Top Ten Ways to Search More Effectively on Google
- Tip #1: Fine-Tune Your Query with More Keywords
- Tip #2: Search for Either One Word or Another
- Tip #3: Include Stop Words
- Tip #4: Exclude Irrelevant Words
- Tip #5: Search for Similar Words
- Tip #6: Search for Similar Pages
- Tip #7: Search for an Exact Phrase
- Tip #8: Use Google's Advanced Search Page
- Tip #9: Search Within Your Search Results
- Tip #10: Search Google's Other Sites
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Google is the Internet's most popular search engine; every day millions of people use it to search for important information. But as we all know, it's often difficult to find the one best site out of the hundreds or thousands returned in Google's search results.
How can you search more effectively on Google? Here are ten tips that can help you find what you're looking for—without having to wade through less relevant results.
Tip #1: Fine-Tune Your Query with More Keywords
You search Google by constructing a query composed of one or more keywords. The keywords you enter are compared to Google's index of web documents; the more keywords found on a web page, the better the match.
It goes without saying that you should include keywords that best describe what you're looking for. That means you should use as many keywords as you need—the more the better, in fact.
You see, one of the most common mistakes made by casual searchers is to use too few keywords. These searchers don't enter enough information to adequately describe what they're searching for.
You'll get better, more targeted results by using multiple keywords. The more words you use, the better idea Google has of what you're looking for. Think of it as describing something to a friend—the more descriptive you are (that is, the more words you use), the better the picture your friend has of what you're talking about.
It's the same way when you "talk" to the Google search engine. Describe what you're looking for as precisely as possible, using as many keywords as necessary. Don't just say you're looking for a car; say you're looking for a red 1960 corvette convertible. The more keywords in the query, the easier it will be for Google to find the best match for your search.