10 tips for improving Google search results

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