- 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
Tip #8: Use Google's Advanced Search Page
Not comfortable learning all those complicated search operators, but still want to fine-tune your search beyond the basic keyword query? You're in luck; Google makes it relatively easy to perform sophisticated searches via the Advanced Search page.
You can access the Advanced Search page by clicking the Advanced Search link on Google's home page. This page contains a number of options you can use to fine-tune your searches, without having to learn all those advanced operators. All you have to do is make the appropriate selections on the page, and Google does all the fine-tuning for you.
What options are available on the Advanced Search page? Here's what you'll find:
- Find results with all these words:Google's default search mode
- Find results with this exact wording or phrase:Searches for the exact phrase entered
- Find results with one or more of these words:Searches for either one word or another (identical to the OR operator)
- Don't show pages that contain unwanted words:Excludes words from search results (identical to the - operator)
- Results per page: Selects how many listings are displayed on the search results page
- Language: Searches for pages written in a specific language
- File type: Limits the search to specific file types of files
- Search within the specific website or domain: Restricts the search to a given site only
Even more parameters are available if you click the Date, Usage Rights, Numeric Range, and More link. This expands the page to include options for Date (search for recent pages), Usage Rights (whether a page is free to use or share), Where Your Keywords Show Up (restricts the search to certain areas of a page), Region (narrows the search to a given country), Numeric Range (search for a range of numbers), and SafeSearch (filters out adult content). There are also options to find pages that are either similar to or link to the page in question.