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7+ tips for better search
Presented at Congres Intranet, 17 March 2015, Utrecht, The Netherlands
@kristiannorling
by Kristian Norling from
“Enterprise data simply isn’t like web or consumer data – it’s characterised by rarity and unconnectedness rather than popularity and context.”
Charlie Hull, Flax Blog
Source: Julie Hunt
Enterprise Search: Un-Cool and Mission Critical
Level of satisfaction with Enterprise Search?
18.5% Mostly/Very Satisfied
Source: Enterprise Search and Findability Survey 2013
What are the obstacles to finding the right information?
63 % Poor search functionality 52 % Don't know where to look 51 % Inconsistency in tagging content 50 % Lack of adequate tags 33 % Don’t know what to look for
0. Commitment
Search is NOT a project!
It is a (lifelong) commitment
1. Strategy
A. Vision B. Principles C. Goals D. Governance E. 1-3-5 year plan
Search strategy Executive summary
Search strategy This is an executive summary of _______________ strategy for enterprise search. Here are the main points presented, in order easily orient stakeholders about the strategy and be able to take a decision on its establishment.
Vision and mission statement
Our vision for search is "to deliver the right information when it is needed." It means that users are not only using search to find, but that the search service also uses activity streams and notifications if anything of importance for the user arises. The information must be made more interconnected (intelligent). The primary purpose for the search service is to avoid the risk of someone acting on outdated knowledge. Secondary purpose is to provide as complete information base as possible in order not to unnecessarily create information that already exists somewhere within the organisation. We must strive to make the search service known and well used to realize these goals.
Usage Requirements and Usability
We will focus on the user experience and work user oriented. This is because the search function is there to help with finding information and knowledge even when it is not obvious for the user where to find information, or that it evens exists.
Two basic complications to adapt to is that users have varying digital maturity, as well as varying expertise in the information they are seeking. Therefore, the search service should accommodate to both the novice and the expert way of expressing themselves, but should also support the use pattern that distinguishes the nontechnical from the digital natives. The search service must live up to the high standards for accessibility and usability, both from a desktop computer and mobile.
Governance, Management and Organization
The search function should be continuously improved. This by listening to user feedback and demands and by using search analytics. In addition, the governance organization has annual prioritization of activities to be carried out the forthcoming year, and to follow up on the efforts made previous year.
The organization intends to gradually move towards a more generic information architecture, which for obvious reasons affecting those managing information sources. In addition to this, it is important to provide opportunities for personalized search results, where appropriate, even for classified material.
2. Organisation
How many contributes information to your intranet?
How many works with search? Who is responsible for search?
Chalmers Technical University: Part time (25%) makes a BIG
difference
3. Communication (stakeholder management)
A. Sneakernet B. Meet people C. Observe usage D. Talk about search
4. Information (a.k.a. content)
Information lifecycle management
Having a good information hygiene is very important ...
Crap in = Crap out
Watch out for the information ROT
Redundant Outdated
Trivial
Delete Archive
Keep
Delete, Archive or keep?
SCA: Information Quality
5. Metadata
E&Y: SEO
Search engine optimization
This quick reference guide outlines the method for optimizing content for the search engine to help Ernst & Young practitioners get more accurate search results.
March 2012
A quick reference guide for Ernst & Young professionals
Search engine optimization (SEO) is a way to help you and other Ernst & Young practitioners quickly and easily find the content you need using search.
Imagine that you are submitting a successful proposal document that Ernst & Young presented to an automotive client for internal audit work, which you consider to be a good example. Put yourself into the shoes of the person who will be searching for an internal audit proposal for automotive. Which of the following documents is most likely to come back in a search for “internal audit proposal automotive”?
A. Title: 2012 Internal Audit Proposal Automotive Sweden Summary/Abstract: This internal audit proposal was presented to a Swedish automotive client, and includes information
on our global capabilities, credentials related to the automotive services industry, Ernst & Young's differentiators, the methodology, and the overview of knowledge and training.
B. Title: Proposal to serve Company A Summary/Abstract: Internal audit proposal
C. Title: 120903 2004 Internal Audit Plan Summary/Abstract: This was used to win work at Company A.
D. Title: Proposal Summary/Abstract: Examples can be found in the CKR --> LINK.
1. Optimize core content This relates to the main content fields in all of our content repositories, namely the title/headline, abstract/summary and body/attachment, which are the three most important items in terms of search performance.
► First, identify a list of keywords describing the key content of the document that has to be added to the knowledge system, and rank these keywords. If you save documents in the knowledge system on behalf of a stakeholder, please ask the stakeholder to provide this information. The main goal of this step is to identify a list of search terms that should return this document as a result.
► Second, create an appropriate title. The title should be descriptive and contain the most important keyword(s) from the list of keywords created in the previous step. Example: Your defined keywords are: proposal, CCaSS, Americas, technology, advisory. Possible good title: Americas Advisory proposal regarding CCaSS in technology January 2012.
► Next, write an abstract (summary). If you work with a stakeholder, ask this person to create the abstract. The abstract should summarize the content of the document. Include the most important keywords you determined earlier. Note: If you have a good abstract that matches the document content, it is likely to show up in the search results. A good abstract will also influence the relevance of a document, determining how high in the result list it appears.
Example of the title, abstract and attachment/body fields in a CKR
Note: You should make sure to use spaces to separate words in the file attachment title, rather than leaving out the spaces or using hyphens or underscores. The attachment should be called “2011 Company Proposal” NOT “2011CompanyProposal” or “2011_Company_Proposal” or “2011-Company-Proposal.” If you don't use spaces, the search engine sees it all as one word, and it will not help influence the relevance.
Answer: Option A would be the most likely to come back in a search for “internal audit proposal automotive.”
The document properties are a powerful tool for helping to increase the relevance of a particular document. Many templates within Ernst & Young are frequently reused, but often the document properties are never updated.
Open document properties in any Microsoft document: ► Select the Office button in the upper left corner. ► Go to Prepare in the left column. ► Click Properties in the right section.
There are three fields you need to complete/check: ► Author: This field should contain the name of the person who authored the document. ► Title: Enter the title of the document. ► Keywords: Enter any keywords that a user might use to search for this document. Insert the keywords you have created earlier
in step 1 to optimize the core content. Examples might include the type of document (proposal, risk matrix, training), the engagement or project name, or any other keyword that someone might search.
You may complete the other fields, but rules for these fields have not yet been defined.
3. Verify, define and change document properties of your attachment Check the document properties and metadata, if possible. This is especially important for all
Microsoft Office files and PDFs: ► Ensure that the author’s name matches the source of the material. ► Correct the title field, if needed, based on the keyword list from step 1. ► Add each of the desired keywords and phrases to the keywords field. ► Save the document as a single attachment. Don’t combine multiple attachments in a
single zip file. ► For PDFs, if the information is incorrect, have the person who created the PDF recreate it
with correctly edited properties.
Don’t use titles such as “Proposal PowerPoint” or abstracts containing no relevant information about the document.
Do use titles such as “Americas CCaSS Proposals … fees sanitized.pptx” accompanied with a descriptive abstract stating the context of the document. Ideally, the most important keyword(s) from the keyword list should be mentioned in the attachment title.
Note: Always consider if you download the file to your desktop and come across it a month later, would you immediately know what it is about?
Attachments play a surprisingly strong role in improving the search results because the search engine goes through the attachments to pull up the most relevant results. Make sure the attachment title is descriptive and catches/summarizes the subject matter.
2. Optimize the attachment
Note: You should clear out any values in the Notes section of a PowerPoint presentation that may not be relevant, such as content that might have been relevant to the original version of the presentation but is no longer valid in the current version, or instructions or boilerplate text.
Page 2 © 2012 Ernst & Young. All Rights Reserved.
5. Metadata: Dates
Type your text here – Helvetica Neue 40pt
Type your text here – Helvetica Neue 40pt
Based on the date, you should…
Delete Archive
Keep
Delete, Archive or keep?
6. UX
Nordea: Feedback form
City of Gothenburg: User interface
Type your text here – Helvetica Neue 40pt
Region Västra Götaland: User interface
7. Analytics
0-results 200 most use search terms
Region Västra Götaland: Statistics
All this + time and persistence
Thank you!
Questions?
Links/references
“Big Data lives – enterprise search is dead!” Really?
Source: IntranetFocus
Source: IntranetFocus
Date - The silver bullet of Enterprise Search
“Enterprise search is the practice of making content from multiple enterprise-type sources, such as databases and intranets, searchable to a defined audience.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_search
SEO@jcolman: How to Build SEO into Content
Strategy
Building the business case
CIO.com: How to Evaluate Enterprise SearchFindability Blog: Building a Business Case for
Enterprise Search
Information Architecture and taxonomies
Early & Associates: 10 Common Mistakes When Developing Taxonomies
Tagging
Presentation: Social Tagging, Folksonomies Controlled Vocabularies
Books
ENTERPRISE SEARCHby MARTIN WHITE
@intranetfocus
SEARCH ANALYTICS FOR YOUR SITEConversations with Your Customers
by LOUIS ROSENFELD @louisrosenfeld
