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SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)ARTICLES
Search Engine Smarts
How To Search Smarter
by The Pencil Dude
Sometimes trying to find information online can be an
exercise in frustration... Yep, that's how I feel sometimes
too! This week we're going to take a look at a couple
of ways to search smarter and find what you're looking
for.
The first method that we'll look at is going straight
to where we want to go. Did you know that Yahoo, Hotmail
and Amazon, consistently rank in the top 10 searches
on the Internet? These are actual words that people
type into a search engine's search box.
If you go to most search engines and type those words
in, you will indeed find the sites in question. However,
you'll also get a bunch of listings for other sites
that either have something to do with those sites, are
competitors of those sites or have references somewhere
on their pages to those sites.
Tip #1: The quickest way to get to these and other well
known sites is to simply type in the name, (Yahoo, Hotmail,
BBC, MSN, Netscape...), into your browser's location
or address bar.
OR, if you really want to make sure that you arrive
to your destination, type in Hotmail.com, Yahoo.com,
etc... (note: naturally this supposes that the domain
in question is registered as a .COM). In the case of
UK domains you'll usually have to use the extension,
".co.uk" e.g BBC.CO.UK
A side note on this method of searching. I just read
an article that casts uncertainty about the future of
this type of searching. The company that provides this
technology and sells the keywords that enable you to
go directly to a particular site by typing in a word
in your browser; may be shutting it's doors very soon.
Tip #2: Avoid using common words in your searches, especially
the following: "the", "in", ".com",
"www", "http". These words just
won't help narrow down your search results. Likewise,
searching for "Hawaii" will bring up all sorts
of results. Narrow it down to something like "Private
Resorts Hawaii". In this particular case I found
that enclosing the phrase in quotation marks was a bad
idea, as I didn't get any results at Yahoo!, but I did
get good search results by removing the quotation marks.
Tip #3: Be specific. If you're looking for Woodworking
Plans For Toys, then type that in to the search box.
Otherwise, just searching for Woodworking Plans, may
not be enough. And the keyword, "Woodworking",
will be even less helpful.
Tip #4: Try using quotation marks to help narrow your
search to only webpages that contain the particular
phrase you're looking for. As I noted earlier though,
sometimes that may be too specific and not return enough
or any results at all.
Tip #5: Go Regional. If it's Topographical Maps of Mexico
that you're looking for, then specify Mexico in your
search otherwise you'll be looking at the whole globe.
:o)
Tip #6: Get really regional. Yahoo!, Altavista, Google,
Netscape Search, MSN Search, and all of the other large
guys aren't the only search engines and directories
out on the web. Their sheer mass is also sometimes a
hindrance. That's why it's often a good idea to try
out the smaller local and regional search engines. The
big guys often have regional databases too, but I find
that a lot of them contain sites from countries other
than the country that you're supposedly searching. For
instance, I'm finding all sorts of sites in Yahoo.ca
that belong to companies in the USA. Those sites should
be in the main Yahoo! index instead.
Here's a starting point for all sorts of Regional Specific
Search Engines and Directories: (This URL may wrap or
break in your e-mail so just copy and paste BOTH LINES
into your web browser's location bar):
http://dir.yahoo.com/Computers_and_Internet/Internet/World_Wide_Web/
Searching_the_Web/By_Country_and_Region/
Tip #7: Use the search engines advanced features. Many
search engines have features that you can use to really
go to work on your searches. Try these advanced search
pages:
http://www.altavista.com/sites/search/webadv
http://www.google.ca/advanced_search
http://www.google.com/advanced_search
http://search.lycos.com/main/adv.asp
http://search.yahoo.com/search/options
Tip #8: Don't despair, you'll find what you're looking
for eventually. :o) It may take a few searches before
you find what you're looking for. You may need to try
a different query, you may need to try a different search
engine; they don't all have the same sites and data,
nor do they display the same data in the same way. Just
play around with your search queries, try a different
engine, and you'll find what you're looking for.
__________________
The Pencil Dude, aka Robin Forbes, is the proud publisher
of Pencil Dude's Picks. Check out his chock-o-block
full ezine at: http://www.pencildude.com/
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