The 6 best tips and tricks to searching Google like a pro

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The 6 best tips and tricks to searching Google like a pro

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Google search couldn't be easier to use. But like most Google products, there's a surprising amount of depth to the search bar than you might think.

Inserting certain symbols into your Google search, for example, can limit millions of potential results so you only see the ones that are actually relevant to you.

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Here are the six best tips and tricks to Google searching like a pro.

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Putting quotation marks around your search helps you find exactly that word or phrase.

Putting quotation marks around your search helps you find exactly that word or phrase.

If you search "Dave Smith Business Insider," for example, all of the search results will have those search terms in them.

Adding a dash, or hyphen, before a word will exclude that term from your results.

Adding a dash, or hyphen, before a word will exclude that term from your results.

So if you search "raptors -toronto -nba -basketball," you should find search results about raptors that don't have to do with the Toronto Raptors.

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If you add a tilde — that squiggly symbol "~" next to your 1 key — before any word in a search term, that word’s synonyms will also appear in the results.

If you add a tilde — that squiggly symbol "~" next to your 1 key — before any word in a search term, that word’s synonyms will also appear in the results.

So if you search "basketball ~lessons," you'll also get results about basketball training, coaching, classes, and results of that type.

If you search “site:anywebsite.com” before any of your search terms, you will get results that are only on that particular website.

If you search “site:anywebsite.com” before any of your search terms, you will get results that are only on that particular website.

So if you search "site:businessinsider.com apple," you will only find Apple- (or apple-) related stories from Business Insider.

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If you put a vertical bar — like this “|” — between your search terms, Google will give you websites that have any or all of the terms. The vertical bar operator basically means “OR” to Google.

If you put a vertical bar — like this “|” — between your search terms, Google will give you websites that have any or all of the terms. The vertical bar operator basically means “OR” to Google.

So if you search for "jacket | blazer | cardigan" your results will have any or all of those terms.

If you put two periods between two numbers, Google will give you results within those number ranges.

If you put two periods between two numbers, Google will give you results within those number ranges.

So if you search "top songs 1980.. 1990," Google will show you the best songs between 1980 and 1990.

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What are your favorite Google tricks?

If you have a trick to Google searching that isn't listed here, let us know! Shoot me an email at dsmith@businessinsider.com.

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