1. Keep It Simple
Keep your search simple and web-friendly. Start by entering one or two words, and gradually adding relevant or important words, if you’re unsatisfied with the results. Less is more for a search engine; meaning the less words you query for, the more results the search engine provides as output.
For example:
- Query: [who is the president of america]
- Better query: [president of america]
2. Order Of Keywords
Select the right keywords to make your search. Search results completely depend on the given keywords, and if keywords are chosen wisely, then results are more efficient.
Put yourself in the shoes of the author, and think of what words he/she would use to write/describe what you’re trying to find. If you’re looking for a phrase or quote, then keep the order of the words as accurate as possible to get the optimum search results.
For example:
- Query: [itself divided house cannot stand]
- Better query: [A house divided against itself cannot stand] (part of a quote by Abraham Lincoln)
3. Skip Unnecessary Parts
Google is smart enough to handle most of your typos, and other things that could just be ignored. That’s why you should skip those things in your query to save time.
You should not worry about the following when writing a search query:
- Spelling
- Cases (uppercase or lowercase)
- Punctuation (dot, question mark, exclamation mark, and more)
- Special characters (plus, minus, brackets, and more)
4. Social Search
Google is really good at handling searches related to people and social networks. You can search for people and their social profiles using:
+[profile-name]
By adding a ‘+’ before a profile-name, you can search for Google+ profiles and pages.
For example: [+hongkiat]
#[word]
Using the ‘#’ before a word enables you to search for hashtags in Google+, Twitter, and more social networks.
For example: [#privacy]
@[person-name]
You can search for social accounts associated with a person’s name by putting the ‘@’ sign before his/her name.
For example: [@hongkiat]
Intermediate Search Techniques
Note: Zip codes work very well for the US, but for other countries, it’s better to write the country name followed by the zip code.
For example: [new delhi, india] and [india 110033] is the same.
5. Get Sunrise And Sunset Times
You can use Google to get sunrise and sunset times for many cities of the world. Type your search query in the format of [sunrise place-name] or [sunrise zip-code] to get the sunrise time for the specified location. For sunset times, just subtitute the words as per the following style of [sunset place-name] or [sunset zip-code].
For example:
- [sunrise chicago, usa] or [sunrise 60611]
- [sunset chicago, usa] or [sunset 60611]
Advanced Search techniques
Note: You can use the Google Advanced Search form for a more convenient search.
6. Synonym Search
You can use the synonym search feature to tell Google to even search for synonyms of a specified word in the search query. This is helpful for when you want to search for a word and all its similar words without having to spend time looking for them individually.
Using the tilde symbol (~) before a word tells Google to search for the words and its synonyms too. Type your search query in the format of [~synonymWord otherWords] to search for the word and its synonyms in a single search.
For example: [~sweet fruit]
7. Search For Numbers In A Range
You can tell Google to search within a range of numbers, such as dates, prices, and measurements. Using two periods (dots) between two numbers makes Google search within that number range and skip other results.
Using two periods after a number indicates a lower minimum (number..) while putting it before the number indicates a higher maximum (..number). Type your search query in the format of [firstNumber..secondNumber otherWords] to search between a specified lower and upper bounds.
For example:
- [android phone $300..$500]
- [television 20..50 inches]
8. Search Using File Types
You can tell Google to search for a specified type of file for your query. Using filetype operators before a type of file tells Google to search only for specified file types and skip other files. Type your search query in the format of [filetype:type otherWords] to search for a specific file type.
For example: [filetype:pdf free photoshop books]
Complex Search Techniques
You can also use more than one of these techniques in a single search query. You can combine the above methods to make a complex search query, which will provide efficient and focused results.
For example:
- [site:gov filetype:pdf “death rate”]
- [site:hongkiat.com photoshop OR “adobe photoshop” tutorials]
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have learnt all the useful search techniques to make better searches on the web and have learnt all the tips and tricks to get better and efficient search results. Now you can save a lot more of your time and resources.
So why not head on to the site and try out your new skills? Feel free to share your experience with me too.
keep visiting….
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