SharePoint 2013 Basic Search Setup without Enterprise Search Site Collection

Question

Although I have worked on modifying the CSWP and Display and Item templates, I am very new to SharePoint 2013 search configuration.

I have a requirement of setting up basic search for a portal migrated from MOSS to 2013. I do not need a dedicated Enterprise Search site collection but just a "Search this Site" Result Source at each subsite giving results for that subsite.

It should point to the OOB results page present at each subsite and show the results.

I have created the Content Source and have run full crawl once.

Do I need to create an Enterprise Search Site collection(which I do not want to)or I can link my content source directly without creating one.

I want to understand in detail what I am doing wrong and what I should be doing. How should I be linking my content source to the search application

Answer 1

if you create search center then it is really easy to manage search result presentation and customization.

http://www.sharepoint-journey.com/enterprise-search-configuration-in-sharepoint-2013.html

But if you dont want a separate search center then you have to make sure the follow thing.

• Search services application is up and running.
• Configure the content Source, give default content access account to read permission on web application level.
• run full crawl and make sure no error and content crawled.
• make sure search service application associated with the web app.
• configure the result source...http://www.brainlitter.com/2013/03/22/sharepoint-2013-search-scopes-are-gone-but-dont-fret/