In a recent study by the Ethnographic Research in Illinois Academic Libraries Project (ERIAL), it was discovered that most college students were not very good at searching for useful information. Students were not informed about how search engines like Google organizes and displays results, or how to use effective keywords and terms to yield the most useful results.
This study definitely contains a lot of context in the lives of professionals who rely on search engines to find information for everyday business and personal use. Instead of fumbling around with endless results, there are proven steps to uncover the specific information you are searching for.
Take Advantage Of Keywords And SEO
In order to rank higher in Google searches, companies use a specialized method known as SEO in order to rank their pages higher. By using keywords and links in the text of their website, their pages will appear in more searches from people using a larger variety of search terms. By honing your words more carefully you can find more specific businesses and information that you need. If you are looking for a special pizza joint in town, it is more effective to search for “vegan, gluten-free, Chicago-style, deep dish” instead of just “pizza.”
Monitor Your Sources
It is tempting to just click on the first search result and treat the information as gospel. Unfortunately, the first search result might be an advertisement, inaccurate, or a personal blog by someone with a vendetta. Trusting sources with domain extensions such as .org, .edu, or .gov will provide you with the most accurate and trusted sources of information.
Use Specialized Services Whenever Possible
It is very easy and convenient to just use Wikipedia to find out information about a topic, but it is not accurate 100 percent of the time. Wikipedia is a public forum where anyone can change information at any given time. There are specialized search engines for finding articles and information about specific topics. Business Source Premier is an excellent way to find secondary marketing research while Nexus LexisNexis is suitable for legal documents.
Another type of specialized search are phone directories and information services. If an unknown number starts calling you nonstop on your smartphone and doesn’t leave any additional like text messages and voice mails, you will want to research the caller to find out who it is. Instead of performing a random Google or Yahoo search to uncover your secret contact, there are services such as Anywho.com and other White Page directories that specialize in reverse phone look-up.
There is an endless amount of news, views, and opinions available online. While it is an enriching experience to view as many viewpoints and information sites as possible, it is important to save time and remain efficient while at work or school by searching smart.
8 Comments
Leave a Reply
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Chelsea
September 1, 2011 at 8:25 pm
Keywords are everything in this business! Thank you for sharing your tips.
Mark
September 1, 2011 at 11:06 pm
I am really big into SEO, admin.
And, I have been targeting keywords just to draw traffic to my site.
It definitely works. Actually, that is how I found your blog…;)
Mark
terry
September 2, 2011 at 4:21 am
Yeah.. I am definitely in need of a more effective searching strategy too.. these are very nice tips and it’s just a waste of valuable time if I don’t use these to get results the next time I search for information.. thanks a million..
Azhar
September 5, 2011 at 1:29 am
SEO is a great technique that suits to every guy for organic searches and it is always recommendable. Usually a site SEO is more expensive than its development expenses.
Sandra
September 7, 2011 at 10:50 am
I think people in the SEO business really know how to use search engines and could teach other people a lot.
Maybe you can make another post explaining how to actually find what you are looking for. By using ” ” , * and in url: (for example).
There are so many small tricks for using Google. Just typing a word is just the tip of the iceberg.
kevin
September 8, 2011 at 11:47 am
Well.. I didn’t know all about those till now.. wished I knew this way back.. It would’ve saved me so much time.. tsk tsk tsk..
John Allen
December 20, 2011 at 10:52 am
There has been a lot of changes to SEO this past year, both good and bad, depends on how you look at it. But all in all, Google now promotes new, quality content rather than the old ones based on what I understand. It’s a good thing though because it will benefit the users more that way.
michelle
December 28, 2011 at 10:14 pm
These tips are very good. I am always specific with my keywords, and I never just click on one site when I get my search results, I usually open a few pages up and quickly assess whether they look like a match or not. If I see something I don’t want I just close the page and move onto another one. The internet is an amazing resource if you know how to use it well.