Searching in Google is an iterative process. Here we have listed search syntax and tools which you can use in Google, Google Scholar and other Google products. We do not know exactly how Google uses the functions listed below as Google continues to evolve at a rapid pace, however, these terms and tools should help you with your advanced searching.
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What are you looking for
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Think about how the answer to your search might be phrased on the website. For example search for 'the Gherkin in London is * tall' rather than 'how tall is the Gherkin in London?'
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About the search
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If you press the three vertical dots, you can read more information about the website result before linking through.
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Word order matters
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More weight is given to words that appear first in search string.
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Use many words
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Use as many words as possible in your search.
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Do not use common words
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Google ignores words such as 'the' 'and' and so on, you do not need to include these unless they are part of the phrase or site title you are looking for, in which case use phrase searching.
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Use phrase searching for precision
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As noted above: placing words in quotation marks will search for those exact words in that exact order. However it is unclear whether Google will allow for mutiples in this. For example if you search for "Roman Bath" as a phrase but also wanted to search for "Roman Baths", Google might search for both or you should use both phrases.
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Combination examples
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health site:essex.gov.uk filetype:pdf This would search the Essex government website for a PDF file on health. "Greek temples" site:ac.uk filetype:ppt This would search for a PowerPoint presentation on "Greek temples" in an academic institution (ac.uk).
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Google regularly updates |
The way the search terms work change on a regular basis, so we recommend you experiment with trial and error to see what works for you. We recommend you note down how you are searching and any useful pages (see Collections) to return to those at a later date. |
| Type into Google | Example | Notes | |
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| Increase results | OR | cars OR motorcycles |
Searches for cars and either or motorcycles. The boolean search operator OR needs to be in capital letters.
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| Add terms | cars motorcycles |
Searches for cars AND motorcyles.Google automatically adds 'and' between words.
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| Exclude terms | - | car -motorcycle |
The hyphen or minus symbol is used to exclude a term, searches for car NOT motorcycles.
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| Phrase Search | " " | "electric cars" | Double quotes search for an exact phrase in the exact order of the words. |
| Type into Google | Example | Notes | |
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| Wildcard | * | "Amazon* Forest" |
Use an asterisk* as a whole word wildcard. This works well in conjuction with phrase search.
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| Automatic Stemming | Sustain | Sustain, sustainability, sustainable |
Google does not recognise truncation symbols but uses automatic stemming to search for variations on whole word endings.
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| Automatic stemming does not work consistently on partial word stems | Recycl | recycle |
Recycl will not consistently return results for recycle recycles and recyclable. We recommend you experiment with this! |
| Type into Google | Example | Notes | |
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A word in the title
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intitle:
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intitle:baths
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This will retrieve pages which have the word baths in the title.
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In URL
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inurl:
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inurl:dental
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This would search for any websites with 'dental' in the url of the website.
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Within a specific website
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site:
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library site:bath.ac.uk
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Do not put spaces after the colon. This specific search will look for references to the library at the University of Bath.
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Government sites
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site:gov.uk (or non UK equivalent)
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health site:gov.uk
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This specific search will look for gov.uk websites for references to health. Change 'gov.uk' to other countries or sites. Can just search for site:.co.uk and any site published wtih .co.uk would come up but this would not include .uk.com or .com websites.
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Within a specific source
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source:
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Jupiter source:Nature
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This will search sources with the name nature in with references to the word Jupiter. It may search for the journal Nature.
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File type PDF
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filetype:pdf
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Jupiter filetype:pdf
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This would search for PDFs which search for the term Jupiter. PDF files tend to contain more official information from websites.
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File type Word document
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filetype:doc filetype:docx
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Jupiter filetype:doc Jupiter filetype:docx
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The docx is the later version of document type 'doc'. This would search for word documents which mention the term Jupiter.
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File type Powerpoint
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filetype:ppt
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Jupiter filetype:ppt
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This would search for PowerPoint presentations on the word Jupiter. PowerPoints may not show up to date accurate information, so it is good to check the date on these and whether they are copyright cleared to reference.
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Google mostly ignores punctuation, for example: !?,. Neither is Google case sensitive but it will search for all variants of the hyphenated term.
Example:
Amazon rain-forest
Google will search for amazon rainforest, amazon rainforests, amazon rain forest, amazon rain forests as well as amazonian rainforests and so on.
Google Advanced Image Search allows you to retrieve more relevant images to your search topic as well as finding images with or without copyright. You still need to reference images which don't have copyright, see our images referencing guide.
You can save links, images, and places from Google search results to Collections to find them later.
Important:
This feature may not be available in all languages and countries. To find your Collections, sign in to your Google Account.
Create a collection
.Save items to a collection
You can save images, recipes, shows and movies, and places to a collection.
Add to 
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, there isn't an option to save this item.Tip: The item saves to your most recent collection. To choose a different collection, click Change
Find or remove your saved items
Important: You can delete collections that you created. You can't delete collections created by Google or others.
.Tip: To remove the entire collection, at the right click More 
Share a collection
.The Google Advanced Search form allows you to refine your search so that you can retrieve more relevant results The form does not allow you to build upon your results in the same way that you can do in databases which we subscribe to. However, it is a handy tool for searching in Google.
The Google Scholar advanced search form allows you to carry out advanced searches in Google Scholar. The results you retrieve via the form may not neccesarily be the same when you retry the search. Therefore we recommend you save your searches as you go and export your results to your referencing account. Take a look at our Google Scholar guide for more details.