SharePoint site admins leverage search

Maximizing Search

About me

• Julie Boudro• Consultant• MCITP, MCTS, MCT• julieb@cdh.com• 248.554.3176

Why maximize search?

• Increase findability of information• Reduce frustration in end users• Increase adoption• Create a new set of tools for rendering

content in SharePoint• Way of the future with O365 and Delve

Mechanics of Search

• Crawler– Discovers content– Least privilege permissions– Schedule versus continuous crawl (2013)

• Indexing– Title & Description– Content– Meta Data

Mechanics of Search

• Ranking– Relevancy ranking– Popular items– “Likes” or Ratings– Best Bets

• Results– Refiners– Crawled and Managed properties– Document preview– Content Search web parts

Basic Search Principals

Basic Search Principals

• Make sure search is configured & working• Meta data, meta data, meta data• Enable content ratings or “likes” • Review search logs• Manage content sources• Monitor search activity• Understand search structure

Unmanageable Search Results

Meta data

• Information automatically extracted from content– Title– Description– Author– Date– Contents

• Additional properties captured on content– Content Types– Site Columns

Content Rankings

• General purpose ranking models. – General purpose ranking for most types of search

results.

• People search ranking models. – Calculate how relevant search results are based

on social distance and expertise.

• Special purpose ranking models. – Special purpose ranking model to calculate the

ranking score for recommendations such as popularity, recommender based upon related items

How do items rank?

ContentThese are the words contained in the items. For items that are text based, such as documents, this is typically most of the text. For other types of items, such as videos, there is little or no content.

MetadataThe metadata associated with items such as title, author, URL and creation date. Metadata is automatically extracted from most types of items.

Web graph dataThis is information such as authority (from authoritative pages settings) and anchor text (from the hyperlinks associated with the item, and items linking to the item).

File typeSome file types can be considered more important for ranking than others. For example, Word and PowerPoint results are typically more important than Excel results.

Interaction Information about the number of times a search result is clicked, and which queries led to a result being clicked.

Advanced Search Principals

Advanced Search Principals

• Pay attention to site structure & navigation• Understand the content being published• Understand how people find information• Content types and Meta data

– Global content types – Leverage Managed Metadata & Term sets

• Search schema– Crawled Properties– Managed properties– Query Rules

Manageable Search Results

META DATA

Plan Content Types

• Base set of required columns– Department– Document Type

• Use Managed Metadata Term sets• Configured on all document libraries• Create custom library templates

Search Schema

• Crawled Properties– The contents and metadata of the items that you

crawl – Author, File Type

• Managed Properties– Map crawled properties to managed properties– Default properties– Custom Properties

Query Rules

• Best bets & keywords (2010)• Result blocks• Changing the query

– Ranking changes based upon:• Keyword match• URL matching• Content Types• Tags• File types

• Custom ranking models

Why care?

Search Focused Sites

Search Focused Sites

• Heavy use of meta data and tagging• Dynamic presentation of information• Focused on the end user experience

Search driven content

Popular or Recent Items

Dynamic Mashups

Custom branding

Custom branding

Document management

Offices directory

O365 & Delve

O365 & Delve

Search Topologies

Structuring for Effective Search

• Search Service Application Topology

Small Farm Search Optimized Farm

Detroit1500 Woodward AveSuite 400Detroit, MI 48226(248) 546-1800

Grand Rapids15 Ionia Ave SWSuite 270Grand Rapids, MI 49503(616) 776-1600

Thank You

www.cdh.com