How To Search For Content
All websites depend on one thing, their visitors, but how did they
find your content? Modern analytics tools have evolved to show not
only visitor behavior, but also which links and sources led them to
the website.
Most content creators will quickly tell you the keywords and
the search engine (organic traffic). If you are not mistaken, only
51% of the visitors who receive them are while the remaining 49% are
from different places.
We’re exploring seven steps you can take to get your specific
information online.
1. Change your search engine
Search engines crawl around 625 million active websites to
bring you content. You may like one, but don’t let the habit limit
you. No search engine is perfect and everyone has different blind
spots.
Google generally provides the largest variety of results and
by far the largest list of pages.
However, Bing has more comprehensive autocomplete results
(where the search engine tries to narrow down the search).
Google offers search as part of a wide range of services,
including news and shopping. He also has followers for other engines
like DuckDuckGo® and Dogpile®.
advice:
With specialized search engines, you can do more targeted
searches. For example, you can use Google Scholar® to find academic
papers that might be difficult to find in a normal search. And
Wolfram Alpha comes in handy when you need data and statistics.
2. Use Certain Keywords
Keywords are words you use to find content on the Internet.
If you make your keywords as specific as possible, your search engine
will crawl the information you want.
Suppose you want to find a local supplier to design a booth
for your company. When you type booth design into your search
engine, the results will have several pages on other types of booths,
while typing booth designer will reveal a more concise selection of
companies.
You can further refine your search by including other specific
keywords which are necessary for your search. For example, if you
add your location, there’s a good chance you’ll find someone nearby.
3. Simplify Your Search Terms
Some search engines include stop words in their search. These
are common words such as prepositions (in, of, about), conjunctions
(and, but), and articles (at, the), meaning you’ll end up with more
pages in the results than you need.
Therefore, it is usually best to remove stop words from your
Internet searches. The main exception is when you’re looking for a
specific title or name that includes them.
Also, to avoid plural forms and verb forms with suffixes such
as -ing, -s, or -ed, use the simplest form of keywords. For example,
you will improve the quality of your search results by looking for
services instead of services, or for financed rather than funded or
funded.
4. Use Quotation Marks
When you put quotation marks around a search term, the search
engine searches for that particular word or phrase.
If the word is the same word, the use of quotation marks
eliminates the resulting differences. For example, if you search for
the word director, you are likely to get a lot of results for direct
address, directions, etc. However, typing “director” (in
quotation marks) will ensure that you only get results for that root
word.
advice:
Some search engines allow you to search for specific words by
prefixing them with +. For example, unlike Yahoo, Google no longer
uses this function.
If your search term is a phrase, your search will focus on
that particular phrase, rather than all parts of the word as
individual elements. For example, if you search for the phrase
hiring manager without quotes, your search will return results based
on all words in the phrase (unless it’s a blank word). Enclose the
word in quotation marks. However, brands produce results that
contain that specific word.
5. Remove unnecessary words
Putting a hyphen/underscore/minus sign immediately before a
word will exclude it from the search.
For example, imagine you want to learn more about marketing.
However, you may want to focus on traditional marketing techniques
when the Internet seems to be flooded with digital marketing and
social media testimonials, all of which show up in your search.
Digital marketing copywriting takes the digital out of the
search, making it easier for you to find the information you’re
looking for. Writing social digital marketing will help you get rid
of even more clutter.
6. Refine your search with operators
Other characters or words, so-called operators, allow you to
more precisely refine your Internet search. We check a few below:
Wildcard search: Use the * sign as a placeholder for another
word. For example, a search for *man in the world will yield results
for the richest man in the world, tallest, oldest, etc. Wildcard
searches are also useful if, for example, you don’t know the full
text of a quote.
Combined Search: The OR operator allows you to search for two
or more words at the same time and is especially useful when the
words are very similar. For example, entering sales or retail will
return pages that use either word without both being present.
Another way to combine searches is to use AND. This operator
ensures that you will only get search results containing two or more
words.
Find related sites: Another useful operator is “related”:
when you enter it before a web address you already know, eg.
7. Avoid the Research Traps
When researching online, it’s important to note that many
companies now have employees dedicated to improving their online
visibility. They are constantly changing the wording of their
websites to match the most frequently used keywords, a process known
as Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Therefore, websites that appear at the top of search results may
have great SEO, but that doesn’t mean they have the best content. So
even after you’ve entered the best possible search terms, it’s often
worthwhile to search your search results for the best information.
Respectfully
Vasile,