Tips To Improve Search Results
- Checkbox tick selected synonyms (if it's ticked... it will search that word) OR type in synonyms with an "or" block (e.g.
dog or dogs not just
dog).
- Use quotes to tie multiple words together. E.g.
"home loan" not just
home loan. Also don't over-do quotes.
- Apostrophes are allowed. E.g.
McDonald's works better than
McDonalds.
- Abbreviations (dots) are allowed.
St.George Bank not
St George Bank.
- If searching for a popular business or website it will usually be better found via the "backlinks popular" anchor links rather than scrolling through search results.
- If searching a particular website use a site: search as some websites don't mention their name on their product pages. E.g.
site:scorptec.com.au keyboard not
"Scorptec keyboard".
- Use less words or criteria if there are no results. E.g. looking for a
federal govt. payment with
site:nsw.gov.au won't work whereas
site:gov.au does. Also reporting a noisy neighbour with
"epa noise complaint" is better with just
"epa noise" (the word "complaint" brings up complaints about EPA staff).
- Use wildcards. E.g.
utilit* searches utility, utilities, utilitarian, etc. Wildcards are better for 5+ character words (i.e. not dog as it gets dogmatic, dogger, etc.).
- Why not more results? There might be only a few results (or none). Other so called "Australian" versions of search engines are poor at identifying Australian content and use foreign websites to fill results.
- See the
bot page on why pages might not be crawled.
Tutorial: Suffixes/Synonym Suggestions
Wallabyup auto-inserts suffixes (
ing, tion, ly, ed, etc.).
If you search "dog"... the word dogs
68 is inserted in your query,
If you search "adopt"... the words adoption
65 and adopted
8 is inserted in your query.
Note that the supplementary number (68, 65, 8, etc.) is how many times the word appeared in the valued words list of results.
Alternatively you can
type-in "dog or dogs" (in the input field) and it will do the same thing.
To remove the auto-suffix just uncheck the checkbox.
Try a test search looking for a dog to adopt... type in
dog adopt and then click the relevant checkboxes like "pet". Note that suffixes are already checked.
If you wanted to type in your query (without checkboxes) it would be like this:
Wallabyup >
dog or dogs or pet or pets adopt or adoption or rescue.
Colours: In the checkbox suggestions... suffixes are
green. Probable synonyms are default/black. Unlikely synonyms are
red (probably not a synonym).
Tutorial: Site: And Link: Searches
For all below searches;
- Do not include the http or www at the start.
Site: Searches
site: searches all pages on a website.
Wildcards and subdomains: A wildcard is implied to match
subdomains.
Wildcards and pages: If no page is entered (e.g.: cat.com) then a wildcard is implied (returns all pages). If a page
is entered (e.g.: cat.com/) then it is direct match and no wildcard implied and only 1 page cat.com/ will be returned.
Wallabyup >
site:apple.com/au/ gets;
apple.com/au/ (1 result as no wildcard was used)
Wallabyup >
site:apple.com/au/* gets;
apple.com/au/iphone/
apple.com/au/watch/
apple.com/au/airplay/
... and more (Apple
Australia site pages).
Wallabyup >
site:apple.com searches apple.com (including subdomains like apps.apple.com).
Wallabyup >
site:nsw.gov.au searches all NSW government sites.
Wallabyup >
site:gov.au searches all federal government sites (also captures state websites).
Wallabyup >
-site:apple.com iphone removes apple.com (WITH a leading minus) from iphone searches.
Link: Searches
Find who links to a site (also known as a "backlink") using
link:
Do not physically type wildcards (*) as they are implied. Only domains are returned in results... not individual pages.
Wallabyup >
link:dietcalc.org finds all links to my diet calculator.
You can also show backlinks or outlinks in each search result in the "Search Options" toggle.
| Query |
Result |
| +accountant +"trade mark" lawyer |
Use plus signs if search results must include word. Plus searches also work with "or" blocks, e.g. +dog or dogs. You only need one plus sign per block (e.g. not +dog or +dogs). |
| utilit* |
Wildcard searches utility, utilities, utilitarian, utilitarians, etc. |
| veg*n |
Wildcard searches vegan, vegans, vegetarian, etc. |
| pet -dog* |
Searches pet but will not return results with dog, dogs, doggy. Minus searches can be individual or in an "or" block such as; -cat or cats. You only need one minus sign per block (e.g. not +cat or +cats). |
| dog or pet -cat |
Search dog or pet but not return pages with cat. Minus searches work with "or" blocks such as; dog or pet -cat or cats |
| charity or not-for-profit |
Hypened words are allowed. |
| "family history" researcher |
Quotes tie words together to make phrases, e.g. search for a "family history" researcher. Using this phrase removes history of family business results. Note that wildcards are not permitted in quotes. |
| Tick "Many Results Per Website" |
Show duplicates from the same domain. Check the "Many Results Per Website" checkbox to see many pages from the same sites. If it's not checked then 1 page per site is shown in results. |
| site:id.au |
Interesting search: Checkout the personal hobby zone part of Australia's internet with
site:id.au |
| Wallabyup |
Complex search: finding accessible real estate (for disabled or seniors):
accessible or disabl* or seniors propert* or "real estate" |
| Wallabyup |
Complex search: A home loan calculator with an "extra repayments" function:
mortgage or "home loan" calculator extra repayments
|
| Admin Testing (ignore)
Site hammer testing: Car Wrecking+.
Double "or" (with double minus) check: dog or dogs -cat or cats.
Suggests cars for car, charitable for non-profit, charity for not-for-profit, and double word "home loan" for mortgage, dogs/pet adoption/rescue for dog adopt, "or" check dog or pet adopt.
Suburb tests: Camden, 2 NSW locations for Elderslie, 4 states Prospect, Eastern Creek, Sydney.
Misspelling: resccue corrects to rescue.
"Convert to +" works for both single and phrase words: +accountant +"trade mark" lawyer.
Page load time tests: Dog+, Senior+, Mort+.
IP test: ip:103.27.32.5.
Top ranks: census map, co2 by land, diet calculator, snellen chart, buy a house strategy, trigonometry calculator, royal hotel camden, telescopic ramps narellan. |
