Promoting or demoting sites

Documents that belong to highly relevant sites can be given a soft site promotion that will cause the documents to appear somewhat higher on the result list. When the user types a query that matches a page or document within the promoted site, the page or document will appear higher up in the search result list than what the normal ranking would imply.

Similarly, documents that belong to less relevant sites can be given a soft site demotion that will cause the documents to appear somewhat lower on the result list. When the user types a query that matches a page or document within a demoted site, the page or document will appear further down in the search result list than what the normal ranking would imply.

It will often make sense to apply a user context to the site promotion or demotion in order to promote or demote specific sites for certain users or user groups, for example, promote the marketing collateral site for people who belong to the marketing organization, or demote the Research and Development wiki for people who belong to the sales organization.

Unlike document promotions and document demotions, site promotions and site demotions are not connected to a keyword.

What do you want to do?

Display the Manage Site Promotion page

Add site promotion

Add site demotion

Edit site promotion

Delete site promotion

Edit site demotion

Delete site demotion

Display the Manage Site Promotion page

To access the Manage Site Promotion page, a site collection administrator goes to the home page for the top-level site in the site collection, and uses the Site Actions menu to display the Site Settings page:

1. Log on to the home page of your top-level site with site collection administrator permissions.

2. Click the Site Actions menu, and choose Site Settings.

3. On the Site Settings page, in the Site Collection Administration section, click FAST Search site promotion and demotion. This displays the Manage Site Promotion page.

From the Manage Site Promotion page, you can also access the Manage Site Demotion page.

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Add site promotion

A site collection administrator promotes a site by providing the URL for the site (without the default.aspx). All documents in that specific site and its sub-sites are promoted.

1. On the Manage Site Promotion page, click Add Site Promotion.

2. On the Add Site Promotion page, in the Title section, type a title for the site promotion. The title will not be displayed on the search result page, but will be used as an identifier on the administration pages..

3. In the Promoted Sites section, click Add Site.

4. In the Select sites to be promoted dialog box, in the URL box, type the URL to be promoted.

   Example: http://www.contoso.com/

   You can promote a site that is not found in the index, but it will not show up in the search result. If the URL is not found in the index, the promotion will take effect when the site has been indexed.

5. Click Add to add the URL to the list. (You can delete by selecting the URL and clicking Delete on the keyboard, or remove it from the list on the Add Site promotion page.)

6. Click OK to return to the Add Site Promotion page.

7. If you want this site promotion to apply only for certain user contexts, in the User Context section, click Add User Context. Select from the list of Available user contexts and click Add to add user contexts to the list. Click OK.

8. In the Start and End Date section, you can set a Start Date for when the site promotion will begin to appear in search results, and (if desired) an End Date when the site promotion will cease to be active. Click the calendar next to each date that you wish to set.

   Note:  If you leave the Start Date blank, the promotion will start immediately. If you leave the End Date box empty, the site promotion will not expire.

9. Click OK.

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Add site demotion

A site collection administrator demotes a site by providing the URL for the site (without the default.aspx). All documents in that specific site and its sub-sites are demoted.

1. On the Manage Site Promotion page, click Manage Site Demotion.

2. On the Manage Site Demotion page, click Add Site Demotion.

3. On the Add Site Demotion page, in the Title section, type a title for the site demotion. The title will not be displayed on the search result page, but will be used as an identifier on the administration pages.

4. In the Demoted Sites section, click Add Site.

5. In the Select sites to be demoted dialog box, in the URL box, type the URL to be demoted.

   Example: http://www.fabrikam.com/

   You can demote a site that is not found in the index, but it will not show up in the search result. If the URL is not found in the index, the demotion will take effect when the site has been indexed.

6. Click Add to add the URL to the list. (You can delete by selecting the URL and clicking Delete on the keyboard, or remove it from the list on the Add Site Demotion page.)

7. Click OK to return to the Add Site Demotion page.

8. If you want this site demotion to apply only for certain user contexts, in the User Context section, click Add User Context. Select from the list of Available user contexts and click Add to add user contexts to the list. Click OK.

9. In the Start and End Date section, you can set a Start Date for when the site demotion will begin to appear in search results, and (if desired) an End Date when the site demotion will cease to be active. Click the calendar next to each date that you wish to set.

   Note:  If you leave the Start Date blank, the demotion will start immediately. If you leave the End Date box empty, the site demotion will not expire.

10. Click OK.

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Edit site promotion

A site administrator can edit a site promotion from the Manage Site Promotion page.

1. Select Site Settings from the Site Actions menu, and then select FAST Search site promotion and demotion in the Site Collection Administration group.

2. Click on a site promotion in the list to go to the Edit Site Promotions page. You can also select Edit Site Promotion from the drop down menu on each list item.

3. Make the necessary changes and then click OK.

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Delete site promotion

A site administrator can delete a site promotion from the Manage Site Promotion page.

1. Select Site Settings from the Site Actions menu, and then select FAST Search site promotion and demotion in the Site Collection Administration group.

2. Select Delete Site Promotion from the drop down menu on each list item.

3. Click OK in the confirmation pop up. The site promotion is removed from the list.

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Edit site demotion

A site administrator can edit a site demotion from the Manage Site Demotion page.

1. Select Site Settings from the Site Actions menu, and then select FAST Search site promotion and demotion in the Site Collection Administration group.

2. From the Manage Site Promotion page, click the link Manage Site Demotion to go to the Manage Site Demotion page.

3. Click on a site demotion in the list to go to the Edit Site Demotions page. You can also select Edit Site Demotion from the drop down menu on each list item.

4. Make the necessary changes and then click OK.

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Delete site demotion

A site administrator can delete a site demotion from the Manage Site Demotion page.

1. Select Site Settings from the Site Actions menu, and then select FAST Search site promotion and demotion in the Site Collection Administration group.

2. From the Manage Site Promotion page, click the link Manage Site Demotion to go to the Manage Site Demotion page.

3. Select Delete Site Demotion from the drop down menu on each list item.

4.  Click OK in the confirmation pop up. The site demotion is removed from the list.

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