How to Use Google – Search Tips for Better Results

The AND operator will return only results related to both terms. In the example below you can see the perfect use-case of this operator.

eg. html AND css

You can use the OR operator to get results related to one of the search terms you enter.

eg. (javascript OR python) free course

The - operator will exclude results that contain a term or phrase.

Let's say we want to get JavaScript-related results, but exclude any CSS results from them.

eg. javascript -css

You can use the (*) wildcards as placeholders, which will be replaced by any word or phrase.

You can use it when you know almost the whole search phrase. Just replace the part you don't know with an asterisk.

eg. "how to start * in 6 months"

If you want to search for something in particular on a specific website, this should be your approach.

eg. site:freecodecamp.org

You can also use this very useful feature to help you find a specific file type. It's handy if you're looking for some materials like PDFs. If you haven't used it before, from now on you will.

eg. filetype:pdf learn css

This can be anything at all. If you're looking to buy something that falls within a specific price range, or you're searching for results that include a specific range of years, this is for you.

eg. ecmascript 2016..2018

Use the before operator to return only results before a given date.

You must provide year-month-day dates or only a year.

eg. javascript before:2020

Use the after operator to return only results after a given date. You must provide year-month-day dates or only a year. Super useful if you want to exclude outdated results.

eg. web development after:2020