Best Bets enable site managers to call special attention to the site’s best documents for each of several common search words. Each Best Bet is defined with one or more trigger words and maps these to a specific URL that will be promoted whenever a user searches for one of those words. For example, if you know that most users using a given product name as a search word would like to go to a certain web page that is dedicated to that product, then you might decide to set up a Best Bet that matches the name to that URL. Later, when users enter this name in a search form, the result page can automatically display and highlight your preferred link at the top of the result list (regardless of where it would have ranked otherwise). This can be especially helpful for searches where the best document tends otherwise not to rank highly for some reason.
The Best-Bet display typically uses graphics, colors or other effects that will catch the user’s eye right away. This feature helps users by guiding them straight to your best pages or documents; it also helps managers guide users’ attention towards specific products, marketing campaigns, promotions or events.

Figure: Example of a result list that includes Best Bet results

Both Search & Preview and SharePoint provide mechanisms for establishing the keyword/URL pairs that create each Best Bet. You can use one, the other, or both of these mechanisms however you want. The Search & Preview mechanism for establishing Best Bets is more targeted than the SharePoint one, enabling you to configure Best Bets individually for each Search & Preview search tab.

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