After sites are approved, they are crawled during updates of the content index for non — portal site content by using the content source for the site directory. However, as the number of sites in the site directory grows, it may become difficult to manage this content source and the sites within it. To manage both crawling and searching of sites in the site directory, you can create content source groups that crawl only some sites in the site directory.

Any user with the Manage Search right can configure a content source group.

Enable Advanced Search Administration Mode

Before configuring a content source group, you must first enable advanced search administration mode.

1. On the Site Settings page, in the Search Settings and Indexed Content section, click Configure search and indexing.
2. On the Configure Search and Indexing page, in the General Content Settings and Indexing Status section, click Enable advanced search administration mode.

    Note   If this option is not available, you have already enabled advanced search administration mode. After you enable advanced search administration mode, you cannot disable it.

3. On the Enable Advanced Search Administration Mode page, click OK.

Add a Content Source Group

1. On the Configure Search and Indexing page, in the General Content Settings and Indexing Status section, click Add content source.
2. On the Add Content Source page, in the Select a content index box, select Non_Portal_Content.
3. Click SharePoint Portal Server Site Directory, and then click Next.
4. On the Add Content Source: SharePoint Portal Server Site Directory page, in the Address and Description section, do not change the URL in the Address box unless you want to crawl the sites on the site directory of another site.
5. In the Source Group section, select a source group for the content source, or type the name for a new source group.

    Note   After adding a content source, you can add a content source group from the Manage content sources page by pointing to the content source, clicking the arrow that appears, and then clicking Edit.

You can create any number of content source groups. You can then use these source groups to create search scopes for users to select when they are searching for content on the portal site.

Organize Content Source Groups

Content source groups are used to crawl and search a subset of sites in the site directory, conserving resources for your portal site. But source groups also provide an opportunity to organize content sources. Large organizations can have site directories with thousands of sites, and it can be unwieldy even to find sites in the site directory, much less to ensure that those sites are crawled regularly.

By creating content source groups, a portal site administrator can configure SharePoint Portal Server to crawl all the sites with similar content at the same time, knowing that all content of that kind is current.

As a portal site administrator, rather than create content source groups as you go, you can study your organization and decide how to organize source groups in advance to be most useful. You can organize content source groups based on subject matter, different teams within your organization, or important events.

Because content source groups can be used to create search scopes, it makes sense to create content source groups for commonly searched content. A good set of source groups will allow users to scope searches for their most commonly suggested content while keeping the number of search scopes as small as possible. For the best performance, it also makes sense to organize source groups so that the amount of content in each source group is similar, or that source groups with more content are crawled less frequently. That way, server resource usage is spread as evenly as possible over time.

This topic is part of an eight-topic series.

• Introduction
• Adding Sites to the Site Directory
• Approving or Rejecting Sites for Crawling
• Configuring a Content Source Group
• Assigning Source Groups to Sites
• Creating Search Scopes for Sites in the Site Directory
• Crawling the Site Directory in a Shared Services Configuration
• Best Practices for Configuring the Site Directory in a Shared Services Configuration