Social Work Policy Research

Google Search Tips

There are a few ways to conduct more effective Google searches. Use these in addition to your search terms.

1. Use the limiter site: to filter for websites that end in a specific domain.

Examples

• site:.gov  returns sites that end with .gov
• site:.edu  returns sites that end with .edu
• site:.org  returns sites that end with .org

2. Use the same limiter to search a specific website. This can be more effective than using the search feature on a website.

Examples

• site:cdc.gov returns results from the CDC website
• site:aurora.edu returns results from the Aurora University website

3. Use the limiter filetype: to search for specific types of material. 

Example

• filetype:pdf returns only pdf results

Boolean Operators

Use the Boolean Operators AND, OR and NOT to create search statements to enter in databases, Spartan Search, Google, etc.

Examples:

• College AND Technology AND Learning
• (College OR Higher Education OR University) AND (Technology OR Computers) AND (Learning OR Instruction)
• (Technology AND Learning AND Elementary ) NOT College

Wildcards

Wildcards allows you to search for multiple terms with the same root at once by using an asterisk. 

Examples:

• Educat* = Educate, Education, Educational, Educator
• Child* = Child, Children, Childish

Phrase Searching

Search for exact phrases using quotation marks.

Example:

• "higher education": returns results that contain the exact phrase "higher education"