When using the Search feature, what is searched and what are the priorities, if any?

What is searched when using the Client Portal Search?  I'm looking for specifics.  For example, does it search every Service/KB title, short description, long description, and keyword? If so, is there a priority to what is searched first (ex. searches title first, then keywords, etc.)?  After that, what determines the order of the results?  Is it number of times the words appear in the article or does popularity of the article enter into it.  

Also, are there any best practices to make sure that your KB search returns the best results possible.  We are new to the KB and really want this to be a great self-service tool for our users but to do that we have to be sure they can find the proper article.

Thanks for any advice you can give me.

Sincerely,

Mendi Benigni

 

Tags briefcase-search KB service
Asked by Mendi Benigni on Fri 3/24/17 3:45 PM
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Answer (1)

This answer has been marked as the accepted answer
Mark Sayers Mon 3/27/17 10:57 AM

Hi Mendi,

The Client Portal search box is able to search for, and return results from any matching Services, KB articles, and Questions that might exist and be visible at that time to the user searching. As for how results are returned, this is based on a complex SQL indexing methodology which basically indexes the text content of each of the fields in those areas of the Portal. It will return the items it believes best matches the term or phrase being searched. Since each of those areas can be tagged though, we would recommend utilizing the tag fields of each question, service, or KB article so customers can search for tagged items, which will return as a priority above other simple search terms. Tags can be searched by adding a # symbol in front of a word ( like #PasswordReset ).

I hope this has helped to answer your question. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance on this.

Sincerely,
Mark Sayers
TeamDynamix

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