Make sure your search terms are spelled correctly. If Sound-Alike
Matching is turned on in the advanced search options, 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.
Sound-Alike Matching in on by default in the basic search.
Sound-Alike Matching would match words "search" or
"template" in this example:
Using multiple words will return more refined results than a
single word. For example, typing "our free service"
will return more relevant results than typing just "service".
(Keep in mind that relevant results are returned even if they
don't contain all query terms.)
The search below would return higher relevant results for pages
containing all three words than would a search for "service"
alone:
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.
The search below would match "Search Template Reference"
but not "search template reference":
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.
The search below would match "our pledge to you" but
not "pledge our you to":
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.
The search below would match a page only if the phrase "template
language" was present:
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:
The word "about" must be in the title
The word "security" must be
in the body
The word "help" must be in the URL
The phrase "join now" must be
in the alternate text
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:
Matches "where" but not "anywhere"
Matches "there" and "thermostat"
Matches a page where a word starts with "wh" and does
not contain words like "search"
Matches a phrase starting with "wh" and with the word
"are" next, such as "where are you"
Matches any text starting with "415-" and containing
a "-" in it, such as 415-555-1212
