As much as 30% of Google users have to redo their initial search. That’s because the first attempt didn’t deliver adequate results, often due to incorrect wording. If you’ve experienced the frustrations of bad search results, don’t worry. We’re here to help. Keep reading for tips that will have you searching like a pro in no time.
Here’s the backstory
SEO company SEMrush analyzed the clickstream data it receives from third-party providers to see how 20,000 unique users go about their search business online. The company extracted the first search query and then looked at the next two clicks after these searches. This gave them a good idea of whether the user found an answer or continued their informational quest. According to the data, the total number of unique search queries analyzed was 308,978 for desktop and 146,390 for mobile, reaching 609,809 unique search actions. Most users (almost 40%) searched using three to four keywords simultaneously, while 31% felt confident enough with one to two words. However, many users don’t hit the jackpot on the first try. The researchers said almost 30% of people are either refining or extending their searches in some way. Just over 6% of the users click on Images after their search, but the study also proved the industry joke again that the best place to hide a body is on the second page of search results. That’s because only 0.89% of users continued to the next page.
How to get better Google search results
Don’t stress if you find yourself among the millions of internet users who must go through several searches to find the correct answer. There are a few simple search tricks to turn up way better answers to your questions. Here are some of our favorites:
Type your question into the Google search box, but add the word Reddit before you hit Enter. This filters out any other websites and will only show you helpful posts from the Reddit community. It also works with other websites.Place a hyphen (–) in front of a word you don’t want to have included in the search. For example, a word can have multiple meanings, like bark. If you’re studying trees and searching for bark, add a hyphen before the word bark, so you don’t get results in dealing with dogs.Likewise, you can place a plus (+) sign before any important word. If you are searching for a specific file type, insert filetype: at the beginning of your search if you’re looking for a spreadsheet, PDF, or another document.You can search a website directly by placing site: directly in front of the URL, then follow it with your search term. So it would look like this if you want to find articles on komando.com dealing with iPhone: site:komando.com iPhone.
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