diff --git a/apps/labrinth/src/search/backend/typesense/mod.rs b/apps/labrinth/src/search/backend/typesense/mod.rs
index 026b940b76..dec7923e2c 100644
--- a/apps/labrinth/src/search/backend/typesense/mod.rs
+++ b/apps/labrinth/src/search/backend/typesense/mod.rs
@@ -105,18 +105,25 @@ impl Default for RequestConfig {
 }
 
 fn default_query_by() -> Vec<String> {
-    ["indexed_title", "slug", "summary", "indexed_author"]
-        .into_iter()
-        .map(str::to_string)
-        .collect()
+    [
+        "name",
+        "indexed_name",
+        "slug",
+        "author",
+        "indexed_author",
+        "summary",
+    ]
+    .into_iter()
+    .map(str::to_string)
+    .collect()
 }
 
 fn default_query_by_weights() -> Vec<u8> {
-    vec![15, 5, 2, 1]
+    vec![15, 15, 10, 3, 3, 1]
 }
 
 fn default_prefix() -> Vec<bool> {
-    vec![true, true, true, true]
+    vec![true, true, true, true, true, true]
 }
 
 const fn default_prioritize_exact_match() -> bool {
@@ -491,7 +498,7 @@ impl Typesense {
         let mut fields = vec![
             json!({"name": "summary", "type": "string", "facet": false}),
             json!({"name": "slug", "type": "string", "facet": false}),
-            json!({"name": "indexed_title", "type": "string", "facet": false, "stem": true}),
+            json!({"name": "indexed_name", "type": "string", "facet": false, "stem": true}),
             json!({"name": "indexed_author", "type": "string", "facet": false}),
             json!({"name": "log_downloads", "type": "float", "sort": true}),
             json!({"name": "follows", "type": "int32", "facet": true, "sort": true}),
diff --git a/apps/labrinth/src/search/indexing.rs b/apps/labrinth/src/search/indexing.rs
index cf4a92f931..b081ce9aae 100644
--- a/apps/labrinth/src/search/indexing.rs
+++ b/apps/labrinth/src/search/indexing.rs
@@ -4,8 +4,10 @@ use eyre::Result;
 use futures::TryStreamExt;
 use heck::ToKebabCase;
 use itertools::Itertools;
+use regex::Regex;
 use std::collections::HashMap;
-use tracing::info;
+use std::sync::LazyLock;
+use tracing::{info, warn};
 
 use crate::database::PgPool;
 use crate::database::models::loader_fields::{
@@ -25,6 +27,13 @@ use crate::routes::v2_reroute;
 use crate::search::UploadSearchProject;
 use crate::util::error::Context;
 
+fn normalize_for_search(s: &str) -> String {
+    static SPECIAL_CHARS_RE: LazyLock<Regex> =
+        LazyLock::new(|| Regex::new(r"[^a-zA-Z0-9-.\s]").expect("valid regex"));
+
+    SPECIAL_CHARS_RE.replace_all(s, "").to_kebab_case()
+}
+
 pub async fn index_local(
     pool: &PgPool,
     redis: &RedisPool,
@@ -262,7 +271,7 @@ pub async fn index_local(
             {
                 team_owner
             } else {
-                println!(
+                warn!(
                     "org owner not found for project {} id: {}!",
                     project.name, project.id.0
                 );
@@ -427,7 +436,7 @@ pub async fn index_local(
                     project_id: crate::models::ids::ProjectId::from(project.id)
                         .to_string(),
                     name: project.name.clone(),
-                    indexed_title: project.name.to_kebab_case(),
+                    indexed_name: normalize_for_search(&project.name),
                     summary: project.summary.clone(),
                     categories: categories.clone(),
                     display_categories: display_categories.clone(),
@@ -436,7 +445,7 @@ pub async fn index_local(
                     log_downloads: (project.downloads.max(1) as f64).ln(),
                     icon_url: project.icon_url.clone(),
                     author: owner.clone(),
-                    indexed_author: owner.to_kebab_case(),
+                    indexed_author: normalize_for_search(&owner),
                     date_created: project.approved,
                     created_timestamp: project.approved.timestamp(),
                     date_modified: project.updated,
@@ -614,3 +623,31 @@ async fn index_versions(
 
     Ok(res_versions)
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_normalize_for_search_removes_special_chars() {
+        assert_eq!(normalize_for_search("Xaero's Minimap"), "xaeros-minimap");
+        assert_eq!(normalize_for_search("JourneyMap"), "journey-map");
+        assert_eq!(normalize_for_search("journey-map"), "journey-map");
+        assert_eq!(normalize_for_search("SomeUserName"), "some-user-name");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_normalize_for_search_handles_whitespace() {
+        assert_eq!(
+            normalize_for_search("Some  Project  Name"),
+            "some-project-name"
+        );
+        assert_eq!(normalize_for_search("  padded  "), "padded");
+    }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_normalize_for_search_handles_numbers() {
+        assert_eq!(normalize_for_search("Project 123"), "project-123");
+        assert_eq!(normalize_for_search("Test 1.0"), "test-1-0");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/apps/labrinth/src/search/mod.rs b/apps/labrinth/src/search/mod.rs
index 545a0c4fc6..843a6519ac 100644
--- a/apps/labrinth/src/search/mod.rs
+++ b/apps/labrinth/src/search/mod.rs
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ pub struct UploadSearchProject {
     pub author: String,
     pub indexed_author: String,
     pub name: String,
-    pub indexed_title: String,
+    pub indexed_name: String,
     pub summary: String,
     pub categories: Vec<String>,
     pub display_categories: Vec<String>,