5 questions every admin should ask their users to improve sharepoint search
DESCRIPTION
It is one thing to know how to make complex SharePoint configurations, but you first need to know what users want. During this webinar, Josh reveals 5 simple answers your users should provide that can result in drastic improvements to your SharePoint search experience. Find out what your people are unable to find, the search refiners that are actually beneficial, and the fields to place on an advanced search page.TRANSCRIPT
5 Questions Every Admin Should Ask Their Users to Improve SharePoint Search
Josh NobleAuthor: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search
[email protected]@SurfRay www.surfray.com
5 Questions Every Admin Should Ask Their Users to Improve SharePoint SearchAgenda• Review of SharePoint Search Maturity• Question 1 – Diagnosing Crawler Issues• Question 2 – Providing Useful Search Refiners• Question 3 – Fixing the Site Structure• Question 4 – Creating Useful Synonyms• Question 5 – Making a Useful Advanced Search Page• Q&A
www.surfray.com
SharePoint Search Maturity
100Out of box functionality for query, results, and scopes; some additional content sources may be indexed.
200 Custom scopes and iFilters employed to aid the search experience
300Search results are analyzed. Best bets and metadata properties are leveraged to aid the search experience.
400Content types and custom properties are leveraged in Advanced Search. Results customized to specific needs, may be actionable.
500Users understand relationship of tagging to search results. Automated tagging may be used. High volumes can be handled.
http://surfray.com/resources/webcasts/496-sharepoint-maturity.html
Question 1 – Crawler Issues
Q: What content do you commonly look for that you can’t quickly find through search? Are there similarities? Are they located in similar places, similar document types, or owned by certain departments?
www.surfray.com
Answers May Reveal:• Content Sources are not set up to be crawled• iFilters are not installed and working properly• Permissions may not be set correctly• Metadata may not be mapped correctly
Question 2 – Search Refiners
Q: On bestbuy.com, searching for “tv” will provide many refinement options on left column of the page. You can narrow the large list of TVs by Brand, Price Range, Size, Features, etc. What if you could do the same thing on your SharePoint search center? What categories would you want to refine on?
www.surfray.com
Answers May Reveal:• Metadata that you should start to collect• Metadata that is not applied to enough content• Search refiners that you should create• If certain search refiners are useful only to specific department
s
Question 2 – Search Refiners
www.surfray.comCustom Refiners
Custom Quick Filters
Question 3 – Site Structure
Q: If you were to split your documents into categories and couldn’t use search terms to find items, what categories would you want? For example, would you split documents into practice types, industries, or geographic regions? Be creative and list any categories that could be generally descriptive to include most of your content.
www.surfray.com
Answers May Reveal:• How to build taxonomy and split document libraries• Metadata to collect• Search Refiners, fields on the Advanced Search Page, sorting
options, & groupings (Ontolica Specific) to create.
Question 3 – Site Structure
www.surfray.comLibrary Structure
Custom Metadata
Question 4 – Synonyms & Best Bets
Q: Are there words you commonly misspell when searching for content? Are there multiple words or acronyms you search for that have the same meaning? Be honest.
www.surfray.com
Answers May Reveal:• Best Bets to create• Synonyms to establish• Problems with document naming conventions
Question 4 – Synonyms & Best Bets
www.surfray.com
Normal Best Bet
Visual Best Bet
Question 5 – Advanced Search
Q: Are there times you find yourself forced to use the advanced search page? What are you are forced to go to the advanced search page to find?
www.surfray.com
Answers May Reveal:• Fields to improve on the Advanced Search Page• Advanced search fields to include on the “basic” search page• Scopes to offer to various audiences• Useful Search Refiners• Beneficial Quick Filters (Ontolica Specific)• Useful changes to relevancy ranking models
Question 5 – Advanced Search
Custom Scopes
Custom Quick Filters
Q/A & Contact Details
www.surfray.com
Josh NobleAuthor: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search
[email protected]@SurfRay
Robert PiddockeAuthor: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search
Working with Microsoft FAST Search Server for SharePoint
[email protected]@rpiddocke
Additional Resources
www.surfray.com
Our SharePoint Search Video Webinars:http://surfray.com/resources/webcasts.html
Mikael Svenson – Tech and Mehttp://techmikael.blogspot.com/
Michal Pisarek – SharePoint Analyst HQhttp://www.sharepointanalysthq.com/
ProSharePointSearch.comhttp://www.prosharepointsearch.com/