Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Improving Your Search Results
How can I limit my search results?
Using quotation marks (" ") is a powerful way to limit search results. I use quotation marks when I only want search results that match a complete phrase, e.g., "bottle washing machine."
In the above example, only pages that have the words bottle, washing and machine next to each other (and in this specific order) will be included within search results.
How do I mark important keywords?
Using multiple keywords for a search will return search results containing each and every keyword entered, i.e., word 1 and word 2 and word 3. If you would like a particular word to feature more heavily within you search results, a plus sign (+) can be used to tell the search engine which word you consider to be the most important.
It is important to remember that plus (+) signs must be preceded by a space and must touch the word that they relate to.
Is there a way to filter my search results?
Sometimes I find that it is necessary to remove closely related items from my search results. This is done with the use of a minus sign (-) which is a very powerful way to remove words that you do not want to appear in your search results.
In the above example, the search engine will disregard any results for laptop computers that contain the word "adapter." When using minus signs to remove words from search results, you must remember that the minus sign needs to be preceded by a space and must touch the word/phrase that you want to remove from search results, i.e., -notebook computer is not the same as -"note book computer". In the first example, only the word notebook will be excluded.
How can I make my search more broad?
When I want to broaden my search results, I use an asterisk (*) to act as as either a number or letter. Wildcards are used by placing them at the end of a word or partial word. For example, note* would return search results starting with note, including note or notebook or notepad, etc.
Glossary
Keyword: A word or phrase used when searching for information in search engines.
Wildcard: A special character such as an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) that can be used to represent one or more characters in a word or term entered into a search query.
by Milton Zhang
Home How To - Previous Post
Using quotation marks (" ") is a powerful way to limit search results. I use quotation marks when I only want search results that match a complete phrase, e.g., "bottle washing machine."
In the above example, only pages that have the words bottle, washing and machine next to each other (and in this specific order) will be included within search results.
How do I mark important keywords?
Using multiple keywords for a search will return search results containing each and every keyword entered, i.e., word 1 and word 2 and word 3. If you would like a particular word to feature more heavily within you search results, a plus sign (+) can be used to tell the search engine which word you consider to be the most important.
It is important to remember that plus (+) signs must be preceded by a space and must touch the word that they relate to.
Is there a way to filter my search results?
Sometimes I find that it is necessary to remove closely related items from my search results. This is done with the use of a minus sign (-) which is a very powerful way to remove words that you do not want to appear in your search results.
In the above example, the search engine will disregard any results for laptop computers that contain the word "adapter." When using minus signs to remove words from search results, you must remember that the minus sign needs to be preceded by a space and must touch the word/phrase that you want to remove from search results, i.e., -notebook computer is not the same as -"note book computer". In the first example, only the word notebook will be excluded.
How can I make my search more broad?
When I want to broaden my search results, I use an asterisk (*) to act as as either a number or letter. Wildcards are used by placing them at the end of a word or partial word. For example, note* would return search results starting with note, including note or notebook or notepad, etc.
Glossary
Keyword: A word or phrase used when searching for information in search engines.
Wildcard: A special character such as an asterisk (*) or a question mark (?) that can be used to represent one or more characters in a word or term entered into a search query.
by Milton Zhang
Home How To - Previous Post
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