We’ve all been there before. You’re looking for something specific on a website, but no matter how many clicks you make, you just can’t seem to find what you’re looking for. The frustration! The agony! The…waste of time. But there’s no need to pull your hair out just yet. There is a way to search within a website using Google, and it’s called Google Site Search.
What is Google Site Search?
Google Site Search is a tool that lets you use Google to search within a specific website. So, if you’re looking for something on the Daily Mail website, for example, you can use Google Site Search to help you find it. All you have to do is type “site:dailymail.co.uk” into the Google search bar to view the entire content of the website:
How to Use Google Site Search
To search for a specific topic, type in “site:dailymail.co.uk” followed by the keywords you’re looking for. For example, say you’re looking for an article about the late Queen Elizabeth on the Daily Mail website. You would type “site:dailymail.co.uk queen elizabeth” into the Google search bar, and voilà—up come all the articles about Queen Elizabeth from the Daily Mail website. No more clicking around aimlessly!
Advanced Google Site Search queries
Now that we know what Google Site Search is and how it works, let’s take a look at how we can put it to use.
First things first: open up your web browser and go to google.com. In the search bar at the top of the page, type “site:” followed by the website you want to search within—for our purposes, we’ll use dailymail.co.uk again. Then, add a space and type in the specific keywords you’re looking for—in this case I want to view all articles relating to the Queen’s passing. In this case I can add multiple keywords, so we’ll use “elizabeth death” Hit enter/return on your keyboard, and voilà—there are all the articles about the Queen’s passing from dailymail.co.uk! Pretty neat, huh?
More advanced tips
- To exclude words type a minus before the keyword: -keyword
- To find specific words add quotation marks: “keyword”
- To search specific topics, type OR between your topics and/or phrases: “keyword” OR “keyword”
Conclusion
Google Site Search is a handy tool that can save you a lot of time when you’re trying to find something specific on a website. Give it a try next time you find yourself clicking around aimlessly—you might just be surprised at how helpful it is.
