How to use
Effective Search Techniques
Basic Search
• Well… everyone knows this!
Google Instant
• Results appear dynamically as we type.
Some Points
• Every word matters. All the words that you type in the search box are used by Google.
• The search is case-insensitive i.e. Google does not find any difference between CAPITAL and capital.
• Generally, punctuations or special characters like ~!@#$(){}[]\ are ignored.
Some Tips• Most searches do not require advanced options. Just
type-in what you want.
• Use the words that you think are most likely to appear on the page.
• Use descriptive words. The accuracy of results depends on the uniqueness of the description.
• Use as fewer words as possible. A combination of many words may limit your search results.
DEMOBasic Search
Advanced Search
• Phrase search ("")• Search within a specific website (site:)• Terms you want to exclude (-)• Fill in the blanks (*)• Search exactly as is (+)• The OR operator
Phrase search
• For searching a phrase, put the words between “ “
• Google will consider the EXACT words in EXACT order without any change.
• You may miss important results, though!
DEMOPhrase Search
Search within a specific website
• You can get search results from a specific website rather than the entire web.
• Use the sequence: [keyword] site:[website]
DEMOSearch within a specific website
Terms you want to exclude
• You can exclude search terms using the –
• Example usage: [keyword1] –[keyword2]
• This will return all the pages containing the keyword1 but not containing keyword2.
DEMOTerms you want to exclude
Fill in the blanks
• You can use the * to let Google fill in the blank.
• Google will replace * by a well-known term related to your search query.
• Usage: [keyword1] * [keyword2]
DEMOFill in the blanks
Search exactly “as-is”
• Google sometimes substitutes a keyword in the query to maximize the accuracy of the search-results.
• However, if you want Google to do an as-is search without modification of keywords, you can use the + operator.
DEMOSearch exactly “as-is”
The OR operator
• Google will display results that contain ALL of the keywords you submit.
• By using OR, you can ask Google to give results with either keyword.
• Usage: [keyword1] OR [keyword2]
DEMOThe OR operator
Extras
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