Search Tips

The search box at the top of each web page is a basic search which only searches across information on our partners’ websites and not the world wide web (WWW. If you find no search results at all, further search options are made available.

• Can I use things like * when I search?
• I've noticed that my chosen search terms can affect the effectiveness of my searching
• Does it make a difference to use upper or lower case for my search terms?
• Should I use one or several words when I search?
• Why does the search sometimes ask 'Did you mean'?
• Why do these check boxes sometimes appear?
• What's the best way to use the Advanced search?
• When I perform an Advanced search, using 'exact match' and 'without the words', I get an error.
• I tried using the Advanced search and still can't find what I'm looking for
• If all else fails..

Can I use things like * when I search?
When you use the simple search (at the top of the website), you can use punctuation, as follows:

• Use an asterisk (*) for wildcard searching. For example, searching upon: plan* would find many words beginning with 'plan', such as 'planning', 'plans' and 'planned'. Of course, you will have a greater chance of finding what you want if you combine this type of search with something more specific. For example, you may be searching for details of 'waste planning'. Using the search term: waste plan* may help you to find the information

• Use plus (+) or minus (-) to increase or decrease the importance of a word in your search term. For example, you can search for: +canal -paths
  This would give more emphasis to the word 'canal', over 'paths', in your search results.

• Place a phrase within double quotes (""), to make the simple search treat the words as a phrase. For example, you may search for: "youth clubs"

When using the advanced search, punctuation is not required. The 'all', 'any', 'exact phrase' and 'without' boxes do the job for you.

I've noticed that my chosen search terms can affect the effectiveness of my searching
Yes, the words which you search upon can make or break you quickly finding the information that you want. It does help to be as specific as possible in your search terms.

Here are some examples to illustrate this:

• You want information on the Attendance Allowance.
  Searching upon 'money', 'help for carers' or 'allowance' may eventually lead you to the information. However, you'll find it much faster if you search upon 'Attendance Allowance', using Title Case or UPPER CASE, as this is the official Government term for this benefit.

• You want to find the location of Woking library.
  Searching upon 'Woking' alone wouldn't be very helpful. Searching upon 'Woking library' would more easily find what you're looking for.

Does it make a difference to use upper or lower case for my search terms?
Yes it can. If you use lower case, the search will find all the words it can which are similar to your search term. For example, if you searched on 'housing benefit', the search would also look for words like: houses, housed, benefits, benefiting, Housing, Benefit, Benefits.

If you search for upper case 'HOUSING BENEFIT' or title case 'Housing Benefit', the search will only look for these exact words. The reason for this is that the search treats words beginning with a capital letter as names, so it will give you exact matches for your chosen words.

Should I use one or several words when I search?
It's best to be as specific as possible when you search for something and we strongly recommend using more than one word. Using just one word, unless it is very uncommon, wouldn't be very helpful. To illustrate this, here is an example of some information which we wish to find, and three ways of searching for it, one fruitful and the other less so:

At the time of writing, it has been 'International Walk to School Week'. This has involved children walking to school in the form of a crocodile escorted by parental volunteers. A parent of these children may have been interested to see what was reported on our website.

• Choosing a single, uncommon word to search upon: You wouldn't normally expect to find very much information about crocodiles on SurreyOnline's website, so choosing to search upon 'crocodile' would provide a good chance of finding the above information, as it would yield very few relevant results.

• Choosing a single, commonly used word to search upon: Try finding the same information by searching upon 'school' would yield several hundred results, from which it would take a very long time to find what you were looking for. This is the worst option of all.

• Our recommended search terms for this example: As we know the name of the event, searching upon the words 'International Walk to School Week' would yield the best results of all.

Searching on more than one word gives the search a greater chance of providing you with more relevant search results. This is because it can take into account things like, how close these words appear to each other in our web pages, and how often they appear in our website. These and various other factors determine which pages appear at the top of your search results. The most important factor being your well chosen search terms.

Why do these check boxes sometimes appear?
When you are presented with this type of check box, the search has looked at your chosen search word(s) and is suggestiong options which you may use to further narrow down your search. You can then choose the most relevant suggestion and press the 'Go' link.

The example check boxes (above) were suggested when we searched on 'term dates'. We received search results for 'term dates', but were also given the suggestions 'colleges and universities - term dates', or 'schools - term dates' to choose from. We can then narrow down our search.

Why does the search sometimes ask 'Did you mean'?
If you accidently mistype your search words, the search will try to help by suggesting another word or phrase. For example, imagine that you want to search for 'grass cutting', but you mistype this as 'gras cutting'. The search will ask: Did you mean: 'grass cutting'. If you click on the suggested term, a new search is performed for you.

Occasionally, the search will ask 'Did you mean?' when you haven't mistyped your words. This is because it knows that a similar word exists in our website, and the search thinks that you may have been interested in searching for that instead.

What's the best way to use the Advanced search?
It all depends upon what you are trying to find and how much you know about the subject. You might only use one or two search input boxes, or you may find it useful to select a check box. Here are a few examples to illustrate what we mean:

• You want to find information about Horley Infant School.
  Type 'Horley Infant School' in the 'With the exact phrase' box, then select the 'Schools within Surrey' check box and press 'Go'.

• You want information about a school. You don't know the exact name, but you know it's in Bridge Road, in Molesey.
  As you're sure of the spelling, enter 'Bridge Road' in the 'With the exact phrase' box, then enter 'Molesey' in the 'With all the words' box, then select the 'Schools within Surrey' check box and press 'Go'.

• (You may wonder why we didn't suggest entering 'Bridge Road Molesey' in the 'exact phrase' box. The reason is because we can't be sure that those three words appear exactly in that order on the page we're trying to find. So, it's safer to search on the two words that we know appear in this exact order, 'Bridge Road'.)

• You've heard that there is a publication about the new Walton Bridge and want to know more about it.
  Type 'Walton Bridge' in the 'With the exact phrase' box, then select the 'Publications produced by Surrey' check box and press 'Go'.

• You want to find out about a Carers Allowance, but not one involving caring for children.
  Type 'Carers Allowance' in the 'With all the words' box, and type 'children' in the 'Without the words' box, then press 'Go'.

  Use the Advanced search

When I perform an Advanced search, using 'exact match' and 'without the words', I get an error
When you choose to search for an 'exact match', the search is looking for exactly the words which you've chosen to search for. If you then say 'without the words', an exact match can't be performed, because you wouldn't be asking for an exact match any longer. Instead, use either 'with all the words' or 'with any of the words' options. These, combined with your option to search 'without the words', will be more fruitful.

If all else fails...
If you are not able to find the information that you are looking for using any of these methods, it is likely that this information is not available on the organisations’ websites. If you are consistently unable to find the information that you are looking for, or have any other comments on SurreyOnline, please contact us through the ‘Feedback’ link at the bottom of the page.