Using Unique Language in Your Searches

The results of any given search will have a tendency to be general. If you search for the word “cat” you will not get a page about a particular Burmese kitty or the problems with Persians. Instead you'll get a general cat page.

Specialized words and vocabulary slant the results of your search to more technical and specific results. Do a search for cat and see what you get. Now do a search for cat "dew claw". The results become much fewer and very cat-oriented. (The phrase “dew claw” just isn't used casually.) Finally, search for cat "dew claw" alopecia, and suddenly you have less than ten results.

You're going to use your unique language that's relevant to your subject to slant your results to your topic. When you find your results are too general, not relevant to what you want, you're going to put your unique words in a query to bring the search back to what you want.

Let's go all the way back to the hydrocephalus example. You want to get a sense of the tests that are used to diagnose hydrocephalus and its possible side effects. You find that the simple search hydrocephalus tests doesn't get the results you want. So you add a word oriented toward hydrocephalus—”spina bifida.” From there you can add another word—”neurological,” perhaps—or swap out words. The point is to start with a basic search that encompasses what you want, and then use the unique words you've found to “salt” your search and get it more oriented to the results that you want.