Tuning Search Results
After you have gathered all the content and made it available to your site collection, you can modify search settings so that it returns the most relevant results for your site users. You do this by configuring relevance settings, defining managed properties to use in search scopes, and configuring keywords. You can use the search usage statistics to view what searches are being executed and then modify all of these settings over time to improve results for your users.
Configuring relevance settings to prioritize content
After you have created search scopes to slice the content sources into manageable pieces for the user, you can further improve the search experience by prioritizing the relevance, and therefore the order in which the content is returned, of results. Relevance settings work in concert with the other factors that determine the results order such as keywords, managed properties, and search engine weighting factors.
You can define sites and pages as either authoritative or non-authoritative and search will use these definitions to rank the results. SharePoint provides three levels of authoritative pages so that you can rank first, second, and third level authoritative pages or sites as well as define sites that are not authoritative. The resulting ranking options are as follows:
Most authoritative: The highest level of relevance is given automatically to the top-level Web applications. You can also choose to highlight key business data and process sites and pages as most authoritative so that they are a priority in search results.
Second-level authoritative: Sites and pages listed as second-level authoritative are returned after most authoritative sites and pages.
Third-level authoritative: You can use the third-level authoritative level to define sites and pages that are relevant but less valuable or reliable than most authoritative or second-level authoritative sites and pages.
Non-authoritative sites: These sites have the same weighting as third-level authoritative sites but are returned after the authoritative sites. This level can be used for sites that are possible resources but do not offer any guarantees because you do not control the contents.
Manage relevance only for the sites that you (or your users) feel strongly about. This is not a process that needs to be completed for all sites within and external to your organization, because that would be a true administrative feat. Instead, stick to setting and adjusting the relevance for sites based on organization priorities (such as key executive or initiative sites) and user feedback.
To add defined authoritative sites and pages and non-authoritative sites, follow these steps:
1. | Navigate to the administration page for your Shared Service Provider and select Search settings from the Search section. |
2. | Select Specify authoritative pages in the Authoritative Pages second. |
3. | Enter the URL to your authoritative sites and pages in the most authoritative pages, second-level authoritative pages or third-level authoritative pages box, one per line. |
4. | Enter any non-authoritative sites in the Sites to demo box, one per line. The non-authoritative sites box will devalue anything starting with the URLs that are listed. |
5. | Select whether you want to refresh the ranking now by selecting the Refresh Now box. |
6. | Click OK. |
Using managed properties
Managed properties are gathered during the indexing process and selected by the SSP administrator(s) to be used to customize and hone a search. Managed properties are part of the formula that determines the relevance ranking of search results and can also be used to configure search scopes.
By defining managed properties, you can make sure that the metadata that is important to your organization and content is consistent and used to order search results. The SSP administrator maps managed properties to crawled properties. MOSS creates many or most of the useful managed property mappings when it is installed, including:
Author
Department
Division
Location
Status
Title (not job title)
You should add managed properties for key pieces of metadata that the crawler returns and that are important to your organization. Keep in mind that these properties can be used both for search scopes and relevancy ranking. If you want a division-level portal to be able to create search scopes based on the division, you must have division as an SSP managed property. SSP managed properties are not available as search criteria unless specified in their managed property settings.
Note
You can map one or more crawled properties to one managed property to eliminate duplication of properties. For example, you may want to map each appearance of the author in the crawled properties to the author managed properties.
To create a new managed property, follow these steps:
1. | Navigate to the administration page for your Shared Service Provider and select Search settings from the Search section. |
2. | Select Metadata property mappings. |
3. | Select New Managed Property from the top navigation bar. |
4. | Type the name you want to use in the Property name field. This should be a clear and identifiable name such as “author.” |
5. | Select the type of property, for example, text, integer, decimal. |
6. | Enter the crawled property that you want to match to the managed property. If you want to map multiple crawled properties to the managed property, add the multiple crawl property values and order them in descending order, of which the top value is the most authoritative value, as shown in Figure 7.7. If a document has multiple crawled property values, the managed property returns the crawled property at the top of the list. |
7. | Select whether you want the managed property to be used in search scopes. |
8. | Click OK. |
Implementing keywords
Keywords are another tool to ensure that high-priority content is returned for any search executed that includes the keyword or any of its synonyms. Keywords are implemented at the site collection level where the administrator associates the keyword with synonyms, a keyword definition, and best bet URLs. Keywords can return any item that is URL-addressable but most often are associated with documents, sites, and people.
Keywords should be chosen to highlight the key items for the site collection. For example, if you have a site collection for your human resources department, you should provide keywords for the most requested documents and sites. Table 7.1 shows some keyword examples for human resource content.
| Keyword phrase | Synonyms | Definition | Best Bet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expense Reports | Expense policy Submitting expenses Reimbursable expenses Expenses | Form to fill out to submit company reimbursable expenses | Link to expense form Link to document explaining company policy |
| 401K | Retirement account Employee benefits 401K Enrollment IRA Tax deferred savings | Program for individual retirement savings accounts | Link to enrollment form
Link to business data showing year-to-date savings Link to 401K FAQ site Link to 401K provider site Link to employee benefits site Link to employee in charge of 401K program |
| Vacation Request | Time off
Vacation form Vacation calendar | Form for submitting vacation request | Link to vacation request form |
Keywords should point to best bets that are fairly static so that they return accurate and available results. For each keyword, identify the contact and start, review, and expiration dates to ensure that the appropriate person is maintaining the keyword. These keyword attributes are configured when you create keywords, as detailed in the following steps:
1. | Go to the top-level site of the site collection for which you want to add the scope and select Site Settings from the Site Actions menu in the top-right corner. |
2. | Select Search keywords from the Site Collection Administration menu. |
3. | Select Add Keyword from the top navigation bar. |
4. | Type the keyword phrase (one or more words) and synonyms in the Keyword Information section. |
5. | Click Add Best Bet to create links to the best bet content. You will be prompted to enter the URL, Title, and Description for the best bet. |
6. | Type the definition for the keyword in the Keyword Definition section. |
7. | Type the contact for the keyword. |
8. | |
9. | Click OK. |
