diff --git a/indexes/repo/settings.json b/indexes/repo/settings.json
index 37af98ba..25611df0 100644
--- a/indexes/repo/settings.json
+++ b/indexes/repo/settings.json
@@ -1,5 +1,4 @@
 {
-  "index.mapping.total_fields.limit": 2000,
   "analysis": {
     "filter": {
       "english_stop": {
diff --git a/services/searcher/index.js b/services/searcher/index.js
index 8533e178..242db4c0 100644
--- a/services/searcher/index.js
+++ b/services/searcher/index.js
@@ -100,32 +100,22 @@ class Searcher {
     body.query("bool", "should", query);
   }
 
-  _addFullTextQuery(body, queryParams) {
-    if (queryParams.q) {
-      // need to nest `_fulltext` query as a "must"
-      let ftBody = new Bodybuilder();
-
-      ftBody.query("bool", "should", {
-        "multi_match": {
-          "query": queryParams.q,
-          "fields": [
-            "name^10",
-            "name._fulltext^10",
-            "description^4",
-            "agency.acronym^5",
-            "agency.name^5",
-            "agency.name._fulltext^5",
-            "permissions.usageType^3",
-            "tags",
-            "tags._fulltext",
-            "languages",
-            "languages._fulltext"
-          ]
-        }
-      });
-
-      body.query("bool", "must", ftBody.build("v2")["query"]);
-    }
+  _addFullTextQuery(body, searchQuery) {
+    const searchFields = [
+      "name^10",
+      "name._fulltext^5",
+      "description^2",
+      "agency.acronym",
+      "agency.name^5",
+      "agency.name._fulltext",
+      "permissions.usageType",
+      "tags^3",
+      "tags._fulltext",
+      "languages^3",
+      "languages._fulltext"
+    ];
+
+    body.query("multi_match", 'fields', searchFields, {"query": searchQuery}, {"type": "best_fields"});
   }
 
   _addStringFilter(body, field, filter) {
@@ -236,6 +226,7 @@ class Searcher {
    * @param {any} queryParams The query parameters a user is searching for
    */
   _addSortOrder(body, queryParams) {
+    body.sort('_score', queryParams['sort'] || 'desc');
     body.sort('score', 'desc');
     if(queryParams['sort']) {
       const sortValues = [];
@@ -263,19 +254,19 @@ class Searcher {
           body.sort(sortField, 'asc');
         }
       });
-    } else {
-      body.sort('_score', queryParams['sort'] || 'desc');
     }
   }
 
   _searchReposQuery(queryParams) {
     let body = new Bodybuilder();
 
+    if(queryParams.q) {
+      this._addFullTextQuery(body, queryParams.q);
+    }
     this._addFieldFilters(body, queryParams);
     this._addSizeFromParams(body, queryParams);
-    this._addIncludeExclude(body, queryParams);
-    this._addFullTextQuery(body, queryParams);
 
+    this._addIncludeExclude(body, queryParams);
     this._addSortOrder(body, queryParams);
 
     let query = body.build("v2");
@@ -322,7 +313,7 @@ class Searcher {
     // add query terms (boost when phrase is matched)
     if (queryParams.term) {
       body.query("match", "term_suggest", queryParams.term);
-      body.query("match", "term_suggest", { query: queryParams.term, type: "phrase" });
+      body.query("match_phrase", "term_suggest", { query: queryParams.term });
     }
 
     // set the term types (use defaults if not supplied)