It is easy to assume that when search the internet, at times at can be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for. For myself, I often rely on the advanced search features to help find what I am looking for.
Not too often are your search process going to be a linear one, that being, you search using phrase, you find the product/service that is to your satisfaction and end of story. Often you will find that you will have to refine your search as you go on, and this is where the advanced search features will come to help you immensely.
” – ” Searches
Using the – sign is a great way to further narrow down the results as you search. This is a feature that I often use as I will spot sites or domains that I do not want in the results. This is great to help narrow down the results and find what you are looking for.
” ~” Searches
The ~ sign is used for synonyms. For example, if you search Google using ~food, you will notice that Google bolds words such as recipes, cooking, and nutrition throughout the results. In this example, those synonyms are taken into consideration with the search query.
Phrase Searches using Double Quotes
Using double quotes with a search phrase such as “hurricane forecast” will search for this exact phrase in websites. Using the double quotes with hurricane forecast brings back just below 6000 web pages that has that exact phrase in Google. Using the search with out double quotes brings us back just under 2 million results in Google.
I tend to use a combination of double quotes and the – (minus) sign. This really narrows down the search results and hopefully find exactly what I’m looking for.
“OR” Searches
With this advanced search feature, you have to use OR in uppercase, otherwise it will be considered as part of the search phrase.
Domain Restrict
If you happen to know what site has the information you are looking for, or just want to further search a certain website, then you can use the Domain Restrict search feature. For example, widgets site:www.some-website.com. This will search www.some-website.com for the word widgets. If you happen to have the Google Toolbar installed, you can use the search site feature. This feature works the same way and can be selected under the Options button, then under the more tab.
define:
With Google, one advanced search feature that I like using is define: you can use this to find the definition regarding a certain word.
Other good ways to help improve your search is to see what other people are looking for. You can get the search numbers From some various tools such as Overture. This is a great way to find new phrases that you might not of thought of before.
Google Advance Search Features
Google has some great additional search features that you can find on the page below.
Gerard Manning is the owner of Manning Search Marketing and has been working in the SEO industry since 2000. Originally started with Enquiro Search Solutions (now known as Mediative). Was previously a Research Assistant on Inside the Mind of the Searcher that was released in 2005.