Best bets
Best bets allows an administrator to configure a featured result item to be displayed when a user conducts a specific search.
A best bet is not a search result, but it can feature or promote a page / URL that is not part of a website that is being indexed.
For example, when a user searches for the term Foodista a best bet to featuring the Wikipedia page on Foodista wiki is displayed above the search results. This is presented in addition to the search results.
The style and appearance of the best bets in the search results is governed by the stylesheets that are applied to the search results template, and the position in the search results can be controlled by a search administrator with the ability to edit the templates. A best bet can include HTML formatting.
In the example above a HTML snippet including an image of the Foodista logo has been returned with the best bet.
When to use best bets
Use best bets for:
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Highlighting or featuring a particular page within your content. This might be a page that’s currently topical, or just a really important content page that you want to display above the results.
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Directing your search user to an external site where they will find the content they are seeking. This is particularly useful for Government organizations that often hold content that is related to the topic being searched for, but not the specific content that is being searched for. Adding a best bet allows the user to be directed to another department’s site where they will find the content that they seek.
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For displaying advert style content relating to a search.
Don’t use best bets:
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To solve general problems with your site’s ranking (use tools such as tuning for this).