Manage result types

As a site collection administrator or site owner, you can create and use result types to customize how results are displayed for particular types of documents.

SharePoint has both a classic and a modern search experience. For the classic search experience, you use a result type to specify a display template that the search system should use for a particular type of document or search result. As documents aren't all the same, search results shouldn't be either. By using result types and display templates, it's much easier for users to find the results they are looking for. You can't customize how results are displayed for the modern search experience. Learn about the differences between the classic and modern search experiences in SharePoint.

A result type specifies one or more conditions to compare search results against, such as the type or the result source of the search result, and an action to take if a search result meets those conditions. The action specifies the display template to use for the search result.

For example, a preconfigured result type named Person specifies that if a search result comes from the result source Local People Results, then use the People Item display template. The People Item display template shows information in the hover panel such as documents the person's authored and gives you quick access to those documents.

Another example is to have a result type that fires if the ContentType property contains Sales Report , and then have a specific display template for sales reports. Users will identify the search result as a sales report right away.

See Change how search results look by using result types and display templates for more information.

There are many preconfigured result types to choose from, and you can also create new custom result types. You can configure result types at site collection level and at site level.

Add a new result type

  1. Go to the Manage Result Types page for a site collection or a site:
  • For a site collection, in your site collection, select Settings Settings icon., and then select Site settings. If you don't see Site settings, select Site information, and then select View all site settings. Under Site Collection Administration, select Search Result Types.

  • For a site, select Settings Settings icon., and then select Site settings. If you don't see Site settings, select Site information, and then select View all site settings. Under Search, select Result Types.

  1. On the Manage Result Types page, do one of the following:
  • Click New Result Type, or

  • In the list of existing result types, click the name of a result type, such as Person, and then click Copy so that you can modify the copy to create a new result type.

  1. In the General Information section, in the Give it a name box, type a name for the result type.

  2. In the Conditions section, in the first list, choose a result source that the results should match.

  3. In the Conditions section, in the second list, choose which types of content should match. To match all content, skip the rule. To add more content types, click Add value.

  4. To add more advanced conditions related to managed properties, expand Show more conditions.

  5. In the first list, choose a property to match.

  6. Choose how the property should relate to one or more values.

  7. Enter one or more values for the property in the box. Separate by using semicolons.

  8. To add more properties to match, click Add property.

  9. In the Actions section, select a display template. The URL of the display template is shown under Display template URL.

  10. Check the Optimize for frequent use box if the result type will be among the most frequently used result types.

  11. Click Save.