SharePoint search takes into account keywords in titles, URLS and hyperlinks. In each case the keywords need to be separated by spaces/underscores.

It also favours:

  • HTML over documents, PPT over Word, and Word over Excel
  • high-level pages
  • shorter content pages/documents

These can be changed but it is generally not advised (imagine the manual equivalent of a plumber sucking air through his teeth).

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One thought on “SharePoint search: some ranking factors

  1. Hi Karen. Thank you for this, is very useful. I suspect I’m in the same sitation as you regarding SharePoint and the use there-of in a business situation. The IA challenges seem signification – don’t get me started in the info-design/web design aspects of the thing!

    Can you elaborate on the “high-level pages”? How is that defined by SharePoint?

    regards

    Greg Comfort
    Christchurch, New Zealand

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