One of SharePoint’s most valuable functions is its Search Capability. Not only does it leverage the content that it crawls within your organization’s database, but it is also able to track the frequency each keyword is used in the Search box.
As an administrator of your SharePoint environment, you are also able to create keyword “Best Bets” and manually point the results of these keywords to a document, site, and link of your own creation. This will enable you to manage the traffic of your Search function and have the results displayed prominently in the results. A good example of using Best Bets is to point all your employees to a specific employee benefit i.e. “vacation.” Each time a user enters “vacation” in the Search field, the first result will always be to the official HR Benefit page.
Here are the steps in adding a keyword term with Best Bets:
1. From the drop down menu of ‘Site Actions’, select ‘Site Settings’
2. Scroll down to Site Collection Administration. Please ensure that this heading is available to you. If this is not visible, please confirm your login credentials with your SharePoint administrator.
3. Select “Search Keywords”
4. Enter the Keyword Phrase: This is what search queries will return as a keyword result. Please note, you can only have one (1) unique Keyword Phrase for your Best Bets.
Enter any additional synonyms for this Keyword phrase. Synonyms are words that users might type when searching for the keyword. Additional words can be added by using semicolons between words.
5. Once the Keyword Phrase and the Synonym fields are completed, select ‘Add Best Bet.’
6. You can add the complete URL address into the textbox of the search results that you want Best Bets to provide given the Keyword Phrase and Synonyms. It is also mandatory to include a title for this Search Result.
7. Select ‘OK’ once completed. (You can add multiple Best Bet pages as you require)
8. You have the option of adding a ‘Contact Person’ to this Search Result to ensure that the page is regularly updated, if required. You can also edit the ‘Start Date’ of when you want the Search Query to be available to the user and the End Date.
Review Date is a date when you have selected to preview and review the content of the Best Bet and ensure that all information listed is current.
9. After you are done, select ‘OK’.
– After you have completed the process, your Keyword entry should appear in the main page of ‘Manage Keywords’
– As your user searches for items using your keywords, Best Bets will be displayed first and highlighted with a star.
I’m a Project Manager with Navantis but I also freelance as a web designer and content developer with over 10 years of experience. I’m an avid gamer with a love for creativity and innovation. I enjoy blogging about new technology, business process design, Project Management, Corporate Social Responsibilities, and other various things related to IT.
(647) 258-9031
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