Chapter 10

Managing Search Keywords for Site Collection Administrators

SharePoint search can be a powerful aid to users in discovering and working with information. One problem with it, though, is that it can return a lot of results, leaving the user to find a needle in a haystack. SharePoint provides several features to help site collection administrators reduce the number of results and help users find the information they need. Keywords and Best Bets can help. Many different terms can be used for the same search, for example annual leave, holiday, and time off. Keywords and Best Bets enable you to associate several terms with a standard term producing relevant results. This process can also be used for more technical terms, again helping users to find relevant information.

Keywords and Best Bets are fairly easy to configure in SharePoint; the hard part is coming up with the right terms to use. For example, how many different terms can be used instead of financial report? Workbook, spreadsheet, cost analyst, and project budget are all terms someone might use when searching for company financial information. Fortunately SharePoint 2010 can help by suggesting Keywords based on your users' search habits. This feature is available as part of the Web Analytics Reports feature, and you can access it from the Manage Keywords page. Monitoring the feature will help you understand what your users are searching for and assist you in building a solid search strategy. Keywords and Best Bets can also help you surface information you want users to find, such as company policy documents or training materials. In using them you are not restricted to content within your SharePoint sites; you can create a Keyword and Best Bet that will display information from the Internet.

Try It

In this example you are going to add Keywords and Best Bets to help users discover financial information contained in a document library named Annual Reports. This folder contains a budget Excel Workbook and several finance-related Word documents.

Lesson Requirements

To complete this Try It exercise you need the following files, placed in a document library called Annual Reports:

• Annual Costs.docx
• Annual Report.docx
• Budget Policy.docx
• Useful Stats.xlsx

Before doing the exercise, once you have created the documents, try searching for them on your site. This will give you a before-and-after feeling for the use of Keywords and Best Bets. In the initial search you should get multiple results with a link to each individual document. Once you have enabled Keywords and Best Bets you should find that access to the full set of financial documents is a single click away as a direct link to their location will be returned.

Step-by-Step

Using Keywords and Best Bets you are going to provide a high-confidence link to the shared document folder to give users instant direct access to all financial documents. To continue, follow these steps:

This will open the Manage Keywords screen, shown in Figure 10.1.

Figure 10.1

This screen also provides access to the following:

• All existing Keywords.
• All expired Keywords.
• Keywords requiring review.
• Best Bet usage.
• Best Bet suggestions.

Some or all of these may not be present if this is the first time you have added Keywords or Best Bets. To add Keywords, do the following:

1. Click the Add Keyword link to open the Add Keyword form, which contains several settings that you must complete.

2. Enter a Keyword phrase: this is the term the search will match, returning an associated Keyword result to the user. For this example enter Financial Information.

3. Enter synonyms: these are terms the user may enter when searching for the information, separated by semicolons. In this case enter Project;Costs;Budget;Finance.

4. Scroll down the screen and click the Add Best Bets link. This is where you will add a link to the shared documents library containing the finance information, which you want the users to discover when searching. You can copy this link from the web browser for the shared documents library you wish to navigate to.

5. Enter a title for the Best Bet, such as Financial Information.

6. Enter a description, such as Company Financial Information for Staff.

7. Click OK to save the information and complete the additional information in the form.

8. Enter a Keyword definition: this is text presented to your user within the search results page. Enter Company Financial Information.

9. Enter yourself as the contact for this search. You can also enter a date to start and stop publishing or using this Keyword and Best Bet and/or enter a review date for the information. The review date provides a way for administrators to check Best Bets ensuring that they remain accurate and current. For now, accept the defaults. Figure 10.2 shows the Edit Keyword Screen at this point.

Figure 10.2

10. Click OK to save the configuration and continue.

Figure 10.3 shows the search results once the Keyword and Best Bets are added. The Best Bet link is highlighted with a star icon and clicking the hyperlink will take you directly to the Annual Reports document library. Try searching using any of the Keywords you entered (project, costs, budget, and finance) to be sure that the Best Bet link is always shown in response.

Figure 10.3

Your Best Bet and Keyword can also contain a link to an external website to provide the user with additional reference materials, such as (in this case) financial or technical references. To set this up, simply replace the Best Bet URL with the external URL or add an additional Best Bet URL to the external site by repeating the steps above.

Please select Lesson 10 on the DVD or visit www.wrox.com/go/sp2010-24 to view the video that accompanies this lesson.