Guide: Tailoring Content Matches to Target Audiences in Intranet Search

With an intranet search tailored to specific user groups, you can help employees find information that’s relevant to them more quickly. By tailoring search results based on, for example, department, role, or geographic location, you can reduce clutter and make the intranet easier to use. Here, we’ll show you how to configure target audience customization in the intranet search.

Create Target Audiences

Start by creating the target groups for which you want to customize search results. These could be, for example, employees in different departments, with a specific role, or at a specific work location.

Learn more about how to create target groups

Create a metadata field

To link target groups to content, you need to create a metadata field.

1. Create a new metadata field of the type “Single-select audience” or “Multiple-select audience.”
   • Single-selection target group: Used when the content should only be linked to one target group.
   • Multiple-Selection Audience: Used when content should be able to be linked to multiple audiences, such as both managers and employees in the finance department.
2. Enter a unique identifier for the metadata field under the Advanced tab.
3. Check the box for “Index this field in the search engine.”
4. Save the settings.

Learn more about how to create metadata fields

Make the metadata field available on the pages

To tailor search results to specific audiences, the metadata field must be present on the pages to be included in the search.

You can do this in two ways:

• Via page templates: Add the metadata field to the base template or to the templates used by the pages. This allows editors to select which target audiences each page is aimed at.
• Via structural metadata: Add the metadata field to a parent page and have the value inherited by the subpages. This is suitable if a large portion of the intranet is aimed at the same target audience.

Content that has not been linked to a target audience will still appear in the target-audience-specific search results.

Enable audience targeting in Intranet Search

1. Open the settings for the Intranet Search module.
2. Enable "Target Audience Customization for Content Results."
3. Select the metadata field that contains your target audiences.
4. Save and publish.

When this feature is enabled, search results are filtered based on the target groups to which the employee belongs.

Good to Know

• Target audience customization applies only to the Content tab in the intranet search.
• Employees who belong to at least one of the target groups in the selected metadata field will see a toggle for “Personalized Search Results.” With this toggle, they can choose to view all search results they are authorized to read.
• If the employee does not belong to any of the target groups, the standard search results are displayed, without the toggle.
• Target group customization does not affect permissions. Use permission controls for content that should not be accessible to everyone.