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.

1. 5 Questions Every Admin Should Ask Their Users to Improve SharePoint Search Josh Noble Author: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search jno@surfray.com joshnoble @SurfRay www.surfray.com

2. 5 Questions Every Admin Should Ask Their Users to Improve SharePoint Search Agenda 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

3. SharePoint Search Maturity 500 Users understand relationship of tagging to search results. Automated tagging may be used. High volumes can be handled. 400 Content types and custom properties are leveraged in Advanced Search. Results customized to specific needs, may be actionable. 300 Search results are analyzed. Best bets and metadata properties are leveraged to aid the search experience. 200 Custom scopes and iFilters employed to aid the search experience 100 Out of box functionality for query, results, and scopes; some additional content sources may be indexed. http://surfray.com/resources/webcasts/496-sharepoint-maturity.html

4. 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? 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 www.surfray.com

5. 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? 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 departments www.surfray.com

6. Question 2 – Search Refiners Custom Quick Filters www.surfray.com Custom Refiners

7. 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. 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. www.surfray.com

8. Question 3 – Site Structure Custom Metadata www.surfray.com Library Structure

9. 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. Answers May Reveal: Best Bets to create Synonyms to establish Problems with document naming conventions www.surfray.com

10. Question 4 – Synonyms & Best Bets Visual Best Bet Normal Best Bet www.surfray.com

11. 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? 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 www.surfray.com

12. Question 5 – Advanced Search Custom Quick Filters Custom Scopes

13. Q/A & Contact Details Josh Noble Author: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search jno@surfray.com joshnoble @SurfRay Robert Piddocke Author: Pro SharePoint 2010 Search Working with Microsoft FAST Search Server for SharePoint rcp@surfray.com robertpiddocke @rpiddocke www.surfray.com

14. Additional Resources Our SharePoint Search Video Webinars: http://surfray.com/resources/webcasts.html Mikael Svenson – Tech and Me http://techmikael.blogspot.com/ Michal Pisarek – SharePoint Analyst HQ http://www.sharepointanalysthq.com/ ProSharePointSearch.com http://www.prosharepointsearch.com/ www.surfray.com