Manage query rules

As a SharePoint Online administrator, you can improve search results by creating and managing query rules. Query rules help searches respond to the intent of users.

In a query rule, you specify conditions and associated 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. This could be 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 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 met, an associated 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, 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 a time period for when the query rule is active.

See also: Understanding query rules

What do you want to do?

Create a query rule

Create and display a result block

Change ranked search results by changing the query

Make a query rule inactive on a site

Rank query rules for a site collection

Create a query rule

You can create query rules at different levels: for the whole tenant, for a site collection, or for a site. When you create query rules at tenant level, the query rules can be used in all site collections. When you create query rules at site collection level, the rules can be used on all sites in the site collection. When you create query rules at site level, the rules can only be used on that site.

1. Go to the Manage Query Rules page for the tenant, for a site collection, or a site:

   • For the tenant:

     1. Sign in to the Office 365 Admin Center.

     2. Choose Admin > SharePoint. You're now in the SharePoint admin center.

     3. Click search, and then on the search administration page, click Manage Query Rules.

   • For a site collection:

     • In your site collection, go to Settings, click Site settings and then under Site Collection Administration, click Search Query Rules.

   • For a site:

     • On your site, go to Settings, click Site settings, and then under Search, click Query Rules.

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

3. Click New Query Rule.

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

5. Click to expand the Context section.

6. In the Context section, do 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 earlier is selected. To add a result source to the query rule, click Add Source, select a result source in the dialog box, and then click Save.

7. 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, do as follows:

   • To restrict the query rule to a category, click Add category. In the Import from term store dialog box, select a term which, 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 dialog box, in the Title field, type the name for this rule, and then click Add user segment term.

     3. In the Import from term store dialog box, 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.

8. In the Query Conditions section, do one of the following:

   • Select one of the conditions listed in the following table.

   • Click Remove Condition to configure this query rule to fire for every query that users type at the level at which you are creating the rule, and then go to the next step. For example, if you are creating this rule for a site collection, click Remove Condition if you want this rule to fire for every query that users type inside any search box in the site collection.

Query condition	Description	Configuration	Example
Query Matches Keyword Exactly	The query rule fires when a query exactly matches a word or phrase that you specify.	If the Query exactly matches one of these phrases text box, type one or more phrases separated by semicolons.	Type "picture; pic" in the box. The query rule fires when a user types "picture" or "pic" in a search box. The rule doesn't fire if a user types "pictures" or "sunny picture."
Query Contains Action Term	The query rule fires when a query contains a term for something that the user wants to do. The term must be at the beginning or end of the query.	Enter the action term that causes 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 term store. In the dialog box, select a term from a term set, and then click Save.	Type the word "download" in the Action term is one of these phrases box. When a user types "download Contoso Electronics datasheet" in a search box, there are chances the user isn't searching for a document that contains the words "download," "Contoso," "Electronics," and "datasheet." Instead, the user most likely wants to download a Contoso Electronics datasheet. The query rule fires, and only the words "Contoso," "Electronics," and "datasheet" are sent to the search index.
Query Matches Dictionary Exactly	The query rule fires when the query is an exact match of a dictionary entry.	From the Query exactly matches an entry in this dictionary list, select a dictionary. To specify a different dictionary, click Import from term store, select a term from a term set in the dialog box, and then click Save.	A word that a user types in a search box perfectly matches an entry in the preconfigured People Names dictionary.
Query More Common in Source	The query rule fires if users frequently sent this query from another source that you have already specified.	In the Query is more likely to be used in this source list, select a result source.	You selected Local Video Results in the list. The query rule fires if a user types the word "training" in a search box and if that word had already been frequently typed in a search box in the Videos vertical.
Result Type Commonly Clicked	The query rule fires if other users frequently clicked a particular result type after typing the same query.	In the Commonly clicked results match result type list, select a result type.	You selected SharePoint MicroBlog Post in the list. If users frequently click a microblog post in search results, consider configuring the most recent microblog post as the first promoted result, and the next most recent microblog post as the second promoted result (in the Actions section).
Advanced Query Text Match	You want to use a phrase or a dictionary entry that causes the query rule to fire, and then define more detailed conditions for when the query rule fires.	Enter the phrase or term that causes the query rule to fire by doing one of the following: Select Query contains one of these phrases, and type one or more phrases. Select Query contains an entry in this dictionary, and then click Import from term store. In the dialog box, select a term from a term set, and then click Save. Then, add more conditions by checking off options in the lists.	You selected Query contains one of these phrases, and then chose Start of query matches, but not entire query. The query rule fires only if the phrase is at the beginning of a query, not if it's at the end.

To add more conditions, click Add Alternate Condition.

Note:  The rule fires 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).

     1. In the dialog box, in the Title field, type the name that you want to give this promoted result.

     2. In the URL field, type the URL of the result that should be promoted. Choose Render the URL as a banner instead of as a hyperlink.

     3. Click Save.

        You can add several individual promoted results. When there's more than one promoted result, 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 a bit further down.

   • To change ranked search results, click Change ranked results by changing the query. For more information, see Change ranked search results by changing the query a bit further down.

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

3. Click Save.

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Create and display a result block

A result block is several search results that are displayed as a group. Just as you do to promote a specific result, you can promote a result block when a specified query condition applies.

When you configure a query condition for a result block, you use query variables. Query variables are like placeholders for values that you don't yet know, when you specify the query. However, when the query's run, this information is available and the system uses it to send the query to the index. For example, {User.Name} stands for the display name of the user who typed in the query. Another one's {searchBoxQuery}, which stands for the query a user typed in a search box. When you use the Query Builder to configure the query, a list of query variables is shown. (See step 3 in the procedure right below.)

1. In step 9 of the procedure Create a query rule, 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, click Launch Query Builder to specify the query.

4. In the build your query dialog box:

   • On the BASICS tab, select options to define the query for the result block:

List	Options
Select a query	Select a result source to specify which content should be searched.
Keyword filter	Use keyword filters to add query variables to your query. See Query variables in SharePoint Server 2013 for a list of available query variables. Select predefined query variables from the list, and then add them to the query by clicking Add keyword filter.
Property filter	Use property filters to query the content of managed properties that are set to queryable in the search schema. Select managed properties from the Property filter list. Click Add property filter to add the filter to the query. Note: Custom managed properties are not shown in the Property filter list. To add a custom managed property to your query, in the Query text box, enter the name of your custom managed property followed by the query condition, for example MyCustomColorProperty:Green

• On the SORTING tab, specify how you want your search results within your result block to be sorted.

  In the Sort results section, in the Sort by 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.

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

    • 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 more ranking by adding rules that'll 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's sent.

Option	Description
Query text:	Shows the final query that'll be run by the Content Search Web Part. It's based on the original query template where dynamic variables are replaced with current values. You might end up making other changes to the query as part of query rules.
Show more	Click to display more options.
Query template	Shows the content of the query template that's applied to the query.
Query template variables	Shows the query variables that'll 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'll have on the query. Click the Test Query button to preview the search results.

1. Click OK to close the build your query dialog box.

2. In the Query section, in the Search this Source list, select the result source that you want the result block to be applied to.

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

4. Click to expand the Settings section.

The result block only displays 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'll 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}.

1. Click OK.

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Change ranked search results by changing the query

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. Once you've done this, you can change the ranked search results and this will promote the URL of a specific download site on your intranet. You can also dynamically change the sorting order of the search results, based on several variables such as file name extension or specific keywords. When you change ranked search results by changing the query, you'll see that your results are security trimmed and refinable. Moreover, the search results don't show up if the document's no longer there.

1. In step 9 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 box:

   • On the BASICS tab, select options to change ranked search results:

List	Options
Select a query	Select a result source to specify which content should be searched.
Keyword filter	Use keyword filters to add query variables to your query. See Query variables in SharePoint Server 2013 for a list of available query variables. Select predefined query variables from the list, and then add them to the query by clicking Add keyword filter.
Property filter	Use property filters to query the content of managed properties that are set to queryable in the search schema. 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, specify how you want your search results to 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.

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

    • 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'll 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's sent.

Option	Description
Query text:	Shows the final query that'll be run by the Content Search Web Part. It's based on the original query template where dynamic variables are substituted with current values. You might end up making other changes to the query as part of query rules.
Show more	Click to display more information.
Query template	Shows the content of the query template that's applied to the query.
Query template variables	Shows the query variables that'll 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'll have on the query. Click the Test Query button to preview the search results.

1. Click OK to close the Build Your Query dialog box.

2. Click Save.

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Make a query rule inactive on a site

Query rules that are created at the tenant level are inherited by site collections and sites. 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 make the query rule inactive for the site.

1. On your site, in the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

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Rank query rules for a site collection

When multiple query rules are active for a tenant, 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 don't fire in a given order. However, if you want to control the order in which the rules fire, you have to add 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're triggered. You can also prevent query rules that rank lowest in a group from firing even if they do get triggered.

1. In the site collection, on the Settings menu, click Site Settings.

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

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Click Order Selected Rules.

6. In the Order Selected Rules dialog box, 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 list.

7. On the Manage Query Rules page:

   1. To change the order in which a rule in a group will fire if it's triggered, change the number ordering of the rule.

   2. To prevent query rules that are ranked lowest in the group from firing, go to the row for the group's query rule that should fire last, and then in the Actions column, in the Continue/Stop list, select Stop.

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