A look at how you can improve your help file's searchability by using existing help application functionality and a handful of third party applications.

1. Colum McAndrew
RoboColum(n) Consulting
Seek and ye shall find:
Improving your help system's search results
Adobe Day at UA Europe Conference
Manchester, UK
12 June 2013

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Or to put it another way…

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“I still haven’t found what I’m looking for”
83rd
result!
24th
result!

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The Google guide to searching

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Things to consider
 Help type
 Content structure
 SEO (web based)
 Synonyms
 Metadata
◦ Index
◦ Topic
 Stop words

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Help output characteristics
 Search differs by the
output type.
 Authoring tools use
different algorithms.
 Same applies to
search engines.

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Content structure: Adobe RoboHelp
 Topic title
 Topic keywords
 Heading styles
 Topic text
 Index keywords
Question:
What elements affect how a topic is
displayed in the search rankings?
There are
five in total

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Content structure: Madcap Flare
 Topic title
 Heading styles
 Topic text

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Online Search Engine Optimisation
Willam van Weelden’s
webinar:
“Optimizing your RoboHelp
content for best SEO
results”
http://adobe.ly/Pbdp0J
 URL
 Topic title
 Keyword positioning

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Synonyms
Useful for:
 Localisation
e.g. UK v US English
 Typographical errors
e.g. Mispell v Misspell
 Verbiage
e.g. Adding v Creating

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Metadata

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Uses for metadata
Useful for:
 Overview topics
 Video
 3D images
 Sample files

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Stop words
 Don’t trust your stop
word list.
 Amend it if you can.
 Look out for:
◦ Formula (boolean)
logic.
◦ Nouns / Adjectives

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Wrensoft Zoom
http://www.wrensoft.com/zoom/index.html
http://www.grainge.org/pages/authoring/zoomsearch/zoomsearch.htm

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Yay! I found it.

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Using Wrensoft Zoom
 A few additional files must be included with the
output.
 These include two that are editable:
 Basic search template that you “brand”.
 Search template display settings.
 BEWARE! By default these files are overwritten
each time the output is generated / published.
 ZoomSearch only works with web based output.

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Take Away Tips
Think about the different elements of a topic. Ask
yourself the following questions:
• Does the Topic Title accurately describe the
content.
• What is the one word that you’d expect to see
more than any other in the topic?
• Could the use of different heading styles or topic
metadata ensure a topic is more accurately
indexed?

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Educate your users
 Fact 1:
People think they know how to
search.
 Fact 2:
Search tools do not all work the
same way.
 Fact 3:
If users can’t find what they want,
they go elsewhere.

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The Darwin Award for searching goes to…

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Contact the RoboColum(n)
@robocolumn
robocolumn@cmcandrew.com
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/notcolin
www.cmcandrew.com
www.robocolumn.com