Improve your Google-fu

Tips & Advice

We all need help finding things from time to time, especially when we’re looking for things on the web. For most of us, Google is our first port of call when searching online. Currently Google answers over 400 million queries per day but sometimes sifting through the answers can be time consuming.

In this blog post we’ll highlight a few simple techniques that can help you to streamline the search process and improve your Google-fu.

Improve your Google-fu with Quentin James Design, Preston

Few Google users know that adding a + (plus) sign before a word in your search forces Google to return results, where only websites that feature that particular word are shown. For example searching for ‘+Quentin Web Design Preston‘ will only show results that feature the word ‘Quentin’. Conversely adding a – (minus) sign before a word in your search excludes that particular word from the results.

Wrapping your search phrase in “” (double quotation marks) will only show results with the entire search phrase in that specific order. As an example a search for “Quentin James Graphic Design” will only return results for web pages with this exact attribute.

Inserting an * (asterisk) into a search will fill in the blanks, so in the search ‘Quentin * Website Design Preston‘, the results will show web pages for ‘Quentin James Website Design Preston’.

To search just one particular site, for example this one, simply type your search phrase, in this case ‘website design preston’, followed by ‘site:www.quentinjamesdesign.co.uk’. You can see the results by following the link ‘website design preston site:www.quentinjamesdesign.co.uk‘.

To improve your Google-fu further and for additional information on these tips for searching and even more advanced search techniques, visit the Google Support pages.

"Quentin is quick to understand what you need and even helps fill in any gaps where you've not quite thought of everything."

"If you need design work that's going to actually help produce sales, he's the man!"

Jon Price

Complete Care Shop

"We have used Quentin for design work ranging from the design of infographics and websites through to a large majority of our own branding and print material."

"Quentin is quick to understand a brief and always delivers outstanding work on time and on budget."

James Brockbank

Digitaloft

"Quentin has provided an excellent service to Catapult PR over many years and always produces fresh and exciting treatments."

"His right-first-time approach saves valuable time on every project and he backs his design work with excellent advice."

Jane Hunt

Catapult PR

"Quentin has a great ability to create a creative piece from a vague brief."

"A pleasure to work with and we will be using Quentin James Design again."

James Conlon

Niavac Ltd

"Quentin James Design took on the brief of producing an important presentation for us quite last minute."

"The finished article was excellent and perfectly balanced for the audience involved."

Greg Clementson

G&P Batteries Ltd

"What I loved about the way in which Quentin worked is that he gave me options in terms of the design."

"He interpreted my rather vague brief with speed, quality and an intuitive sense about what I needed."

Georgia Parker

Find Your Inner Unicorn

"I found Quentin James Design very easy to work with and understanding of my needs."

"Having had the initial discussion Q came back with various options and from there on in through regular discussions he produced a website design that I'm proud of."

John Ashton

VJA Consultancy

"Quentin is full of innovative ideas, works quickly and thoroughly and is a great communicator."

"I would highly recommend Quentin James Design if you are looking for a partner for your business."

Elizabeth Downing

Green Monkey AV