from. A hub site is a logical container that influences search behavior.
Where your search begins |
Search scope |
| Hub site | All sites in the hub |
| Hub‑connected site | That site only |
| Hub‑connected site (custom scope set) | Hub or Tenant |
| Home site | Tenant |
Default Search Scope Changes with Hub Sites
When a site is associated with a Hub, the default search scope changes automatically.
| Searches from | Scope |
| Regular site | Current site only |
| Hub site | All sites associated to the hub |
| Home / Viva Connections | Entire tenant |
When a user searches from the hub site, SharePoint automatically returns results from:
- The hub site itself
- All sites associated with that hub
This happens without the user needing to expand scope manually.
- Users get relevant, context-aware results
- Avoids noise from unrelated sites
- Encourages topic- or department-focused discovery
Example:
Searching “policy” from an HR Hub returns HR-related policies, not Finance or IT documents.
Permission Enforcement
Hub sites do NOT change permissions.
Search results are:
- Security trimmed
- Based on what the user already has access to
A user will never see:
- Content from restricted sites
- Documents they don’t have permission to open
This is true even when searching from a hub or using hub-level scopes.
Searching from a hub‑connected site
When a regular site (team or communication site) is associated to a hub, its search box behaves like this:
- Initial search scope: That site only
- Users then optionally get links to expand the search to:
- The Hub
- The Organization (tenant-wide)
Microsoft documents this behavior explicitly:
“Regular sites search over the current site. Hub sites search over all sites in the hub.”
Search is limited to the contents of that site by default, even though it’s connected to a hub. This is an intentional design:
- Context matters: A project site should feel “local”
- Prevents returning unrelated hub content
- Reduces noise for focused work
Search scope changes based on where the search starts, not hub membership.
There are two exceptions when search scope would not be limited to a single site.
Exception 1: The site’s default search scope was changed
An admin or site owner can explicitly change the site’s default search scope to Hub or Tenant using PowerShell:
Set-PnPSearchSettings -SearchScope Hub
If this is done:
- Searching from that site will include all hub sites by default
- The user doesn’t need to expand the scope manually
The default scope is configurable per site.
Exception 2: The site is the Hub (or a Home site)
- Hub site → searches all associated sites
- Viva Connections / Home site → searches tenant-wide
Hub-to-Hub Associations
If you configure hub-to-hub associations:
- Searching in any connected hub can return content from:
- Parent hub
- Child hubs (up to 3 levels deep)
This allows organizations to create large, federated intranets while still maintaining context-aware search 3.
Example
- Corporate Hub
- HR Hub
- IT Hub
- Finance Hub
Searching from HR can surface corporate-wide content without searching the entire tenant.
Key rules
- Site-level verticals, filters, and result layouts
- Work best when search scope = Site or Hub
- Microsoft Search Answers (Bookmarks, Acronyms)
- Only work when scope = Tenant
If you set a hub’s search scope to Tenant, you lose site-specific customization capabilities.
Best Practices for Hub Sites and Search
- Organize hubs around clear business topics
- Keep hub associations clean and intentional
- Use hubs to reduce search noise, not expand it
- Avoid using hubs as mere navigation containers only
- Educate users that search scope changes with location
- Hubs allow you to improve discovery and relevance, not just branding or navigation.
More from Microsoft: [learn.microsoft.com]