10 Ways to Control Google Search Results
Are you looking for a particular text from a book and didn't find it yet? Or are you looking for a website you heard about but not sure about its URL extensions? Then, here are few simple tricks to find them.
What It Means by 'Controlling Search Results'
To dominate Google search results, it needs some special tricks. Otherwise one might end up getting irrelevant results that leads nowhere. To get an idea of what it takes to find the best results, it becomes necessary that one has some knowledge of how Google works, if not an in-depth one. Hence aiming to get the best search results without any second attempt, is neither every time a child's play, nor is it a matter of luck, here I have jotted down the tricks following which you won't be wasting any more time on finding the needle from the haystack.
Google is a search engine that works on the keywords you enter in the search box to find information on certain topics. Sometimes it could be a website, a definition, or a book. What we mean by controlling search result, is to take out the most relevant results on what was searched for. The search is considered successful when the user receives the relevant piece of information on the first attempt itself and need not go for another search procedure henceforth.
To achieve this, here are few tips or tricks that are penned down to help the users to optimize their search results.1. Making the search keywords short:
The first criterion to achieve the best search result in one shot is making the keywords short and direct. Focus on using only the relevant words especially the names or topics you are looking for and that would optimize the search result in most cases in one go. The usage of a full sentence or a descriptive one is too much to ask from Google. Rather, only the vital words that carry most of the related information should be used like a small phrase, as that would be easier for Google to look for the relevant pages, websites, paragraphs or sentences. So the more you can make it short, the more you can go closer to the accurate results.2. Usage of Quotes:
If the search is all about a particular phrase, sentence or a paragraph in the web, the best way is to use Double Quotes. The use of using double-quoted words gives a set of instructions to Google to find the exact words sequence without making any change or including any other words into it.3. Use Syntactical Power:
If the search is really important to you, you need to work a little harder in advance. You need to do a bit of research, to find the words or phrases rather say, the accurate syntax that best describes the search. With this use of syntax, one can turn the Google Search into a really powerful investigating tool that can find out what is the exact information that was searched for.4. Instruct Google not to Include Certain Words:
For those who have some experience with the Google search, would find it familiar, that whenever Google is asked for something, it has a tendency to include certain synonymous words or sometimes those that have a similar spelling but is nowhere near to its meaning. So, if you can anticipate, what it can come out with, try the (-) minus sign to underline those words that you do not want at all to be listed among your search results and waste the bandwidth. Make sure to use the sign just before the specific word. It should be preceded by a space so that it does not appear similar to the hyphen.5. Do Not Ignore the Google AutoComplete
It must have happened to you each time you searched something on Google, that a few related word phrases appear in a drop-down list as suggestions. This happens because of the Google Autocomplete feature that is considered as one of the most standard benefits of search engines. The word of advice is, you should not ignore these lists If that comes with a good match with the one you are searching for. It so happens that, in most of the times, people searching for the same topic alerts Google of its importance, and as a result, the most relevant search results get already listed for those predetermined search words. So, if you select one from them, it is more likely that you get the best results that Google has already kept ready for you. 6. Search a Website with the Main Word:
Sometimes it so happens, that we get to hear about certain websites, but forget or get confused with its domain extensions. For example, we don't really remember, if it ended with .com, .in, .org or .edu and so on. So, if that the case with you, type the name of the website without any extension. All the websites with the same name would appear and from there you are surely going to find your particular one.
There are a few more ways in which things work faster, though those should not be followed while searching for the first time. But even after following the above steps do not get you the desired results, then these might work for you. 7. Changing the order of words:
When a certain combination of words doesn't work, try the same words with a different order.8. Taking the hint from browser history:
If you are unable to track back a particular page, which you visited earlier, use your browser history to get it back.9. Not to use synonyms:
It is always better not to use synonyms in the same key phrase to get the best results, otherwise, Google will include the result of that synonym too.10. Place the most important word first:
To arrive at the most relevant pages, make sure you follow the first come first formula.The Bottom Line
if nothing from the above works for you, then looking through a broader search category can sometimes prove to be a better way. There are instances when a few pages get clubbed or subcategorized within a broader category, because of which they don't show up on the first page of search results. A broader search category would bring everything together, though it would become a little time consuming to find the one you are looking for.
So, now that you know how to make Google work for you, searching wouldn't be any more a great deal.
