| RECOMMENDATION | EXAMPLE | IMPORTANT |
| Use nouns and objects as keywords | planet or planets | Verbs, adjectives, adverbs, predicate subjects and conjunctions are either thrown away by the engines, or are too variable to be useful. |
| Use 6 to 8 keywords in query | new, planet, planets, discovery, solar, system | More keywords will narrow your results list. |
| Truncate words to pick up singular and plural versions | planet* or discover* | The asterisk wildcard tells the engine to match all the characters after it. This accounts for singular, plural and derivative spellings. |
| Use synonyms via the OR operator | discover* or find | Using the "OR" in a search will help you capture all the possible words that may have been considered by the webmaster. |
| Combine keywords into phrases where possible. | "solar system" | When appropriate combine your words into phrases. Results will be better matched. |
| Combine 2 to 3 "concepts" in query with Boolean operators | "solar system" and "new planet*" | Triangulating on multiple concepts narrows in and targets results. |
| Limit with dates | 1/March/99 to 7/April/99 | Limiting by date will narrow the results to the timeframe your interested in. |
| Case Sensitivity | HTCIA or htcia | When you use lowercase text, the search service finds both upper and lowercase results. When you use upper case text, the search service finds only upper case. |