Enterprise Keywords is a SharePoint feature that enables user-driven tagging, allowing users to create their own free-form tags to improve content discovery and search.

Common Use Cases

• User-driven tagging: allow employees to tag documents and pages with business-friendly terms when formal metadata is not available
• Search enhancement: improve search results by adding additional context and alternate terminology to content
• Content classification: supplement structured metadata with flexible, ad-hoc tags

Benefits

• Improved search relevance: keywords become searchable metadata that enhances Microsoft Search and SharePoint search experiences
• Flexible tagging model: empowers users to classify content without rigid taxonomy requirements
• Built-in and centralized: keywords are stored in the tenant-level Term Store and can be reused across sites
• Supports knowledge culture: encourages employees to actively participate in organizing information

Key Considerations

• Stored in the Term Store: enterprise keywords live in a special term set in the SharePoint Term Store and are available tenant-wide
• User-generated and uncontrolled: unlike managed metadata, keywords are not hierarchical and can easily become inconsistent without governance
• Best used as a supplement: enterprise keywords work best alongside structured managed metadata, not as a replacement
• Ongoing cleanup may be required: misspellings, duplicates, and outdated terms may need periodic review