MATCH AGAINST with multiple columns in MySQL

Question

I am trying to create a simplified search box that will match multiple columns against a keyword or keywords the user inputs. The following code is my attempt at using MySQL

Answer 1

You don't need fulltext indices for each column, but a single fulltext index covering both columns

FULLTEXT_INDEX(topic, country)

Having a single index on each column will not work

FULLTEXT(topic); FULLTEXT(country); /* will not work as expected */

I also think that order is important, but I could be mistaken in that regard