Getting the Right Pages

Getting to the right page will be influenced by which keywords you select or your search expression. Because Google returns results that match any of the keywords in your query, a good search expression with the right keywords will help you focus your search.

There are four questions you should ask yourself before doing your search. If you keep the answers to these questions in mind when you search, the results will be much closer to those you were looking for:

• What are you looking for? Conceptualize your search by finding the right keywords or create the right search expression.

• Do your keywords have synonyms or related terms? If so, you might want to think about using them.

• Does your search expression have the correct syntax and use the right search operators?

• After your search, were the results relevant to your query? If not, go back and try refining your keywords and search expression in step 3.

Additional features that can assist you in focusing your search are the ability to search similar pages and restricting your search to a single site.

• Similar Pages: Google displays a link under each search result called Similar Pages. This link takes you to pages that are relevant to your search result and most like that particular result.

• Site Search: You can restrict your search to a single site or domain. Type your keywords, then type the word site:, making certain to include a colon, followed by the site address - for example, firefox site:mozilla.com.