Troubleshooting
A search returns nothing
Almost always the wording or one filter too many — here's how to find which.
Work through it in this order.
1. Drop the filters
Run the description on its own. If it now returns results, add filters back one at a time — the culprit is usually a combination that barely exists, like a 1,000+ headcount band with a small revenue band.
2. Describe the business, not the label
Breaknorm reads company websites. Words that only appear in statistical codes or analyst reports do not match, because companies do not describe themselves that way.
| Returns little | Works |
|---|---|
| “NACE 25.62 companies” | “CNC metal machining shops” |
| “B2B SaaS vendors” | “companies selling subscription software to manufacturers” |
| “industrials” | “companies that make hydraulic components” |
3. Widen one step
“Companies that make servo motors for packaging lines in Slovenia” is three constraints stacked. Count “companies that make servo motors” first, then add the country.
4. Check the filter values
A value spelled differently from what the index uses (GB, not UK) matches nothing. Your agent can list
the valid values of any filter with list_filter_values — with a count per value, which shows at once
whether a value is real or nearly empty.
5. Check your exclusions
An always exclude list removes its companies from every result. A search response lists which exclusions
applied (applied_exclusions); if a large list is on, that may be where your results went.
When it really is coverage
- The companies have no websites. Breaknorm is built from websites; a trade where few businesses have one is thin.
- Very small niches. Ask for a count without filters — if it is near zero, the segment is genuinely small in the index.
Tell us
If you are sure a segment should be there, email [email protected] with the query and one company that should have matched. A single named example usually fixes a whole segment.