To get the best possible search results, try using the following tips:
Use quotation marks around phrases:
Use quotation marks to find words that must appear adjacent to each other within a phrase.
For example, search for "Web Hosting" within quotes rather than just Web Hosting.
Check spelling: Make sure your search terms are spelt correctly. If "sound-alike matching" is turned on, the search engine will attempt to find words that sound similar to your search terms, but it is always better to spell the search terms correctly.
Use multiple words: Use multiple words when performing your search. Using more words for a search will return more results than a search from a single word. For example, to find references to liability, try liability guarantee warranty.
Use synonyms: Use synonyms or closely related words. Using several synonyms will increase the likelihood of finding the information you want. For example, to find information about browsers, try browsers microsoft netscape opera web internet
Use appropriate capitalization: Use capitalization when
looking for proper nouns such as the name of a person or place. Lower-case search words will match document words of either case.
Use Boolean plus (+) or minus (-) operators: Precede a search term or phrase with a plus (+) sign to indicate it must appear in a search result. Precede a search term with a minus (-) sign to indicate an undesirable search term or phrase that must not appear in a search result. For example, searching for "+software-Microsoft" will return results that are about "software", but not about "Microsoft".
Note: A phrase must be contained within quotation marks. Leave no spaces between the plus or minus sign and the term.
Use field searches: Field searches allow you to search
for words that appear in a specific part of a document such as the body text body:, title text title:, alt text alt:, meta description desc:, meta keywords keys: or URL url:. The field name should include the colon and precede the search word or phrase with no spaces between them. For example, searching for title:Microsoft will find pages with the word Microsoft in the title of the page.
Note: The field searches can be followed only by a word or phrase. Phrases must be contained within quotation marks.
Use wildcards: Wildcard searches can expand the number of matches for a particular request. The * character is used as the wildcard character. For instance, searching for wh* will find the words what ,why, when, whether, and any other word that starts with wh. Searching for *her* will find the words here,whether, together, gathering, and any other word that contains her anywhere in the word. Wildcards may be combined with the Boolean plus (+) and minus (-) operators, quotes for phrases and field search specifiers.
+wh*-se*ch will find all pages which have a word that starts with wh and which do not contain a word that starts with se and ends with ch.
"wh* are" will find the phrases where are, what are, why are, etc.
