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To find documents within SharePoint Online, the simplest way is to use the search bar at the top of the SharePoint page and enter a keyword, file name, or phrase to show results based on the whole search index of the site. Once a search is performed, one can refine search results through Filters located at the top-right corner by using criteria such as file type, author, or date. For more accurate results, one may choose to look up document metadata tags, document IDs, or custom views stored in document libraries. Site administrators are able to configure the search index for the site in the Site Settings and thus define which content will appear within the search index. As you surely know, SharePoint Online is the perfect place to store valuable documents of your company. And these documents must be easily found when needed. |
How Do You Find Documents in SharePoint Online Using the Search Bar?
One of the best ways to look for documents in SharePoint Online is through the search bar located on the top part of your SharePoint site. Just put in a phrase in there, and you will see the documents and folders that are related to your search terms. In the case of "Security," for instance, the system will show you documents that have "Security" in their title, text, or metadata keywords, usually prioritized according to relevance to your search term.
Once you get the results, click on Filters on the upper right-hand corner of the page to filter your results by file type, modification date, author, or any other parameters that you prefer.
How Does the SharePoint Search Index Work?
When you input a search term into your site, SharePoint doesn't go through your whole site to find the corresponding documents in real-time. Rather, it pulls the results from the Search Index, which is an archive of all the content that has been indexed in your SharePoint site.
SharePoint by default indexes all content on the site, but the site owner and the site collection administrator have the ability to change that, which is why sometimes a document exists on your site but not indexed for search.
Note: Once new content is uploaded to the site, it may take up to one hour before the content is indexed and displayed in search results.
How Do You Control Which Sites Appear in SharePoint Search Results?
The site owner may decide whether the site content will be displayed in search results:
- Navigate to the site you want to configure.
- Click on Settings, and then on Site settings.
- From the left side of the page, click on Search and then on Search and offline availability.
- From the Indexing Site Content section, click Allow this site to appear in Search results.
- Select Yes to include it, or No to exclude it.
- Access the list or library that you want to manage.
- Click on Settings, then Site settings.
- Then choose Site Libraries and Lists from Site Administration.
- Choose your library.
- From the List Settings page, navigate to General Settings > Advanced settings.
- From the Search section, click on "Allow items from this document library to appear in search results."
- Select Yes to include or No to exclude.
- Access the site where your list or library is located.
- Click on Settings, then Site Settings.
- Navigate to Search.
- Under the Search, click Searchable columns.
- Under the Excluded Columns from Search Indexing, check the box for any column.
How Do You Control Which Document Libraries Appear in SharePoint Search Results?
Additionally, list owners and administrators can exclude particular lists or document libraries from being indexed:
How Do You Exclude Specific Columns From SharePoint Search Results?
Site owners can also exclude content in particular columns from being included in the search index:
What Are the Best Tips for Making Documents Easier to Find in SharePoint?
For searching to work best, your documents should be highly organized and correctly tagged.
Review Titles. Ensure that the title is an appropriate reflection of the document. Titles that contain many keywords tend to pop up first in the search.
Use Metadata. Metadata is a great way to sort and filter data. Properly tag all the documents with metadata.
Utilize Common Value Defaults. Utilize default values for columns to assign consistent metadata to all the files within the folders without tagging them manually.
Use Document IDs. Each document within a site collection receives a unique identifier. If you remember the ID of the particular document, type it directly in the search box.
Take Care of SEO. The rules of SEO are also applicable to SharePoint search engine.
|
Practice |
How to Implement |
Impact |
|
Descriptive titles |
Name documents with key terms in the file name |
High, title is heavily weighted in search ranking |
|
Metadata tags |
Use SharePoint content types and custom columns |
High, enables precise filtering |
|
Folder-level defaults |
Set column defaults in Library Settings |
Medium, ensures consistent metadata at upload |
|
Document IDs |
Enable the Document ID feature in Site Collection settings |
Medium, provides a unique, searchable identifier |
|
Keyword-rich content |
Write clear, well-structured document content |
Medium, content body is indexed and searchable |
|
Consistent naming conventions |
Establish and enforce file naming standards across teams |
High, reduces duplicate searches and confusion |
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FAQs
Why are some documents not appearing in SharePoint search results?
Can I search across multiple SharePoint sites at once?
Yes. The search box on the SharePoint start page will search all sites available to you within your tenant; when searching by a specific site, results are limited to content within this particular site. The Microsoft 365 Search in the header will also return results from SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, and many other services at once.
How do I search for a document by its content, not just its title?
SharePoint performs a full-text search on the body contents of most document types such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF documents, so entering a search term/phrase would produce a result from the body of all documents having that search term/phrase anywhere inside. Note that password-protected files cannot be indexed.
Can I save a custom search or filter view in SharePoint?
Yes, you can. Within document libraries, you can create your own views and save them for future use. Just go to the library you wish to customize, then click on All Documents > Edit current view (or Create new view), apply your filters, and save it as a new view with a name.
How does SharePoint search handle documents in different languages?
Yes, SharePoint Online supports multilingual content search and indexing of content across multiple languages with appropriate language stemming. The search interface will always reflect the language settings of the site.
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Written by Quentin Russell — Content Specialist, Dock 365
Quentin Russell is a content specialist at Dock 365 with a background in content marketing and social media marketing. His writing focuses on making contract management concepts accessible to practitioners who aren't lawyers, compliance management, document vs. contract system distinctions, Office 365 productivity, and the operational case for moving contract workflows into a structured platform. He covered both the SharePoint productivity blog and the contract management blog during his time at Dock 365, bridging the technical and the practical for a general business audience.
