When it comes to using the internet, many of us find that we are stabbing in the dark when looking for something that we need. This is because of the sheer volume of websites that are in operation and our reliance on search engines is not always the best way to find what you want. Regardless of whether you are a science lab looking for clean rooms for sale, a tenant seeking an apartment to rent or a housewife searching for second hand baby clothes, it is important that we can find what we want in a heartbeat. In order to do this, we need to be smart with what we are looking for, and here is how.
Look Beyond The Pages
Search engines like Google try to find you exactly what you are looking for online based on your keywords. This is all well and good but more often than not, it is the big boy websites that appear first and those with lesser statistics, despite the fact that they could have what you are looking for, are pushed down to the lower pages. Most of us will never look beyond page 2 of Google’s search results but if you want to ensure that you are covering all bases when it comes to what you are looking for, I would urge you to dig a little deeper.
Forums
Forums are a great way to spread the word about a great product, service or website and if you want to make sure that you get exactly what you are looking for, you should take advantage of these forums. The beauty of using forums is that you can hear first hand what someone else though about the website and how their experience was. The combination of discovering something potentially new and hearing about someone who has used it in the past, can really help you find what you are after.
Social Media
Websites such as Google, Yahoo and Bing are not the only search engines out there and you should also be using social media channels like Twitter and Facebook to find the exact thing that you are looking for. The great thing about using social media like this is that you can see the active engagement from the community once you have found what looks like a good service. This engagement will show you in a heartbeat just how reliable the service is and you can make a decision as to whether or not they have what you are looking for.
When I lived in New York, I found a guy in Manhattan selling the best hamburgers on the planet, and he sold them from a small grill on the street. Now, were New York to be a search engine and you searched for ‘where to buy hamburgers,’ you can guarantee that at the top of the search results you would find McDonalds or Carl’s Jnr, and this guy would be on page 3,400,000! For this reason, it is always worth scratching beneath the surface when searching for something online.
