SharePoint.Sharon

Here are five simple tips to help improve the quality of search results when using SharePoint Server 2007 or Search Server 2008 (they share identical indexing and search features).

Before we get started, for SharePoint Server 2007 you must have installed the infrastructure update that was released in early 2009 to have access to some new search features (namely Federated Search) – see www.microsoft.com/enterprisesearch for more information.

1. Only index what might want to be found

This may sound obvious but, by default, SharePoint indexes every single list and library you create. If you create a list to be used as a look-up column in another list (a very useful trick) chances are you don’t want items from that look-up list appearing in search results.

Go into the list settings, click Advanced Settings and for Search, click the ‘No’ button (adds a no-index attribute to the URL). Whenever you create a site, list or library consider whether or not the content is likely to be useful in search results. If not, keep it out of the index.

2. Use scopes to improve relevance

Scopes are one of the most powerful features within SharePoint for improving relevance of search results. Here are a couple of tips:

2.1 Refine results by location

When people are looking for internal information, often they have a rough idea of where the information is stored. i.e. is it an old file (in a file share), a web page (on the intranet), a project document (on a team site somewhere). Create a scope for each location and add it to the default display group visible on all pages.

2.2 Refine to a specific set of results

Rules enable you to go beyond a location, such as a fileshare, to a very precise set of content. You can include or exclude content using rules to match content by URL, by content source or even by managed property. If you are using SharePoint columns to classify your documents or list items, make the column a managed property and you can then set-up a scope to only return items with a specific value for that property.

3. Use Federated Search to query multiple locations at once

If you look at your internal search usage statistics, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the query ‘Google’ appearing high up on the list. Ditto for the most popular link. You can help save time by embedding Internet search results alongside your internal index. Federated Search was introduced to SharePoint as part of the update released earlier this year. It enables you to enter one search query and view results from multiple different indexes (or multiple filters on a single index if you want – e.g. group results by scope)

In the image above, I entered a single query for ‘SharePoint’ and can see standard Internet results (via Microsoft’s Bing search engine) along with Twitter, FriendFeed, MSDN, YouTube… these are all different types of content, much of which would be lost in relevance if I only had one set of results or lost in time if I had to query each source separately.

4. Embed search results in site pages for localised results

By default, all searches will display results in the included Search Center site. But this navigates a user away from the site where they started the search. For specialist sites, consider embedding the search results in the site. It’s easy to do, just add the relevant search web parts to the page (as a minimum, you need the search box, core results, statistics and paging). Configure the search box to use the same page to display results (under Miscellaneous in the web part properties).

5. Use Best Bets to promote key content

Best Bets a.k.a. Search Keywords give you the ability to target content in search results matching the keywords you define. If you have introduced some level of taxonomy, creating a best bet for each taxonomy word can help promote content and sites people may not be aware of.

And a final tip for anyone who is just using Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and does not have the full SharePoint Server 2007 product. Download and use Search Server 2008 Express. It has most of the same search capabilities, is part of the same license as Windows SharePoint Services (i.e. it is included with the Windows Server license so there is no additional cost) and is a huge improvement over using the built-in search provided with WSS.

If you’re reading any of these tips and want more details about how to set them up, leave a comment and I’ll create a step-by-step guide.