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Friday, March 20, 2015

How to use Best Bets SharePoint 2010 Search

In this blog, I will set up a Best Bet and keyword in SharePoint 2010. Best Bets are a great way for Site Collection Administrators to help guide users to the content they are looking for as well as promoting some content to users on an as-needed basis.
In this blog I have created an out-of-the-box Site Collection using a Team Site as the top level site template. I have created a sub-site and used the Basic Search Center as the template and named it Search.

Here are the steps I'll do:
1. Hook up the Search Center
2. Test a search. (I'll use the term "Black Flag").
3. Configure a Keyword and best bet.
4. Test the results.
(Note this will not work with SharePoint Foundation out-of-the-box, you must have Standard or Enterprise. Also, I don't have Fast Search setup in this environment, if I did, I would use Fast Search Keyword and Best Bet, the idea is the same but the UI is a little different).
A Quick Environment Overview

A-Quick-environment-overview.png
I'm on the top level site where I can observe a top link navigation bar to my Search Center.
Hook up the Search Center


Hook-up-the-search-center.png
In order to use the keywords and best bets on a team site, I need to hook up the settings on the site collection. The best bets and keyword is a web part and as a result, it needs a page with the web part on it to show. The Basic Search Center results page is a web part page with this web part already on it so it's a great choice. In order to hook it all up I go to Site Actions > Site Settings from the top level site of the site collection.


Search Settings
Search-settings.png
In the Site Collection Administration links section of the Site Settings page I click on Search Settings.


Enable Custom Scopes
Enable-custom-scopes.png
I want to click the radio button to enable custom scopes and provide the http address to my Search Center. I also change the Site Collection Search Dropdown mode in order to show Scopes while I'm here. I leave the rest as is and click OK.


Go to Search Center
Go-to-search-center.png
Now I'll go to the search center by clicking the Search link in the top link navigation bar.


Test the Term
Test-the-term.png
I'll enter Black Flag as the term I'm going to test. In the case of my SharePoint deployment I get some results.


Observe the Results
Observe-the-results.png
I notice that there are a couple of results, but I want to have a result at the top which will point to Interface Technical Training so I'll set that up using a Keyword and Best Bet.


Back to Top Level Site Actions – Site Settings
Back-to-top-level-site-site-actions-site-settings.png
I return to the home page of the top level site (not shown) and click Site Actions> Site Settings


Set up Keywords
Set-up-keywords.png
I click on the link Search Keywords in the Site Collection Administration section of the Site Settings page.


Add Keyword
Add-keyword.png
I click the Add Keyword link on the Manage Keywords page.


Add Keyword and Synonyms Click Add Best Bet
Add-keyword-and-synonyms-click-add-best-bet.png
I type in the term I'm targeting (Black Flag). In the Synonyms, I add some terms that I would also like to target because it's possible people will type these in as well. I then click the link to Add Best Bet.


Fill out Best Bet Form
Fill-out-bet-bet-form.png
Next, I fill out the Best Bet form adding a link to Interface Technical Training as well as a Title (or tag line) and a Description, and click OK.


Add Other Information as needed. Then click OK
Add-other-information-as-needed-then-click-OK.png
I'm going to leave the rest of the settings at their default and click OK.


Go to Search Center to test
Go-to-search-center-to-test.png
When I'm done, I can see the new Keyword and Best Bet added and I click on the Search link in the top link navigation bar to return to my Search center for testing.


Enter Keyword and Search
Enter-keyword-and-search.png
Once again I enter Black Flag and hit the search icon.


Validate Results
Validate-results.png
Voilà, my Keyword and Best Bbet are at the top of the Search Results. There is no waiting for any timer jobs, the effect is immediate!


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