, so it is slower (less computing power available). Countless recommendation algorithms (“Recommend Best Selling Products”, “Recommend New Arrivals”, “Recommend Top Rated Products”,  etc…), all

WPSolr vs Flycart

Flycart’s “Checkout Upsell for WooCommerce” vs WPSolr : WordPress recommendation plugins

You could want to equip your Woocommerce website with product recommendations but don’t know which solution is the right one for you. This comparison guide will detail the differences between the two recommendation plugins : Flycart’s ‘Checkout Upsell for WooCommerce’ and WPSolr.   You could also view our top 5 WordPress recommendations plugins list.   Flycart Checkout Upsell for WooCommerce   As it’s name implies, Flycart’s ‘Checkout Upsell for WooCommerce‘ WordPress plugin is a plugin that is specialized in upselling products. You can place them in multiple locations and they rely on simple content-based (keywords) filtering algorithms.   Intuitive UI. Uses basic Woocommerce related products algorithm (slow and inaccurate). Create related products, upsell products and frequently bought together recommendations. Place the recommendations in predetermined locations

Image of Wordpress and Recombee

Recombee recommendations for WordPress

Recombee is a personalization & recommendations engine that is proven to improve conversion rates greatly. But what if you wanted to implement it into your WordPress website ? Well you’re at the right place. This will explain why you wold want to add Recombee to your WordPress website but also how you could go it.   Why integrate Recombee into WordPress? Integrating Recombee into WordPress offers countless benefits : Firstly, it enhances user experience by delivering personalized recommendations tailored to individual preferences, thereby increasing user engagement and satisfaction. Recombee is also a very versatile recommendation engine. It can be used for e-commerce, movie or video streaming and blog or news websites. This is because it offers countless user events (interactions) and trained models to use.

Recombee x PHP

Build a recommendation system using Recombee and PHP

Recombee is a recommender that offers personalized search & recommendations for e-commerce, media, and other industries. It uses machine learning algorithms to analyze user behavior, preferences, and interactions in order to provide relevant and accurate suggestions. With Recombee, businesses can improve their customer experience by offering personalized product recommendations based on each individual’s browsing history, purchase history, and interests. This helps increase customer engagement and satisfaction, ultimately leading to higher sales and revenue. If you wish to learn more about Recombee, you can check out our full review. In this guide, we will learn how to build a recommendation system using Recombee and PHP.   Discover it live on our demo for Recombee But first let’s whet our appetite with several live Recombee recommendation widgets

Integrate Recombee into Woocommerce website

Integrate Woocommerce with Recombee

Woocommerce is the #1 solution for e-commerce globally. This WordPress plugin provides a powerful and customizable platform for online businesses to sell their products and services. With its user-friendly interface and easy integration with various payment gateways, Woocommerce has become the go-to choice for many entrepreneurs. One of the key features of Woocommerce is its flexibility. It offers a wide range of extensions and themes that allow you to customize your store according to your specific needs. Whether you want to add new functionalities or enhance the design of your website, there is an extension or theme available for almost any requirement. One of these features you could consider adding is recommendations.   Why equip Woocommerce with personalized search & recommendations? Woocommerce already offers users

Logo of Woocommerce

Woocommerce product recommendations

Woocommerce is one of the most popular and widely used WordPress plugins for e-commerce websites. It offers a wide range of features and functionalities that make it easier for online store owners to manage their products, inventory, orders, and payments. Woocommerce allows users to seamlessly integrate an online store into their existing WordPress website without having to switch platforms or create a separate website for their e-commerce needs. Another major advantage of using Woocommerce is its extensive range of extensions and add-ons. Some of these add-ons can be product recommendations. In this blog post, we will learn about the benefits of these product recommendation plugins but if you wish to discover the best ones you should check out our top 5 list of recommendation plugins

Image of a reql query

ReQL – How to create business rules for Recombee (with examples)

Recombee is a personalized search & recommendations provider. One of it’s major advantages is that Recombee gives the user the option of modifying the queries from the backend using scenarios and business rules. For example, if you have a Woocommerce website with WPSolr & Recombee, you can hide certain specific items without needing to access the WordPress website, only the Recombee dashboard.   You can then construct these business rules using ReQL, a Recombee exclusive Query Language that allows total freedom. You can learn more about it from the official Recombee documentation.   How to create business rules   Create business rule Click on the ‘Business Rules’ tab in the Recombee dashboard. Click on the ‘+ Create Rule’ button.   Set the title in the

Image of movie streaming platforms

AI Recommendations for movie streaming services

Movie streaming platforms utilize advanced recommendation algorithms to enhance content discovery for viewers, making the viewing experience personalized and enjoyable. By providing tailored suggestions based on individual preferences, these platforms boost user retention rates significantly. Personalized recommendations reduce search time, increase user satisfaction, and improve the overall browsing experience, increasing the likelihood of continued subscription.     Improve content discovery   Movie streaming platforms offer a vast array of content for viewers to choose from, catering to diverse preferences and interests. By utilizing personalization, these platforms enhance content discovery significantly, making the viewing experience more personalized and enjoyable. As a result, the platform’s catalogue appears more extensive and appealing to users, showcasing a wide variety of entertainment options to explore.   Acquiring the rights to

Recombee logo

Recombee Review : The most versatile AI recommender

Recombee is an AI-powered recommender that offers both recommendations & personalized search. Whether it’s recommending products, articles, or movies, Recombee leverages advanced algorithms and machine learning to deliver personalized recommendations & search that keep users engaged and satisfied. With its easy integration and customizable features, Recombee empowers businesses to optimize content discovery, increase user retention, and drive conversions effortlessly.       Highly-performing recommendations   Recombee prides itself in increasing conversion rates and in turn revenue tenfold. You can verify this by reading their case studies. Using the case studies, you can observe that Recombee improves website performance in most situations whether it is general purposes, e-commerce, streaming, news, etc…     Here are the main types of recommendations :   1. Item recommendations  

Image of Wordpress plugins

Top 5 Recommendation Plugins for Woocommerce & WordPress

Recommendations are an emerging technology today, often used in e-commerce or video streaming. If you wish to equip your WordPress or Woocommerce website with recommendations, there are quite a few plugins available.  However, not all of them are created equal. Some may be limited in functionality, while others may lack compatibility with certain themes or other plugins.   Here are the top 5 :       1. WPSolr   WPSolr is a complete search and recommendations WordPress plugin that integrates countless search engines & recommenders into your WordPress website. Apache Solr, Elasticsearch, Opensearch, Weaviate, Algolia, Recombee, Google Retail are all compatible (check out our engine features comparison). It is versatile and can be used for multiple purposes : blog website, e-commerce website, news website,

Recommendation Filtering Algorithms

Overview of different filtering algorithms (for personalization)

In the past, websites aimed to boost click-through and conversion rates by improving search features. Now, a new technology called recommender systems has emerged. These systems work subtly in the background, requiring little user interaction. They personalize recommendations, closely linking with personalized search to tailor the user experience. But how do these recommendation systems work ? They use algorithms to filter the results that will be returned to the user. These algorithms are : content-based filtering, collaborative filtering, hybrid filtering and knowledge-based filtering.   Diagram explaining how collaborative filtering works   Collaborative filtering   We will start of with the most popular type of filtering algorithm today : collaborative filtering. Collaborative filtering makes use of machine learning to quickly filter (recommend) the most relevant items

Photo of a person looking through a magnifyer.

What is Retrieval-Augmented Recommendation (RAR)?

I bet that the name Retrieval-augmented recommendation reminds you of something. That’s right! It’s a similar process to RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) but with a twist. Instead of using a search engine to retrieve the items and then feeding them to a generative AI, you retrieve the items using a search engine and then re-rank them using a recommender (personalization).   This way you get the best of both worlds : any search engine of your choice but with personalization. This is powerful since you can basically build your own personalized search.   Why?   At WPSolr (WordPress search and recommendations plugin), we came up with this new method of search because one of our clients needed a personalized vector (AI) search for their e-commerce website

Personalization

What is personalization ?

Personalization has become impossible to ignore in today’s digital landscape, permeating various aspects of our online experiences. As consumers increasingly expect personalized experiences, businesses across industries are investing in personalization technology to enhance user engagement, drive conversions, and foster customer loyalty in today’s highly competitive digital market.     What is personalization?   Personalization can be used whenever content is delivered to the user. It works by tracking user events that trigger whenever the user interacts with elements of interest in the website (page views, added to cart, added to favourites, etc…). This data is then used to train a model that comprehensively learns about users, enabling it to provide personalized recommendations tailored to each individual’s interests.     What are some uses of personalization

How to increase SEO using recommendations

Fifteen years ago, the strategies for search engine optimization (SEO) were quite different. Practices such as keyword stuffing, purchasing backlinks, and overfilling the meta keywords tag were effective but have since become outdated and ineffective for boosting search engine visibility. Nowadays, Google prioritizes content quality, user experience, and the organic acquisition of backlinks, emphasizing the importance of creating quality articles and enhancing the user experience. However, if your site contains a vast number of posts, Google might face difficulties in indexing them. This is where recommendation engines play a crucial role, aiding Google in indexing your content and delivering personalized content to your users.   What is a recommendation engine A recommendation engine is an AI-driven tool that filters and suggests content to users based

What is personalized search?

Search has evolved over the years, first starting with traditional keyword search, then moving on to Vector (AI) databases. But nowadays, a new type of search is being popularized : personalized search. As it’s name implies, this technique consists of personalizing the search (keyword or vector) using stored events (or interactions) for each user. It is closely related to the other popular personalization system called recommendations.       What is personalization ?   Personalization consists of customizing the search results based on the user’s preferences. This is done by collecting user events, that are triggered whenever the user interacts with or does an action on the website, and using this to tailor the search results to the user’s preferences and needs. The personalization model

Image of AI

AI vs non-AI recommenders

Recommenders are intelligent systems designed to analyze user preferences, behaviors, and interactions to provide personalized recommendations. These systems utilize various algorithms and techniques to suggest relevant content, products, or services to users, aiming to enhance their browsing or shopping experience. By leveraging data such as purchase history, browsing patterns, and demographic information, recommenders offer tailored suggestions that align with individual user preferences, increasing engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately driving conversions.   But there are two different types of recommenders : AI vs non-AI recommender.   Non-AI recommenders   This type of recommendation suggests content based on explicit user or programmatically entered data and metadata. It is fairly limited since it can only make use of two filtering algorithms : content-based filtering and knowledge based filtering. This

Image with 'User events for recommendatiosn" written

7 Best User Events to Track for Training AI Recommenders

AI recommenders (and personalization in general) are used to suggest pertinent content to your website’s visitors. They work by being trained using data that is passively being sent by visitors (called user events) so the AI can learn about their behaviours and needs. Some of the most popular recommenders are Algolia, Recombee and Google Retail.     They are a great way of increasing CTR. Here are some of the 7 best events to train your AI recommenders :   Detailed view of an item (clicked)   This user event is sent whenever a user views any page or product on your website. They are valuable for recommenders since they can give insights into what the user might be interested by and is one of

Picture of a dashboard on laptop with "Recommendations for e-commerce" written under.

How Product Recommendation Systems Boost your E-commerce Sales

AI Recommendation systems play a crucial role in enhancing the shopping experience for e-commerce customers. E-commerce platforms (example: Woocommerce) can provide personalized product recommendations tailored to each individual shopper’s preferences, browsing history, and purchasing behavior. They are a major driver for achieving higher conversion rates and selling more products.   Here are the reasons why it could help your bottom-line :       Your own dedicated salesman in a digital landscape   Trust your recommender to recommend the most relevant content to potential customers. Like an ordinary salesman would, the recommender system will try to learn more about visitors. Instead of blindly suggesting random items, the recommender will collect user events/interactions (page views, add to cart, etc…) and use this data to recommend the

Post image : Learn about conversion rates and CTR

What are CTR and Conversion rate, and why should you care?

There are many ways of measuring success when evaluating your website’s effectiveness, but the main ones are probably CTR & conversion rate.   CTR (or Click-Through Rate) is a percentage that illustrates user engagement with your content. It is estimated from the number of users that clicked on a particular link compared to the total number of users who viewed it. Conversion rate on the other hand is the percentage of your website’s users that completed a process (that can vary depending on your website goals). Some examples could be the user purchasing a product, completing a form, opening an email you sent, etc…   Different impacts on your businesses   CTR   Click-through rate, calculated using ‘(clicks ÷ impressions) x 100‘ , can be

Image of CTR skyrocketing using AI recommendation systems

What are AI-powered Recommendation systems : A 2024 complete beginner’s guide

In the past, you used to increase your website’s click-through/conversion rate by adding a high performance and relevant search experience. But recently, a new type of technology has emerged : recommender systems (or recommenders). Recommendation systems often operate more subtly, with users interacting minimally with the recommendations and not fully registering their presence. They rely on personalization and are closely related to personalized search. Some of the most prominent recommenders on the market are Recombee, Amazon Personalize, Algolia and Google retail. Why choose a recommendation system?   Example of the Amazon homepage full of recommendations to guide the user   Recommendation systems offer an effortless browsing experience   Forcing your users to search for the products or articles they want adds unnecessary steps to a

Algolia’s impact on user engagement metrics

Introduction Algolia is a powerful search-as-a-service platform that has revolutionized the way websites and applications implement search functionality. Its impressive search capabilities combined with its developer-friendly API have made it a favorite among developers and businesses alike, and it has had a significant impact on user engagement metrics. User engagement metrics, such as average time on site, bounce rate, and conversion rate, are critical indicators of a website or application’s success. Algolia’s fast and accurate search results greatly enhance the user experience, leading to increased user engagement and ultimately improved metrics. Algolia’s Impact on User Engagement Metrics Algolia’s key features, such as instant search results, typo tolerance, and relevance ranking, contribute to higher user engagement on websites and applications. Let’s take a closer look at

Using Weaviate to personalize the shopping experience in WooCommerce

Introduction In today’s ultra-competitive e-commerce landscape, delivering personalized shopping experiences to customers is crucial for success. Personalization allows online retailers to tailor their offerings to individual preferences, increasing customer satisfaction and driving conversions. One powerful tool that can help achieve this is Weaviate, an open-source knowledge graph that acts as a vector search engine. By incorporating Weaviate into your WooCommerce store, you can harness the power of AI and machine learning to provide personalized product recommendations for each customer. Getting Started with Weaviate To begin personalizing the shopping experience in WooCommerce using Weaviate, you’ll first need to set up and configure Weaviate. Here’s a step-by-step guide: 1. Install Weaviate: You can download Weaviate from the official website and follow the installation instructions provided. 2. Set

How Weaviate can be used to enhance personalized recommendations

Introduction Personalized recommendations have become an integral part of the digital experience, whether it is for e-commerce platforms, music streaming services, or social media platforms. These recommendations help users discover new products, services, or content that aligns with their interests and preferences. Weaviate, an open-source vector search engine, offers a powerful solution to enhance personalized recommendations by leveraging its semantic search capabilities. In this post, we will explore how Weaviate can be used and integrated to provide personalized recommendations. Additionally, we will discuss how WPSOLR can complement Weaviate and further improve the recommendation engine.   Enhancing Recommendations with Weaviate Weaviate is a vector search engine powered by machine learning, which enables semantic search and knowledge graph integration. By indexing and organizing data into vectors, Weaviate