Transcript Doing better keyword searches

By Abbey Maedgen, Kendra Krause, Lea Ann
Andrus, and Latasia Turner
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How to do a key word search
How to look at our results
How to choose the best result
How to change our key words to find exactly
what we’re looking for
» How fast can a cheetah run?
» 70-75 mph
» What keywords did you use to find that
answer?
» cheetah, speed
» KISS: Keep it simple, stupid. Don’t use too many
words.
example: cheetah, speed
» Think about what you want. What words do you
think the website will contain?
» Use descriptive, specific words. Avoid general
words.
example: cheetah NOT cat
» What if you want to find some information
about cheetahs. What key words would you
use?
» What if you want to find some information
about having a cheetah as pet?
» What if you want to play a cheetah game?
» What if you want to buy a cheetah-print jacket?
» What if you want to get a picture of a cheetah?
» When you do a google search, your results have
3 parts:
Speed of a Cheetah
TITLE
hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/AlexSchuster.shtml
"Someone reportedly timed a cheetah running at 70
URL
mph (114 km/hr) over a distance of 700 yards (640
SNIPPET
meters) But many people accept a likelier top speed
of ...
» Choosing results based on the title:
Does my title show my key words?
Does my title tell me about my source?
“Cheetah Speed: Wikipedia” vs “Bob’s House of Crazy Animals”
Is my title relevant to my topic?
“Cheetah Speed: Music Guide” vs “Speed of Animals”
What’s a snippet?
A sample of text from the website.
READ YOUR SNIPPET!
» Can you understand it?
» Are your key words in the snippet?
» Are they close together or far apart?
» Look at the URL…
» Is this a website you know and trust?
» What kind of website is it?
˃ PERSONAL or PROFESSIONAL?
˃ NEWSPAPER or BLOG?
» Did you pay attention to the domain?
˃ .com and .org can mean anything
˃ .edu is a college
˃ .gov is a government site
» I choose the one that is RELEVANT.
» IT ANSWERS MY QUESTION, OR I THINK IT WILL.
» I choose the one that is RELIABLE.
» I CAN TRUST THIS WEBSITE.
» I choose the one that is READABLE.
» I CAN UNDERSTAND IT.
Can you remember a time when you had trouble
finding what you were looking for? What makes
certain searches hard?
» Find out…”How fast is a jaguar?”
» 35 mph?
» NO WAY! 170 mph!
» Sometimes our first key word search doesn’t
work, so we need to pick new words.
» Can you use a synonym?
» Can you be more specific?
» What words will give you the right kind of
information?
Every word matters.
Try searching for [who], [the who], and [a who]
Order matters.
Try searching for [blue sky] and [sky blue]
Capitalization does not matter.
Try searching for [barack obama] and [Barack Obama]
Punctuation (usually) does not matter.
Try searching for [red: delicious! apple?] and [red
delicious apple]
Pick a topic you want to find
out about and brainstorm
keywords to use in your
search query.
Remember:
Keep it simple.
Use descriptive words.
Think of how the page you
want will be written.
And most importantly:
Think before you search!