{"id":13593,"date":"2017-09-16T10:44:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T14:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=13593"},"modified":"2017-09-16T10:44:50","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T14:44:50","slug":"power-searching-with-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/power-searching-with-google\/","title":{"rendered":"Power Searching with Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

Power Searching with Google<\/h1>\n

In our InfoAve Premium newsletter, issue #727,<\/a> in our Site of the Week section, we featured, “Be a Power Searcher with Google’s Free Online Courses”.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0We did a feature on Google’s power searching courses because we know how important it is to be able to find what we are looking for as quickly as possible. But time is not the only consideration, accuracy is just as important. Finding what we are looking for accurately and quickly does not happen by chance. It happens because we type in the most succinct and accurate search terms every time. If we don’t then we waste time – and so do you.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But we also know many people, including ourselves (sometimes) can be adverse to taking courses to learn new things. Many people (including us… sometimes) think they already know the best way to do things. But, most of us, if we are honest with ourselves, will admit there is a lot we don’t know. And when it comes to searching, there’s a whole lot we don’t know. For instance, did you know that you can use the color of a book cover to help you find a book? You can and it’s really a cool way to search. We were not aware of that yesterday, but today we’re a bit smarter.\u00a0 How many of you knew you could search for things by color? It’s covered in the Power Searching with Google courses\u00a0offered free of charge from this page<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We know that a lot of people don’t want to spend time taking courses, but we are pretty sure if you take this course, you’ll end up saving ten times the time it took you to finish the course. No guarantees though, right EB?<\/p>\n

We’ve gleaned one of the lessons from the course and posted it below, all due respects to Google’s intellectual rights and so forth. But we thought this would encourage you to visit this page<\/a> and start the\u00a0 Power Searching with Google course.<\/p>\n

Here are just some of the many helpful things you’ll learn. If you complete the entire course, you’ll be a power searcher!<\/p>\n

\n

Lesson 1.4: The art of keyword choice<\/span><\/h2>\n

Access Lesson 1.4 slides here
\n<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

…In the last lesson, engineer Matt Cutts talked about how search works. Now you should be thinking: How can I apply that knowledge to choose better words to use in your query?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

Sometimes you have to try a couple of different queries to focus in on the information you want, trying different combinations of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>keywords<\/span>. \u00a0<\/span>Keywords<\/span>\u00a0are the most important words in your idea or question\u2014they tell the search engine what you are seeking. They can also be called<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>search terms<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you get ready to type in a query, think for a moment about what you really want to find. One way to do that is to consider what words you think will appear on the page that would have the perfect answer. Imagine that page for a moment. How would someone else write about it? That is actually an important skill: how do you put yourself in the mindset of the author who wrote your perfect page?<\/span><\/p>\n

So, consider three things:<\/span><\/p>\n