10 tips for improving Google search results

durian There are times, even on Google, when you just can’t find what you are searching for. The search results just doesn’t come out “right”, what you want just wasn’t there. How you wish you could do something extra…to get better search result.

Well today must be your lucky day, because I’m going to tell you that extra something, 10 tips for better Google searching. Hopefully these tips will give more relevance to the search results you get. The next time you Google search, instead of entering only your keywords in the search box, try the tips below.

Let’s start out by finding out the name of that fruit in the picture, try Google search spiky fruit.

Now that you know its name, let’s learn some more about strange-looking fruit using these tips:

  1. Keyword definition
    Define:[keyword] operator provides definitions for words, phrases, and acronyms from the Web. For example define:durian will get you a list of durian definitions.
  2. File type
    [keyword] filetype:[filetype extension]. find  documents of the specified type, as in durian filetype:pdf.
  3. Image search
    Google Image search, you can narrow down the images according to Size, Color and content type whether its News, Faces, Clip art, Line drawing or Photo. Now let’s do image search of durian.
  4. Glossary
    To look for glossaries, as well as dictionaries, lists of terms, terminology, etc. use tilde(~) before keyword, as in ~durian.
  5. Phrase
    To look for exact phrases, put them in quotes as in “heavenly durian” or “durian stinks” .
  6. Site page listing
    Enough about durian. To show all webpages in a website or domain, use site:[domain] operator, as in site:www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my. You can use this method to check whether or not all of your pages are indexed by Google.
  7. In-site search
    To search inside a specific website, just add the keyword before site: operator, as in kelantan site:www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my.
  8. Cached pages
    To display Google's cached version of a web page  use cache: operator, as in cache:http://www.bloggersentral.com/2009/04/keeping-your-widgets-when-changing.html. This is especially useful if you want to recover deleted pages.
  9. Link listing
    To show webpages that link to a site use link: as in link:www.tourismmalaysia.gov.my.
  10. Keyword exclusion
    To exclude certain keyword from result pages use [keyword] –[excluded keyword], as in Barack –Obama.

You are welcomed to share your Google search tips here. Use the comments.

 

Image source: Internet, owner unknown

8 comments to "10 tips for improving Google search results"

keyword May 7, 2009 at 12:47 AM    

These are very useful tips, that, for me at least, worked.

Greenlava May 7, 2009 at 9:03 AM    

Thanks, and that's a nice domain name you have there...

rsiclaims October 6, 2009 at 12:04 AM    

Everyone claims success from his blog but not all know what they need to aquire it. This type of posts is vry helpful for those planning to create their own blog.

Unknown December 22, 2009 at 4:23 PM    

Thanks for useful tips.

Admin August 28, 2010 at 9:52 AM    

Hats off to you!! Very nice and effective attempt!

Unknown October 14, 2010 at 2:13 AM    

thank bro..
nice info..
this is what im looking for.

=D

Bloggerblur July 9, 2011 at 10:02 PM    

Great info guys, thanks..

sania June 21, 2012 at 2:33 AM    

i found this thing accidently searching on google......but what i really mean to say that this is good .....

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