Quick Tip: Getting the Most Out of Your Search

February 2017    Tags: Newsletter, Search

As you know, one of the greatest features of our online newsletter format is that you can search our entire newsletter archive for quick tips, Q&As, and other helpful articles.

If your results are not what you expected, then try our top five tips for getting the most out of your search:

1. Use quotation marks for exact phrases
   1. If you want more specific results for a certain phrase, then enter that phrase in quotes so the results will only include articles with the same words in the same order. For example, searching for practice management could return 19 results, while searching for “practice management” could return 2 results.
2. Do not use common words and punctuation
   1. Try not to use common words (e.g., a, and) and contractions (e.g., do not instead of don’t, cannot instead of can’t) as they can limit your search results.
3. Do not worry about capitalization
   1. Search engines disregard capitalization, so whether you search for print, Print, or PRINT, they will all return the same results.
4. Drop the suffixes
   1. It’s best to enter the base word so that you don’t exclude relative pages. For example, client and not clients, vendor and not vendors.
5. Use keywords strategically
   1. Search engines do not read sentences the way people do. Asking questions in the search, such as “How do I print statements,” will not receive great results, whereas searching for “print statements” will provide better and more relevant hits.

If you can’t find what you’re searching for, send us an e-mail at newsletter@tabs3.com to submit your idea for a future article!