Search for businesses located in Canada

Search Tips

How does it all work?

Let’s start with an explanation of how search engines (we’ll call them SEs from this point on) actually work.

First, the SEs use automated programs, known as spiders or robots, to index the textual content of websites. The robots start on a site, and by following the links on the site’s pages, travel from page to page, from website to website, building their index or database of all the words they find. At the same time, they collect information about how many links each site has from other sites, and how important the sites providing those incoming links are. (Note: this is greatly simplified – SEs score sites algorithmically based on thousands of different elements)

When a search is typed into the SEs search box, the SE processes the search and shows the website pages that have all the words in the search, ranked according to the combined factors within the algorithm. When those pages are exhausted, the SE displays the sites that are missing one of the words in the search, then two, and so on. Sometimes, if a page with one of the search words missing is really strong in its ranking, it will appear in the results above a page with all of search words. It is important to note that certain words are not “counted”. These are known as stop words. Examples of stop words are “and”, “in”, “to”, etc.

Why is “this page” missing from the list of results?

SEs can only index text. Quite often, what appears to us to be text is actually an image. SEs cannot read text within an image. Nor can they read text (in most cases) contained in a Flash movie. If the search words are not text they aren’t in the index at all, so the SE doesn’t include the page in the results.

SEs can only follow links that they recognize as links. Some links are programmed in such a way that they are not recognizable as links and the SE robots can’t follow them or count them as links.

For years, website owners have been doing whatever they can to their sites to improve the site’s score with the SEs. Many methods site owners use are considered an attempt to artificially inflate a site’s score. The SEs don’t like this, so they have programmed their algorithms to recognize artificial inflation and reduce scores. Sometimes sites are completely removed from an SE index because of attempts at artifical inflation. There have also been occasions when adjustments to the algorithms have affected the indexing and inclusion of thousands of “well-behaved” sites.

There are other, more technical elements of website construction that can adversely affect a website’s potential search positioning, which are not covered here.

How to search

Be specific. Because the SEs make huge indexes or databases of all of the text on websites, you as a searcher can be very specific when conducting a search. The search engine will give the best match(es) for all of the words in your search string, provided it can find them all on a single page. For example, if you are considering purchasing a digital camera, and want to compare features of different models, typing the word cameras in the search box is going to result in a very mixed bag of results. If, instead, you search for digital camera models comparison you are likely to see a number of sites with the information you want on the first page of results.

Your search words do not have to be a logical grouping of words. They can simply be a collection of different words you would expect to find within a page that contains the information you are looking for. For example, the three words orwell satire animal will show results for pages that mention all of these words on the page – exactly what is needed by the student who has to write an essay about George Orwell’s Animal Farm being an example of satire.

Some search sources and tricks

  1. Put the most important word(s) in your search first. Sometimes the word order makes no difference if the number of results for all the words is small, but if the result set is large, it does make a difference.
  2. Use related words – the more related or similar words in your search, the better the results. For example: build building construct constructions murphy bed wall-bed.
  3. Adding a + symbol in front of each word in your search query ensures that the pages found by the SE have all of the words in your query.
  4. Adding a – symbol in front of a word in your search string tells the SE you want pages without that word.
  5. Use quotes around strings of words that must be together. e.g. to find pages containing in the heat of the night as a phrase, put quotes around it. This method can also be used when the stop words are important for a successful search – stop words in a quoted phrase do count. Yes, you can combine quoted phrases and single words in one search, like this: “dancing in the street” jagger bowie. You can also combine quoted phrases with + or – symbols.
  6. If you know the page you want is on a particular site, but can’t remember what page (or how to get there), search within a site by typing site:sitename word word, where “sitename” is everything that appears after the www. in a website name and “word” is your search word, e.g. site:everyonesguide.ca search tips. Again, you can use combinations of words, quoted phrases and symbols for your search query.

There are many specialized search engines on the web. For subject related searches, try these:

  • Wikipedia – an online encyclopedia with information about all manner of subjects, historic figures and more.
  • Internet Movie Database – the IMDB has comprehensive searchable information about movies and television, including actors, directors, producers, writers, composers and technical staff.
  • TV.com – up-to-date information about current and past TV shows, including episode-specific information about story-lines, guests and more.
  • Research Buzz – Research Buzz collects information about a multitude of online information sources for a wide variety of specialized subjects. Just scroll to the bottom of the left column on the home page and find the “Browse by Category” list on the left-hand side.
  • General Information – many universities have huge information and image collections. Try searching site:.edu word word, where “word” is your search word.

For in depth guides to SEs and power-searching try Search Engine Guide.

Of course, if you are looking for local business information, everyone’s guide is available

For information searches, many universities have huge information and image collections. Try searching site:.edu word word, where “word” is your search word.

Power Up Local™ is available in each of the countries listed above.

Power Up Local™ for your business with our Limited Time Offer!