For search engine optimization all most people need to know is a little basic facts. The information below works for nearly all of the major search engines such as google, yahoo, msn, blingo etc.

Be Specific

The more specific your search is, the more likely you will find what you want. Tell a search engine exactly what you are looking for. It isn't going to bite back- it just might not come up with the answer you want right away.

For example, if you want information about Windows XP bugs, search for "Windows XP bugs," not "Windows" as this will give you a very general view and not exactly what you are looking for. Or even better, search for exactly what the problem is: "I can't install a printer in Windows XP," for example. You'll be surprised at how often this works.

The "+" Symbol

Sometimes, you want to make sure that a search engine finds pages that have all the words you enter, not just some of them. The "+" symbol lets you do this.

For example, imagine you want to find pages that have references to both President Bush and Barrack Obama on the same page. You could search this way:

bush +Obama

The "+" symbol is especially helpful when you do a search and then find yourself overwhelmed with information. Imagine that you wanted to reserve a hotel in Disneyland. You might start out simply searching like this:

Disneyland

Chances are, you'll probably get too many results that don't show exactly what you are looking for or aren't even close. Instead search for all the words you know must appear on the type of page you're looking for:

disneyland +hotel +reservations

The "-" Symbol

Sometimes, you want a search engine to find pages that have one word on them but not another word. The "-" symbol lets you do this. This is one of the least common search tools but works just as efficiently.

For example, you want information about President Bush but don't want a lot of stuff relating to the War on Terrorism. You could search this way:

bush -war on terrorism

That tells the search engine to find pages that mention "bush" and then to remove any of them that also mention "war on terrorism".

The "-" symbol is helpful for narrowing down the search when you get too many that are unrelated to your topic. Just subtract words or phrases you know are not of interest.

Quotation Marks

This tells a search engine to give you pages where the words appear in exactly the order you write. You do this by putting quotation marks around the phrase, like this:

"disneyland hotel reservations"

Only pages that have all the words and in the exact order shown above will be listed.

Finally, general searching.

Somtimes a general word search will get you to a webpage that will get you to the spot you need. For example, you are looking for Microsoft Windos XP bugs. Simply type in Microsoft and it will take you to a link for Microsoft where you can go to their "bugs" section and fix the problem.

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