Get More Out Of Google

Most Google searches are pretty straightforward: you type in some keywords, and Google does its best to find web pages that match. But Google offers extra features to help you refine your search and get better results.

If you look to the right of the search, you'll see the words “Advanced Search” in small letters. Clicking this link will take you to Google's Advanced Search form. It might look overwhelming at first — but once you get the hang of it you'll be searching like a pro.

Here are some of the more useful features:

Exact Phrase — A typical Google search finds pages that contain the keywords you entered in any order. An exact phrase search finds web pages that contain your keywords in the order you typed them.

An exact phrase search is useful when you're finding too many off-topic pages. You can do an exact phrase search directly from Google's home page by putting quote marks (" ") around your search phrase.

Without a Word — Another good way to avoid off-topic pages in your search results is to exclude a word. With the “without the words” option in Google's Advanced Search, you can make sure the pages you get back won't contain the word you want excluded.

For example, try a search for “health insurance” without the word “quote.” You'll get dramatically different results. You can exclude a word directly from Google's homepage by putting the minus sign (-) directly in front of it.

Filetype — Google doesn't just find web pages. You can use Advanced Search to find Microsoft Word and Excel files, Powerpoint presentations, and Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Not only is this an easy way to track down useful documents, but it also raises an important point: be careful what you put on your web server. That spreadsheet you keep of all your clients' contact info? You probably don't want that up on your server where anyone can run a search and find it.

You can run a Filetype search from Google's homepage by putting “filetype:” and the file extension (.doc or .pdf, for example).

Domain — Want to limit your results to just one website? Use the Domain function. Enter a domain name (a website address), and Google will return matches to your keywords from website only. And if you use the Domain search without entering any keywords, Google will return all the pages it knows about for a site. This is a good way to see how much of your site has made it into Google's index.

You can do a Domain search directly from Google's homepage by typing “site:” and a web address.

These are just a few of the tools Google's Advanced Search offers. You can find out more by reading their Advanced Search Tips.