Guy's working on his laptopMany of us rely on bookmarks to the sites we use most often. What happens when the bookmark disappears, or when you never had a bookmark in the first place? Google search! Here are a few tricks that can make Google searches even more productive.

1. Search for exact phrases
If you want to find an exact phrase putting quotes around it will return only pages that contain that exact phrase, and you won’t have to sift through pages that contain the single words of your phrase spread throughout.

oaks in the landscape vs “oaks in the landscape”

2. Search one website instead of the whole web
Are you only interested in pages on the CAES website? Type “site:” and then the name of the site you want to search.

leave form vs site:uga.edu leave form

3. Exclude unwanted words
Does a certain word keep popping up that isn’t what you’re looking for? Put that word in your search with a hyphen in front of it to exclude that word from search results. You can exclude phrases, too, using double quotes.

commercial vegetable production vs commercial vegetable production -shop -buy

4. Use precise words
Writing good searches takes practice, but here are some general guidelines.

  1. Use only a few words at first, add more as you go.
  2. Use specific, technical words.
  3. Use phrases rather than sentences.

where do I take my child for project achievement? vs “Project Achievement” Georgia 4-H

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