Your AI, Your Rules: How to Teach Copilot to Stay in Its SharePoint Lane Pt.3

What is RDC - Restricted Content Discovery and why you need it ?

Imagine having a secret lair (or perhaps just a confidential project site) that you don't want appearing in the global search results every time someone types "budget plans" or "top-secret project." Restricted Content Discovery allows organizations to limit the visibility of specific SharePoint sites in organization-wide searches and Microsoft 365 Copilot Business Chat. This means that unless a user has recently interacted with the content, it remains hidden—like your embarrassing high school photos, safely tucked away.

How to Enable This Cloak of Invisibility

Think of it as SharePoint’s version of a "Do Not Disturb" sign. When you enable RestrictContentOrgWideSearch, you’re telling SharePoint:

"Hey, keep this site out of the search spotlight unless someone actually belongs here."

For the tech wizards out there, enabling this feature is as simple as casting a PowerShell spell:

Set-SPOSite –Identity $siteurl -RestrictContentOrgWideSearch $true

Just replace $siteurl with the URL of your top-secret site, and voilà—it's hidden from general search results. To check if the spell worked:

Get-SPOSite –Identity $siteurl | Select RestrictContentOrgWideSearch

And if you ever need to lift the invisibility cloak:

Set-SPOSite –Identity $siteurl  -RestrictContentOrgWideSearch $false

The Fine Print

Before you start cloaking everything like a paranoid wizard, remember:

• Overuse of this feature can hinder discoverability where it’s genuinely needed.

• It doesn’t replace good governance practices; permissions still matter.

• Copilot might struggle to provide helpful answers if all your best data is hiding in plain sight.

While it's tempting to hide all your sites like a squirrel hoarding acorns, overuse of Restricted Content Discovery can lead to performance hiccups. Plus, if Copilot doesn't have enough content to work with, its responses might be as empty as a politician's promise. So, use this feature wisely—like seasoning in a soup, a little goes a long way …

Stay Tuned for Pt.4 …