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Create query rules for web content management in SharePoint Server

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Without using any custom code, Search service application administrators, site collection administrators, and site owners can help searches respond to the intent of users by creating query rules. In a query rule, you specify conditions and correlated actions. When a query meets the conditions in a query rule, the search system performs the actions specified in the rule to improve the relevance of the search results, such as by narrowing results or changing the order in which results are displayed. For example, a query rule condition could be that a term in a query matches a particular term in a SharePoint Server term set, or that a query is frequently performed on a particular result source in a search system, such as videos. When the query rule condition is satisfied, a correlated action could be to show a specific item at the top of the search results. Say you have an intranet site where all company events are maintained in a library that you have shared as a catalog, and you want to promote a first-aid seminar. To do this, you create a query rule that boosts the first-aid seminar to the top of the search results when someone searches for "seminar" or "event."

You can configure query rules for one or more result sources, and you can specify the time period during which the query rule is active.

For more information about query rules, see Plan result sources and query rules in Plan search for cross-site publishing sites in SharePoint Server 2016.

Before you begin

Note

Because SharePoint Server runs as websites in Internet Information Services (IIS), administrators and users depend on the accessibility features that browsers provide. SharePoint Server supports the accessibility features of supported browsers. For more information, see the following resources: > Plan browser support> Accessibility guidelines in SharePoint> Accessibility in SharePoint> Keyboard shortcuts> Touch.

We recommend that you set up your site, integrate a catalog, and set up your category pages and catalog item pages before you begin to create query rules. This is because you can then more easily test and verify how the different query rules apply to the different Search Web Parts you have on your site.

Creating query rules at different levels in a SharePoint Server farm

You can create a query rule for a Search service application, a site collection, or a site. The following table shows the permissions that are required to create a query rule in each case, and where the query rule can be used.

Levels and permissions for query rules

When you create a query rule at this level You must have this permission The query rule can be used in
Search service application
Search service application administrator
All site collections in web applications that consume the Search service application
Site collection
Site collection administrator
All sites in the site collection
Site
Site owner
The site

To add or edit a query rule, you must go to the Manage query rules page. Depending on the level at which you are creating the query rule, use one of the following procedures to go to the Manage query rules page.

To go to the Manage query rules page for a Search service application

  1. Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is an administrator for the Search service application.

  2. In Central Administration, in the Application Management section, click Manage service applications.

  3. Click the Search service application to which you want to add query rules.

  4. On the Search Administration page for the Search service application, in the Quick Launch, in the Queries and Results section, click Query Rules.

To go to the Manage query rules page for a publishing site collection

  1. Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a site collection administrator for the publishing site collection.

  2. On the publishing site collection, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

  3. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click Search Query Rules.

To go to the Manage query rules page for a site

  1. Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a member of the Owners group for the site.

  2. On the Settings menu for the site, click Site Settings.

  3. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Administration section, click Query Rules.

Create a query rule

To create a query rule

  1. On the Manage Query Rules page, in the Select a Result Source menu, select a result source for the new query rule.

  2. Click New Query Rule.

  3. On the Add Query Rule page, in the General Information section, in the Rule name field, type the name for the query rule.

  4. Click to expand the Context section.

  5. In the Context section, select one of the following:

  • To apply the query rule to all result sources, select All sources.

  • To apply the query rule to one or more specific result sources, select One of these sources. By default, the result source that you specified in step 1 is selected. To add a result source for the query rule, do the following:

    Click Add Source. In the Add Source dialog, select a result source, and then click Save.

  1. To restrict the query rule to categories —for example, that a query rule should fire only when a term from your managed navigation term set is included in the query — click Show more conditions, and then specify the following:

  • To restrict the query rule to a category, click Add category. In the Import from Taxonomy dialog, select a term that when you include it in a query will cause the query rule to fire, and then click Save.

  • To restrict the query rule to a user segment, do the following:

  1. Click Add User Segment.

  2. In the Add User Segment dialog, in the Title field, type the title for this rule.

  3. In the Import from taxonomy dialog, select a term that represents a user segment that will cause the query rule to fire when it appears in a query.

  4. Click Save.

  5. In the Query Conditions section, select one of the conditions listed in the following table.

    Note

    When you create query rules for catalog pages that have Web Parts that use search technology (described in this article as Search Web Parts), and you want the query that is configured in the Web Parts to act as the query condition, click Remove Condition, and then go to step 8. You should also do this if you want a query rule to fire every time that a user types anything in a search box.

Query condition Description Configuration Example
Query Matches Keyword Exactly
Select this option if you want the query rule to fire when a query exactly matches a word or phrase that you specify.
In the Query exactly matches one of these phrases text box, type one or more phrases separated by semicolons.
You type "picture; pic" in the Query contains one of these phrases box. The query rule will fire when a user types "picture" or "pic" in a search box. The rule will not fire if a user types "pictures" or "sunny picture."
Query Contains Action Term
Select this option if you want the query rule to fire when a query contains a term that indicates something that the user wants to do. The term must be at the beginning or end of the query.
Specify the action term that will cause the query rule to fire by doing one of the following:
Select Action term is one of these phrases, and type one or more phrases.
Select Action term is an entry in this dictionary, and then click Import from taxonomy. In the Import from taxonomy dialog, select a term from a term set, and then click Save.
You type the word "download" in the Action term is one of these phrases text box. When a user types "download Contoso Electronics datasheet" in a search box, the user is probably not searching for a document that contains the words "download," "Contoso," "Electronics," and "datasheet." Instead, the user is probably trying to download a Contoso Electronics datasheet. When a user types "download Contoso Electronics datasheet" in a search box, the query rule fires, and only the words "Contoso," "Electronics," and "datasheet" are passed to the search index.
Query Matches Dictionary Exactly
Select this option if you want the query rule to fire when the query exactly matches a dictionary entry.
From the ** Query contains an entry in this dictionary ** menu, select a dictionary. To specify a different dictionary, click Import from taxonomy, and then from the Import from taxonomy dialog, select a term from a term set, and then click Save.
In an Internet business scenario, you have a term set named Brands that contains all brand names within your catalog. The query rule will fire when a user types a name that matches a term from the Brands term set.
Query More Common in Source
Select this option if you want the query rule to fire if the query was frequently issued by users on a different result source that you specify.
In the Query is more likely to be used in this source menu, select a result source.
In the Query is more likely to be used in this source menu, you select Local Video Results. The query rule will fire if a user types the word "training" in a search box and that word was frequently typed in a search box in the Videos vertical.
Result Type Commonly Clicked
Select this option if you want the query rule to fire if other users frequently clicked a particular result type after they typed the same query.
In the Commonly clicked results match result type menu, select a result type.
In an Internet business scenario, you have a catalog of electronic products. Each product has a PDF datasheet. So when users query for a specific product, the search results will return two result types: one that links to the page that has the product details, and one that links to the PDF datasheet. You can create a query rule that will fire if the system over time recognizes that users frequently click the search result for the PDF datasheet. When you know the type of content the user is looking for, you can specify an action for this query rule.
Advanced Query Text Match
Select this option if you want to use a regular expression, a phrase, or a dictionary entry that will cause the query rule to fire.
To match all phone numbers that are in a certain format, you specify a regular expression in the Query matches this regular expression box.
To match all phone numbers that are in the format nnn-nnn-nnnn, you specify the regular expression "(?(\d{3}))?-?(\d{3})-(\d{4})".

To add conditions, click Add Alternate Conditions.

Note

The rule will fire when any condition is true.

  1. In the Actions section, specify the action to take when the query rule fires. Specify one of the following:

  • To promote individual results so that they appear towards the top of search results, click Add Promoted Result (in SharePoint 2010 Products this was called Best Bets). In the Add Promoted Result dialog, in the Title field, type the name that you want to give this promoted result. In the URL field, type the URL of the result that should be promoted. Render the URL as a banner instead of as a hyperlink. Click Save.

    You can add several individual promoted results. When there is more than one promoted result, you can specify the relative ranking.

  • To promote a group of search results, click Add Result Block. For more information, see Create and display a result block later in this article.

  • To change ranked search results, click Change ranked results by changing the query. For more information, see Change ranked search results later in this article.

  1. To make the query rule active during a particular time period, click Publishing, and then specify the period.

Create and display a result block

A result block is several search results that are displayed as a group. In the same manner as you can promote a specific result, you can promote a result block when a specified query condition applies. For example, you can create a result block named Yellow items for all catalog items that have the color yellow. In an Internet business scenario where you have a catalog of electronic products and you want to promote yellow mp3 players, you can create a query rule that fires for all items that are tagged with the term mp3 players , where the action is to display the result block Yellow items .

Result blocks are automatically displayed in the Search Results Web Part. To display results from a result block in a Content Search Web Part, you have to configure it to display the result block.

When you configure the query condition for a result block, you can use query variables. Query variables are placeholders for values that you don't know when you specify the query. However, when the query is run, this information is known and can be used when the system sends the query to the index. Examples are {User.Name}, which represents the display name of the user who typed the query, or {searchBoxQuery}, which represents the query that a user typed in a search box. When you use Query Builder to configure the query, a list of query variables is shown. (See step 3 in the following procedure.)

To create a result block

  1. In step 8 of the previous procedure, on the Add Query Rule page, in the Actions section, click Add Result Block.

  2. In the Block Title section, in the Title field, type a name for the result block.

  3. In the Query section, to specify the query, click Launch Query Builder. In Query Builder, specify the following:

  • On the BASIC tab, select options from the following lists to define the query for the result block:
Query options Description
Select a query
Select a result source to specify which content should be searched.
Keyword filter
You can use keyword filters to add query variables to your query. See Query variables in SharePoint Server for a list of available query variables.
You can select pre-defined query variables from the drop-down list, and then add them to the query by clicking Add keyword filter.
Property filter
You can use property filters to query the content of managed properties that are set to queryable in the search schema.
You can select managed properties from the Property filter drop-down list. Click Add property filter to add the filter to the query.

  • On the SORTING tab, you can specify how search results within your result block should be sorted. In the Sort by drop-down list:

  • To sort by managed properties that are set as sortable in the search schema, select a managed property from the list, and then select Descending or Ascending. To add more sorting levels, click Add sort level.

    Note

    Sorting of search results is case sensitive.

  • To sort by relevance rank, select Rank, and then do the following:

  • In the Ranking Model list, select which ranking model to use for sorting search results (this selection is optional).

  • In the Dynamic ordering section, to specify additional ranking by adding rules that will change the order of search results when certain conditions apply, click Add dynamic ordering rule, and then specify conditional rules.

  • On the TEST tab, you can preview the query that is sent.

Value Description
Query text
Shows the final query that will be run by the Content Search Web Part. It is based on the original query template where dynamic variables are substituted with current values. Other changes to the query may have to be made as part of query rules.

Click Show more to display additional information.

Value Description
Query template
Shows the content of the query template that is applied to the query.
Query template variables
Shows the query variables that will be applied to the query, and the values of the variables that apply to the current page. You can type other values to test the effect they will have on the query. Click the Test Query button to preview the search results.

  1. In the Query section, in the Configure Query box, in the Search this Source drop-down list, select the result source to which this result block should be applied.

  2. In the Query section, in the Items drop-down list, select how many results to show in the result block.

  3. Click to expand the Settings section.

    The result block will only display the number of search results that you specified in the previous step. However, you can add a SHOW MORE link at the bottom of the result block that will show all search results for the result block. To add a SHOW MORE link, select "More" link goes to the following URL, and then type a URL. You can use query variables in this URL — for example, http://www.<site>/search/results.aspx?k={subjectTerms} .

  4. In the Routing section, in the field under Label for routing to a Content Search Web Part, type a label for routing the result block to a Content Search Web Part, or select an existing label. You will use this label in the following procedure.

  5. Click OK.

To configure a Content Search Web Part to display a result block

  1. Add a Content Search Web Part to a page as described in "Add a Content Search Web Part to a page" in Configure Search Web Parts in SharePoint Server.

  2. In the Web Part, click the Content Search Web Part Menu arrow, and then click Edit Web Part.

  3. In the Web Part tool pane, in the Properties section, expand the Settings section.

  4. In the Settings section, from the Result Table list, select the label of the result block that you want to display. The label is what you specified in step 7 in the previous procedure, To create a result block.

  5. To use the query results that are returned from another Web Part on the page as input when displaying the result block, from the Query results provided by list, select a Web Part.

Note

When displaying a result block in a Content Search Web Part, paging of search results is not supported through the Control Display Template.

Display promoted results in a Content Search Web Part

To display promoted results in a Content Search Web Part

  1. Add a Content Search Web Part to a page as described in "Add a Content Search Web Part to a page" in Configure Search Web Parts in SharePoint Server.

  2. In the Web Part, click the Content Search Web Part Menu arrow, and then click Edit Web Part.

  3. In the Web Part tool pane, in the Properties section, expand the Settings section.

  4. In the Settings section, in the Result Table list, select SpecialTermResults.

Change ranked search results

The ranking model calculates a ranking order of search results. You can change this ranking by promoting or demoting items within the search results. For example, for a query that contains "download toolbox," you can create a query rule that recognizes the word "download" as an action term, and change the ranked search results to promote a URL of a particular download site on your intranet. You can also change the sorting order of the search results dynamically, based on several variables such as file name extension or specific keywords. Changing ranked search results by changing the query has the advantage that the results are security trimmed and refinable. Moreover, the search results will not appear if the document is no longer available.

To change ranked search results by changing the query

  1. From step 8 of the procedure Create a query rule, on the Add Query Rule page, in the Actions section, click Change ranked results by changing the query.

  2. In the Build Your Query dialog, specify the following:

  • On the BASIC tab, select options from the following lists to change ranked search results:
Value Description
Select a query
Select a result source to specify which content should be searched.
Keyword filter
You can use keyword filters to add query variables to your query. See Query variables in SharePoint Server for a list of available query variables.
You can select pre-defined query variables from the drop-down list, and then add them to the query by clicking Add keyword filter.
Property filter
You can use property filters to query the content of managed properties that are set to queryable in the search schema.
You can select managed properties from the Property filter drop-down list. Click Add property filter to add the filter to the query.

  • On the SORTING tab, you can specify how search results should be sorted by doing the following:

  • In the Sort by drop-down list:

  • To sort by managed properties that are set as sortable in the search schema, select a managed property from the list, and then select Descending or Ascending. To add more sorting levels, click Add sort level.

    Note

    Sorting of search results is case sensitive.

  • To sort by relevance rank, select Rank, and then do the following:

  • In the Ranking Model list, select which ranking model to use for sorting search results (this selection is optional).

  • In the Dynamic ordering section, to specify additional ranking by adding rules that will change the order of search results when certain conditions apply, click Add dynamic ordering rule, and then specify conditional rules.

  • On the TEST tab, you can preview the query.

Value Description
Query text
Shows the final query that will be run by the Content Search Web Part. It is based on the original query template where dynamic variables are substituted with current values. Other changes to the query may have to be made as part of query rules.

Click Show more to display additional information.

Value Description
Query template
Shows the content of the query template that is applied to the query.
Query template variables
Shows the query variables that will be applied to the query, and the values of the variables that apply to the current page. You can type other values to test the effect they will have on the query. Click the Test Query button to preview the search results.

Make a query rule inactive

Query rules that are created at the Search service application level are inherited by site collections and sites that are in web applications that consume the Search service application. Similarly, query rules that are created at the site collection level are inherited by sites in the site collection. If you don't want a query rule to apply to a site that inherits it, you can set the query rule as inactive for the site.

To make a query rule inactive on a site

  1. Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a member of the Owners group on the publishing site.

  2. On the publishing site collection, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

  3. In the site collection, in the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

  4. On the Site Settings page, in the Search section, click Query Rules.

  5. On the Manage Query Rules page, on the Select a Result Source menu, select the result source that contains the query rule that you want to make inactive.

  6. In the Name column, point to the query rule that you want to make inactive, click the arrow that appears, and then click Make Inactive.

Rank query rules

When multiple query rules are active for a Search service application, a site collection, or a site, more than one rule can fire for a query that is performed at that level. By default, the rules do not fire in a prescribed order. You can control the order in which the rules fire by adding the query rules that you create to query groups. To do this, you select rules to add to a group, and then you specify the order in which the rules in the group will fire if they are triggered. You can also prevent query rules that rank lowest in a group from firing even if they are triggered.

To rank query rules for a site collection

  1. Verify that the user account that performs this procedure is a site collection administrator for the publishing site collection.

  2. On the publishing site collection, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

  3. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click Search Query Rules.

  4. On the Manage Query Rules page, on the Select a Result Source menu, select the result source that contains the query rules that you want to group.

  5. For each query rule that you created that you want to add to a group, point to the rule and select the check box.

    Note

    Query rules that you created for this site collection are listed in the Defined for this site collection section.

  6. Click Order Selected Rules.

  7. In the Order Selected Rules dialog, do either of the following, and then click OK:

  • Select Move rules to new group with this name, and then type a name for the group.

  • Select Move rules to existing group and select a group in the drop-down list.

  1. On the Manage Query Rules page, do the following:

  2. To change the order in which a rule in a group will fire if it is triggered, change the numeric order of the rule.

  3. To prevent query rules that are ranked lowest in the group from firing, in the row for the group's query rule that should fire last, in the Actions column, in the Continue/Stop drop-down list, select Stop.

See also

Concepts

Plan to transform queries and order results in SharePoint Server

Query variables in SharePoint Server