Millions of people search on Google every day for a variety of reasons. Teachers and students use it for school, businesses and companies use it for research, and millions of others use it for education and entertainment.
Still, many people may not be searching on Google to its full potential.
Do you want to use Google search more effectively? And get the quick search results. Here are top 10 tips for searching on Google in the best possible way.
Go to google.com tabs
Obviously, to search on google.com, you have to go to Google. But did you know there are various tabs Image, Web, News, and More to get your desired data?
For example, if you’re looking for an image, then click on the image tab. If you type “Google” in the search bar and want to see an image, then click the image tab as below;
On the flip side, if you want to read a news article, then click the new tab. And here you’ll see all the news related to your search term.
In fact, that there are even different Google search sites, such as Google Scholar.
Here you can search literary references, journals, academic publications abstracts. It is mostly used to write high-level research papers.
Go to Google and search for “Google Scholar” such as;
You can also search books on Google, Simple go to Google and type “Google Book,” as below;
If you directly go to Google.com by typing in http://google.com, it will take you to the main Google website, which is designed to serve the US.
But, if you live outside of the United States, you can go to the version of Google designed for your own country.
You can find a detailed list of country-specific Google versions shown on this page.
Moreover, if you want to search for all the Google products, you can simply search it from the homepage of Google.
Search by quotes
If you’re searching for something specific, then the best way to use quotes to minimize the irrelevant Google searches.
For instance, if I search for Motivational Books, Google will search for content that contains those 2 keywords in any order.
However, if I add inverted commas in the start and end, as “Motivational Books,” it will search for that specific phrase.
Google Suggest
As you have seen, that searching on Google seems pretty easy. Just go on Google and type your word (keyword) into the search box.
But, have you noticed once you type, you may see keywords begin to appear below the search box. These are the related “suggestions” by Google.
Google calls it “Google Suggest” or “Autocomplete.” So, all you can do is ignore the suggestions or select anyone from the list.
Let’s have a look at it.
Use a hyphen to search
Suppose you are trying to search anything else and find a word with an obscure meaning. An example is Galaxy.
When I Google search for Galaxy, I get results for both the milky way and the phone made by Samsung.
If you want to cut down the search for galaxy phone, use the hyphen to tell Google to ignore content with the related suggestions. See the example below.
- Galaxy –phone or Samsung-galaxy
This tells the Google to search for Galaxy but remove any results that have the word “Samsung” in them.
It can be very helpful when you’re trying to find specific information about something without getting information about anything else.
OneBox and Universal Search Results
Once you’ve searched, you’ll get a full page of results.
Many of these pages will be matching with your inquiry.
While some of them will be subject-specific matching content.
For instance, If I type “Boris Johnson,” you may get news, image results, videos, and a Wikipedia page too.
This search type is called “Universal Search,”
On the other hand, you’ll also get special OneBoxes that give you a direct answer without requiring a click. For example, here are the currency rates of the pound today:
Google also has a guide to special searches like stock quotes, time, weather, currency, and sports scores as direct answers:
If you search for something, you may also see ads that appear at the top of the main search results
Google keeps the ads separated and labels them with the word “Ads” or “Ad,” as the arrows point in the example above.
I searched for “baby food,” and here you can see an ad.
Google has a brief and a detailed guide to everything you’ll find on the search results page.
Refine Google Search
Google doesn’t know exactly what you are looking for. So, when you enter a word to search, the results you get are Google’s best guesses.
There are plenty of ways to make it better.
You can check your desired queries by exploring answers through a “Wonder Wheel” of the related searches.
For example, if I searched about baby food, it will suggest the following topics;
Search for Long Phrases
Google search is quite flexible.
It knows you may not find your exact searches by typing only a single word or phrase. Thus, Google lets you search for multiple or long phrases.
Using this idea, you can search for one keyword or phrase along with a second keyword or phrase.
This will narrow down your search time and help you find exactly what you’re searching for. Below is the syntax:
- “best baby foods for 6 month old” OR “baby food ideas for 6 month old”
By searching that, you will get the answers to both phrases.
I have already discussed the quoted tip above. It’s still being used here.
Let’s take another example;
- chocolate OR white chocolate
This will search for all the pages that have either chocolate or white chocolate.
Keep it simple
Now I am moving towards a general tip. Google knows how to search for a lot of things at once.
It means you don’t need to be too specific while searching.
Let’s take an example of “Pizza Place.”
If you’re looking for a pizza place nearby, enter these simple terms into the search bar.
- Pizza places near me
Google search will track your location and show you various results about pizza places that are nearby.
Search with important words
The way Google search operates is, it takes your keywords and matches them with all the available online content.
For example, if I am searching for too many words, it may limit my search results.
Sometimes, it may even take you longer to find your desired search results.
Thus, it is an honest suggestion only to use important words when searching for something. Let’s take an example:
- Don’t: Where can I find the best Turkish restaurant that delivers food.
- Try the best Turkish restaurants nearby.
- Or: Best Turkish restaurants near me.
When you only use specific and important words, this can help Google find what you need without the clutter.
So remember, keep it simple, easy and only use important words.
Spelling doesn’t matter
Google search is more intelligent over the years.
So, nowadays, you don’t even need to spell your search words correctly.
As long as it’s pretty close, Google will figure out what it means and shows you the relevant results. Here is an example:
For instance, you’re in a hurry and search “Nver Gna Gve Yo Up.” Here, Google will automatically assume you mean to search for “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
This is an excellent trick if you happen to forget how to spell words or even if you’re not sure how something is spelled correctly.
When searching for obscure words, this trick is helpful
The same goes for punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.
Bottom Line
Google search is a potent and popular search engine. Using the tips and ideas outlined above, you can search everything and anything you could ever need on the World Wide Web.
Whether it’s an abstract project or University Journal, a school essay project, the latest stock prices, random weather updates, restaurants nearby, or even find your favorite song lyrics, there is a way to make Google search work for you. Let us know if you’ve ever tried any secret ways to search on Google
