Manage result types

Microsoft search provides a default search result layout experience for the different types of content shown in the search results page. For some content, you can override this default search layout and change the search result experience by designing the layout using result types. Customization of layouts allows richer experiences with useful information in the search results so users can quickly find the information they need.

Result types can be used for select SharePoint content and Graph Connectors content. Search results for SharePoint list items, SharePoint sites, SharePoint pages and Portable document format(PDFs) can be changed using result types. Content types like files(non-PDF) and people have a standard layout that can't be modified.

For Graph connector search results, when you configure a connector with property mappings, Microsoft Search uses a default search result layout for the connector search results. The label title is the most important; you should always have a property assigned to this label to use the default result layout. However, creating a custom result type for your connector content can make those results more impactful for your users. When using verticals and connector content, you must create a result type and do the mappings for a default layout. By omitting these steps the vertical won't display any search results.

Understanding result types

A result type is a configuration that causes search result layout to be changed as per the design in configuration. It consists of the following parameters:

  • One or more conditions to compare and match each search result with the configuration. Examples of conditions are content source and rules.
  • A result layout to use for search results that meet the conditions. The result layout controls how the results that meet the conditions appear on the search results page.

You can use multiple result types for content displayed in a vertical. These result types may be important when you combine multiple content sources into a single vertical. It can also be used for a more impactful layout even when there is only one content type. For example, in a vertical that displays incident details, you can customize "high severity" incidents to have more prominent colors than "low severity" incidents by defining conditions on the 'severity' property in the Rules section.

Each result type has a priority that determines the order of match evaluation. If multiple matching result types are found for a given search result, the result type with higher priority is applied to the search result. When defining multiple result type for the same content source, assign lower priority to a generic result type and higher to result type with multiple conditions.

Create or update result types

The result type management experience is wizard driven, you're guided through steps to define the name, content source, rules, and layout. Result types can be customized at both the organization-level and SharePoint site level. A result type created at SharePoint site honors the search scope defined for site. If the search scope in a SharePoint site is set to hub or Organization scope, the result type created at the respective hub or Organization scope is applied to search results.

Note

Result types for "SharePoint and OneDrive" content source is available in Microsoft Search in SharePoint home, sites and Office.com. The feature will be available in Microsoft Search in Bing soon.

Manage organization-level result types

  1. In Microsoft 365 admin center, go to the Result types page in the Customization section.
  2. To create a new result type, click Add or select an existing one to edit it.
  3. After configuring your result type, you can review and save it.

Manage site-level result types

  1. In the SharePoint site where you want to manage result types, open the settings panel by clicking the gear.
  2. Select Site information, and then select View all site settings. 
  3. Look for the Microsoft Search section, and then select Configure search settings.
  4. In the navigation pane, go to Custom experience, and select the Result type.
  5. To add a result type, click Add. Or, to edit a result type, select the result type in the list.
  6. After modifying a result type, you can review and save the result type.

Limitations

  1. Custom SharePoint managed properties can't be used in the ‘Rules’ section of result type
  2. Result types created for "SharePoint and OneDrive" content source doesn't apply to search results on Microsoft Search in Bing canvases.

Troubleshooting

Here's a list of common problems you might see and actions to fix them.

Problem Action
I don't see my result layout on the search page, although I created one. There may be a delay of a few minutes because these settings are cached. Wait a few minutes and try again.
I don't see any content sources on the result type page. Make sure you configure connectors and indexed data.
StringCollection properties do not bind to the result type and render as “${propertyName}” Ensure properties of type StringCollection are wrapped in a join method as: ${join(propertyName, ‘,’)}. If you want to show a single value (say, the ith item) from a StringCollection, you can specify it as follows: ${propertyName[i]} (Note: indexing in StringCollection types start from 0)