Introduction
The nature of the problem
Importance of effective search
Screenshots in this report
What is not in this report
No vendors or products
No implementation details
Intranets, not websites
Intranets, not enterprise search
Not search engine optimisation
Key recommendations
Making it happen
Principles of effective search
Search should work like magic
Ensure relevance
Provide strong 'information scent'
Build trust and confidence
Understand search needs and behaviour
Do work on behalf of users
It's not a training problem
Selecting a new search tool
Evaluating the current search engine
Selecting a new search engine
Useful resources
Nine steps to improved intranet search
Summary of steps
Step 1: Search engine familiarisation
Reviewing product manuals
Limits of self-taught knowledge
Step 2: Understanding staff needs
Staff interviews
Workplace observation
Usability testing
Surveys
Usage statistics
Planning the research
Search personas
Creating personas
Two personas
Patrick Hunt (general search user)
Lisa Turnbull (specialist search user)
Step 3: Refining the search interface
Search for general users
Search for specialist users
‘Advanced’ search
Search interface options
Step 4: Refining the search results
General principles
Search results for general users
Search results for specialist users
Dividing the search results page
Options for the search results page
Options for each search hit
Improving search aesthetics
Step 5: Search engine tuning
Search engine weightings
Ensuring all pages are indexed
Searching documents
Default to ‘and’
Spell checking
‘Sounds like’ and fuzzy matching
Stemming
Metadata
Step 6: Search engine usage reports
Value of search engine reports
Most popular searches report
Failed searches report
Further reports
Implementing the reports
Making use of the reports
Step 7: Key search enhancements
Search engine synonyms
‘Best bets’
Other enhancements
Step 8: Usability testing
About usability testing
What to test
Sample tasks
When to test
Who to test
Using the results
Step 9: Allocating ongoing resources
Ownership of search
Ongoing activities
Advanced search approaches
Enterprise search
Federated search
Faceted search
Taxonomies and search
Search as browse
Multilingual search
Search as knowledge management
Other Step Two Designs products
Intranet Roadmap
Content Management Requirements Toolkit
Staff Directories report
Intranet Review Toolkit