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3 tips for better online searches

Sometimes it seems impossible to locate what you’re looking for when you’re performing an online search. One keyword may lead to thousands of unrelated results. These simple strategies will help you perform stronger searches and get more relevant results.

Keep it simple

Use the fewest number of words or phrases you can. If you’re looking for Chinese takeout in your area, type in “Chinese food” along with the name of your city or your zip code. That should garner accurate results even if you aren’t sure precisely what you’re looking for.

Learn about Boolean

Whether you know it or not, you are probably familiar with Boolean searches. This simply refers to using terms like “and,” “not” and “or” in your online searches. This is a smart thing to do when you are more familiar with what you’re searching for and know which terms you would like to include or exclude.

This concept also works when you use pluses or minuses in your searches. If you want to include a word in your search results, simply type a “ ” before it in your search. If you want to exclude something, precede it with a “-“ when you search.

Be precise

Preciseness can instantly eliminate a great deal of the irrelevant and confusing search results. If the search terms you use are too broad, you are often left with thousands of results that have nothing to do with what you’re looking for.

Quotation marks are typically the international search engine symbol to search for an exact phrase. If you are looking for something specific, using quotation marks can help guarantee that your results are more relevant.

These three strategies can greatly affect the accuracy of your search results. You’ll spend less time sifting through website descriptions and pages of results, and more time getting the information you need.

For even more tips on performing online searches, take a look at this article.