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Check spelling
Make sure your search terms are spelled 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's always best to try to spell the
search terms correctly.
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Use multiple words
Using multiple words will return more refined results than a single
word. For example, typing our free product will return more relevant
results than typing just product. (Keep in mind that relevant results
are returned even if they don't contain all query terms.)
Example: our free product
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Use similar words
The more similar words you use in a search, the more relevant your results
will be.
Example: safe secure privacy security
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Use appropriate capitalization
Capitalize proper nouns, and remember that lower-case words will match
any case. For example, typing search will return all documents containing
the words search, Search, and SEARCH. Typing Search, however, will instruct
the search engine to look only for the capitalized word.
Example: Search Template Reference
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Use quotation marks
Use quotation marks to find words which must appear adjacent to each
other, for example, "our pledge to you." Otherwise, the search
results will include the word our, pledge, to, and the word you, but
not necessarily in that order. The words may appear anywhere, and in
any order, within the document.
Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form with radio buttons
for "any," "all," and "phrase," then quotes
can only be used when the "any" radio button is selected.
Quotes are ignored if the "all" or "phrase" radio
buttons are selected.
Example: "our pledge to you"
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Use plus (+) or minus (-)
Use a plus sign when your search term or phrase must appear in the search
results. Use a minus sign to indicate undesirable term(s). The plus
sign tells the search engine that a certain word or phrase is required
in the search results, and a minus sign indicates that a word or phrase
must be absent in the search results.
Note: A phrase must be contained within quotation
marks. Leave no spaces between the plus or minus sign and the term.
Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form
with radio buttons for "any," "all," and "phrase,"
then plus and minus can only be used when the "any" radio
button is selected. Plus and minus are ignored if the "all"
or "phrase" radio buttons are selected.
Example: +"template language"
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Use field searches
Field searches allow you to create specific searches for words that
appear in a specific part of a document. A field search can be performed
on body text (body:), title text (title:), alt text (alt:), meta description
(desc:), meta key words (keys:), URL (url:) or meta target key words
(target:). The field name should be in lower-case and immediately followed
by a colon. There should be no spaces between the colon and the search
term.
Note: The field searches can only be followed
by a word or phrase. Phrases must be contained within quotation marks.
Note: if you are using the Advanced Search Form
with a list box for the field name, then field names can only be entered
before a word or phrase when the "any" option is selected.
Specific field names are ignored if any other Advanced Search Form field
is selected in the list box.
Examples:
title:about
desc:"Our Team"
keys:login
body:security
alt:"join now"
url:help
target:Atomz
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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 standard plus (+) and minus (-)
modifiers, quotes for phrases, as well as the field search specifiers.
+wh* -se*ch will find all pages which have a word that starts with wh
and which does 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.
Example:
wh*
"wh* are"
415-*-*
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