Refining your Google searches

If you’re like me, you use Google and similar search engines frequently and know a few tricks to make your searches as useful as possible.

Here are a few tips you may or may not use – and if you have some others, please add them to the comments so I can learn them, too!

• restrict a search to one site by using site:wordconstructions.com.au
• search for something specific on only one site by using the word and the site only command report writing site:wordconstructions.com.au
• find the definition of a word with define:gerund
• exclude a term from your search using a minus sign, so writer -fiction will bring results for writers without mention of fiction writing
• include all similar uses of a word or term by adding the tilde sign; for example, ~ article
• maintain certain spelling of a word or term with a plus sign so + Sidney will not bring up all the Sydney sites in a Sidney search
• use * to replace any word, such as in professional * writer
• find related sites usingrelated:wordconstructions.com.au
• find a specific file type in a search – if you want to find only word docs about spelling, for example, you enter spelling filetype:doc
• find all sits linking to a site or page usinglink:www.wordconstructions.com.au
• do a general search without risk of finding inappropriate (ie adult) content using safesearch:breast   cancer
• find out about a specific page usinginfo:www.wordconstructions.com.au/ebook.php
•  use quotation marks to refine the search to your exact term; that is, “business writer” will give results about business writers only rather than results for all references to writer and/or business

Hope they help!