Search Google or Type a URL? A Complete Walkthrough [2024 Edition]
Google accounts for more than 90% of the global search engine market. Every minute, there are 5.9 million Google searches.
But should I search Google or type a URL directly?
Itâs not me, around 150k people worldwide search the same question every month. In fact more than 40% of searchers are from the US.
So in this article, Iâll answer this question along with a complete walk through of using Google search. Weâll explore:
But first letâs talk about the origin of this question.
If youâre using Chrome browser, open it. if thereâs no custom homepage, youâll see a Google search homepage.
Youâll see the phrase Search Google or type a URL on your browser homepage and even in the address bar.
Itâs the Google Omnibox feature.
An omnibox is a feature in modern web browsers that combines the browserâs address bar and search bar into one.
You can type either a website address or a search term into it.
Google Chrome was the first browser to have an omnibox. Thatâs why Google is the default search engine when you use Chrome or other browsers based on Chrome.
When you type something into the omnibox and press enter, the web browser decides if it's a web address or a search term.
If it's a web address, it takes you to that website. If it's a search term, it searches the web using your default search engine and shows the results.
Yes, since every modern browser has an Omnibox feature, you can set a different default search engine on each browser.
For example, I have Google as default search engine on Chrome, DuckDuckGo on Firefox, and Bing on Edge browser.
You can also set keyboard shortcuts in your address bar.
So this was basically the right answer to the âSearch Google or Type a URLâ question.
But since this query has a lot of traffic, many bloggers saw an opportunity to grab free traffic.
Thatâs why youâll see a lot of horse poo poo đ© in search results when you type this query.
A lot of low-effort, no value content on page 1, talking about one very basic thing only â How to search a query or enter a URL in Google.
For example, this article literally has a 4 step tutorial on âhow to search on Googleâ.
Wait thereâs more. The second section is about entering a URL in the address bar.
Maybe I should've just Googled "how to internet" in the first place.
But what can I do about it?
Well letâs create a real guide on How to search Google like a Pro and how to visit a webpage via URL safely.
Google Search offers a bunch of advantages that make it a go-to resource for information. Here are some benefits of using Google search.
We all know how to do a simple Google search right? Itâs simple â type a search query in the Google search bar and press Enter.
You can press that mic (đïž) icon and say what you want to search instead of typing the query in the search box.
But do you know you can search using pictures too?
We can use Google Lens to search any picture on Google. This feature is available on both mobile and desktop.
With Google Lense, you can search the entire image or even select a specific area to search in Google, or even better, you can copy and search the text from Image.
You can also translate the text or find the original source of the image using a Google reverse image search.
Now let me tell you about Google search tools that you may have seen on Google search result pages but never explored.
Google search engine tools is a collection of tools that help you refine your search results. You can use them to narrow your search to specific date, topic, site, and much more.
Letâs start with the visible ones. You may have seen tabs like Images, Videos, News, etc on your Google search result page.
These help you find specific media, products, or news related to the query you just entered.
Like on the above page, if I switch to the images tab, Iâll get all the images posted online related to âhow to internetâ search term.
Google will show me popular video content posted on YouTube and other video hosting sites if I switch to the videos tab.
You can also see relevant news by going to the news tab, products by visiting the shopping tab, and books too.
Then we have this little âToolsâ button on the top right corner of the SERP.
With Tools, you can filter results by date, do an exact match search, and explore Google Advanced Search features.
Letâs explore all of them one by one.
Top Google pages are not always what you may be looking for. Sometimes we need the most recent and relevant information about a topic.
You can do it by sorting results by date.
You can see results as recent as the past hour or define your custom date range. This feature is more useful for journalists and researchers.
But how do I search for specific keywords in Google and filter exact match results only?
In 2011, Google introduced Verbatim, a search tool that allows you to see results that exactly match what you entered.
With Verbatim, you get the results that contain the exact words you have searched. Google wonât give you any personalized results.
But Verbatim doesnât work the way Google claims. You often get mixed results.
The better way to search Google with exact match results is using double quotation marks (â...â).
You can also use Google search operators like allintitle to narrow your search to results containing the defined keyword in title.
But how do I remove results containing a word or phrase from my search results?
We can use Google Advanced Search tool for this.
Google Advanced Search helps you refine your searches to find exactly what you're looking for. It goes beyond simply typing keywords into the search bar.
To access Google Advanced Search, you can use the tools button.
Alternatively, you can access Google Advanced Searching using URL. Type google.com/advanced_search in your search and hit Enter.
But how does it work?
Google Advanced Search primarily has 2 sections.
âFind pages withâ section lets you specify which words you want to include or exclude in your search results.
You can use it to search for the exact word or phrase like we did above. You can also use this section to specify words or phrases you want to exclude.
For example I want to search about digital marketing agencies offering e-commerce conversion services for amazon.
But I donât want results containing wordpress in my search.
Letâs see how to do it using Google Advanced Search.
Here we go⊠Google gave me all results for the âdigital marketing agencyâ keyword with specific focus on e-commerce/Amazon niche and filtering out WordPress.
The "numbers ranging from" option in Google Advanced Search lets you find web pages that contain numbers within a specific range.
I used this feature in my recent article on How to Delete Google Reviews to find community posts about review bombing.
The ânarrow your results byâ section allows you to add filters to your search. This is my favorite feature in Google Advanced Search.
This feature helps you find web pages written in a specific language, updated within a certain date range, or in a particular file format.
You can also filter results by domain name, where the keyword appears in the page, and even usage rights.
I often use these filters for finding social media posts and references from any particular website related to my topic.
Thereâs a dedicated article on our blog titled 5 best ways to do a Twitter search without account in 2024, where I used this particular Google Advanced Search section.
With this feature, you can narrow your search engine results by searching relevant keywords within a specific URL.
We can use the âNarrow your results byâ section to target a specific website.
Google will load all results containing the keyword you entered from the exact URL you have provided.
Thereâs a lot more to explore in Google Advanced Search, covering everything in this article will turn it into a book. If you need a dedicated guide on Google Advanced Search, similar to Twitter Advanced Search, ping me on X.
Another cool way to use Google Advanced Search is Google Search Operators.
Google Search Operators are special words or symbols that you add to your search queries to refine and improve your results.
Google Advanced Search is actually a user-friendly tool to add search operators to your search query.
Iâve used some of them above like the double quotes and allintitle operator. Here are some useful Google Search Operators.
Operator | Description | Example |
---|---|---|
"text" | Find web pages where the phrase appears exactly as written. | "climate change" returns results with "climate change" not "climate" and "change" |
site:website.com | Limit search to a specific website. | site:nytimes.com climate change searches for climate change articles on The New York Times website, but not other websites. |
-word | Exclude a word from your search results. | climate change -myth excludes results mentioning "climate change myth", but includes results about climate change without the myth. |
* | Wildcard to match any word or phrase. | best camera * 2024 finds results about the best camera for 2024 (any year after 2024), but not necessarily limited to 2024. You can use it at the beginning, middle, or end of the search term. |
allintext:word | Find webpages where "word" appears within the body text, not the title or URL. | allintext:global warming effects searches for pages mentioning the effects of global warming within the main content, not just the title. |
allintitle:word | Find webpages where "word" appears in the title. | allintitle:sustainable practices searches for webpages with "sustainable practices" specifically in the title, not necessarily the content. |
after:YYYY-MM-DD or before:YYYY-MM-DD | Search for results published within a date range (YYYY = year, MM = month, DD = day). | after:2023-01-01 before:2024-01-01 searches for news articles published between January 1st, 2023 and December 31st, 2023. |
filetype:extension | Find documents in a specific format (e.g., pdf, docx, ppt). | filetype:pdf solar energy searches for PDF documents about solar energy, excluding other file types. |
Hereâs a full list Google Search Operators.
Besides search, you can also do mathematical calculations in Google search.
Though Google search cannot perform complex math calculations. It can understand and process some basic mathematical expressions.
You can enter basic arithmetic operations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division directly into the search bar.
Google can also handle simple unit conversions and gives you updated currency exchange rates.
But you know whatâs amazing about Google search?
Google improves your search experience with many specific search engines.
There are 2 ways to find the latest news articles on any search query.
To find the latest news articles on any topic using Google search, go to the âNewsâ tab on your Google search results pages.
For staying up to date, getting local and international news, you can visit news.google.com which is Googleâs own news aggregator.
Google Maps is one of the top local business listing services worldwide. You can find any type of local business using Google Maps.
You can not only view business listing details, but also see reviews, questions and answers, and exact map locations of a business too.
Planning a trip? Google can help you with that too.
Google has a full search engine cum travel planner called Google Travel. You can use this awesome tool for A to z travel planning.
Not just travel, Google also helps you with academia.
You can use Google Books and Google Scholar to find books and research papers. These tools also support Google Search Operators.
To find books, go to Google Books and type the title, author, ISBN number, or even keywords related to the book into the search bar.
If you're looking for something more specific, you can use the Advanced Book Search.
You can use Google Scholar to find academic research papers, articles, and even case laws.
To find articles and case laws, go to Google Scholar and use the search bar like a regular Google search. Enter keywords or phrases related to your topic.
Google Scholar ranks results based on relevance, citations, and other factors.
Ok so far weâve covered most of the Google search features.
But sometimes you have to collect data from Google, like hundreds of articles or most likely all the search results that appear on a query.
Manually copy-pasting this data in an Excel Sheet can take ages.â
What if we could automate it?
đŠ
Itâs super easy! With Lobstr, you can not only collect Google search results, but also Google Maps data and even Google News articles.
I have already published detailed how-to guides for each automation. Do you check them out for step by step tutorials on scraping Google without coding.
OK, enough about Google search. Itâs useful, I get it but the question remains.
When to use a websiteâs URL directly?
There are few reasons why people visit a website directly by URL instead of doing a Google search.
The main reason is time saving. Going to a website through Google search adds an extra step.
If I know a websiteâs URL and itâs easy to type (e.g. lobstr.io), going through the URL saves me an extra step and itâs a lot quicker.
People often bookmark certain URLs to visit the website even faster.
Itâs also possible that the URL is not indexed in Google. You wonât find the specific information unless you visit the website and go to that specific page.
In my case, if I have to visit Lobstrâs Blog or Store pages, I can use Google search.
But if I have to go to the Lobstr App to use a scraper, going through Google search is not the solution. Itâs not indexed in Google.
I simply type the URL and it takes me directly to the dashboard.
Another reason is avoiding wrong websites. Itâs highly possible that 2 websites share the same domain name with different TLD.
For example, "lobstr.io" is a no-code web scraping tool while "lobstr.co" is a crypto wallet.
If a user types âLobstrâ in search, he can go to the wrong website. In this case, itâs better to type web address.
There are definitely some risks when visiting a URL directly, especially if you don't recognize the website.
Visiting an unknown website without taking any security measures can put you at risk of:
To avoid security threats, make sure you follow these tips before visiting a website.
So these were some tips to make all your website visits secure. Now letâs answer some FAQs before concluding this article.
Google Autocomplete predicts your searches based on popular searches, what's trending locally, and your past searches (if signed in).
Not directly. Clicking through Google Search itself isn't a confirmed ranking factor for Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
However, increased organic traffic from relevant searches can indirectly benefit SEO.
Yes, Google remembers your searches to show you results, suggestions and recommendations you'll actually like.
You can make Google your default search engine in Safari by following these steps:
Thatâs a wrap on my Google search guide. Hope you now know what âSearch Google or Type a URLâ actually means and which one is better.
Do try Lobstrâs no-code scrapers to collect Google search results, Map listings, and News without coding and for free.
Self-proclaimed Head of Content @ lobstr.io. I write all those awesome how-tos, listicles, and (they deserve) troll our competitors.