Basic tips:
- Search is not case sensitive. WHODUNIT is the same as whodunit and WhOduNit
- All the words in your query will be used
- Most punctuation is ignored (except quotes – more on that below)
- Be specific as possible. You’ll probably get better results with National Crime statistics than with statistics for crime
Google “hacks” at a glance
Using “headache as the original search term
| “hack” | Descriptiopn | example search | Results |
| + | Pages HAVE to have that word: | headache +cure | Most pages will have headache, ALL results will have “cure” |
| - | Leave that word out | headache -migraine | None of the pages will have “migraine” |
| “” | Search phrase | “headache cure” | All pages will have “headache cure” |
| ~ | find synonyms | headache ~cure | Pages will also have “remedy” and maybe “age” (as in aging food) |
| filetype: | Find specific filetypes | headache cure filetype:pdf | Will return results of Adobe PDF files that contain “headache” and “cure” |
| site: | search within a site | cure site:headache.com | Will return results with “cure” |
| define: | Get the definithion | define:headache | Will show the definition of “headache”, then return results with “headache” |
| related: | get all sites related to given page | related:headache.com | Will show the sites that are related to “headache.com” but it isn’t always accurate |
| link: | Get all sites linked to a given page | link:headache.com | Will show all the sites that link to headache.com |
(note: headache.com does not exist – yet)
These are all the search terms I’ve used many times and I thought I would put them up in a way that’s easy to see at once. There are many more terms that I’ve used once or twice but you might find them useful for yourself. A great page to check out is mapelli.info’s “Google Search Tips (Ultimate Google Guide)”.
