We spend an important part of the day searching things on google. But do we search them properly? Are there tricks we should know that could allow us to improve our search? What could we do to have more focused results?
In this short article we will provide you with a few tips that will allow you to improve your search results. Therefore you will have much more targeted answers.
Table of Contents
Specify: what, how, where
For every keyword you type, do not forget to clarify what you want to do with this keyword. For instance: Car. Do you want to buy a car, learn how to drive a car, sell a car. Find information on a specific car? In any of these cases you will need a what related to the keyword.
How is the car? Brand, colour, year, version, options, etc. Whether you wish to buy, sell, learn you need to provide information on how the product is.
Where: your location will narrow down the search and give you better results.
Whether you are looking to buy a product, join a fitness, find a very rare object, restaurants, museums, shops, anything, keep in mind the “What How Where” concept.
Using the Tabs
The first reflex to have when you are searching in google is to use the tabs. Bellow every search you get a list of tabs: All – images – shopping – News – More –
So if you are looking for an image, click on image, to buy click on shopping, etc. Using these tabs will help you narrow down the type of search you need.
This is really basic and most people use them intuitively. If you are not using them yet, then now is the moment to start.
Comparison using “VS”
If you are looking to compare, products, foods, objects, use the “vs” feature to find specific insight on both products.
The vs feature will allow you to narrow down your search to a comparison between the 2 items.
It is very useful when you are looking to buy and hesitating between products.
Image search and search by image
If you are looking for images you can simply enter your search object and click on the Images button which will provide you with images. You can then use the images to narrow down your search.
Inversely google desktop offers the option of entering an image into the search engine which will provide you with a result based on the image.
Best flights
If you are looking to travel, google will make your life easy with google flights. It will find you all the flights to the chosen destination. This search result will include low cost airlines such as easyjet.
Using google as a converter
You can use google to convert anything from currency to measures. This feature is very practical when cooking, planning your trip abroad, and so forth.
Using quotes “…”
When using quotes, you are telling google that you want to search all the words between the quotes in that exact order.
For instance if you search for: Yoga Classes Geneva, it will search all the words but in any order. If you search for “Yoga classes Geneva” it will search for those exact same words in that specific order. This feature is one of the most important search features on Google.
Define Words
A great feature on google search is that you can define words like in a dictionary. All you need to do is type in Define and the chosen word.
Conclusion
There are many options to improve the search results on google. Alternatively you can ask google to search for you and use google alerts.
Google offers an infinite amount of search opportunities from your postal tracking number, to random love quotes. You can improve your search using the google tools but also their tricks such as:
- The minus sign to remove results with certain words (yoga -hatha)
- Searching for news going back over 100 years
- Translating content with google translate
In any case, keep it simple. Use words that websites would tend to use. For instance: “I want to search well on google” can be replaced by “how to search well on google”. Think of how the professional websites would want to help you. What would be the wording they would use.
Try to use important words (keywords) only. You can check out the popularity of keywords on google trends.
More importantly practice will help you improve your research skills and allow you to enjoy the infinite opportunities that google offers.
