You may have encountered a situation where a simple Google Search returned results unrelated to your search intent. When this happens, you can modify your search term to exclude unwanted words from displaying in search results.
In this knowledgebase article, we will show you how to exclude words from Google Search results.
Table Of Contents
1 Use the Minus Sign –
You can use the minus sign to exclude unwanted words from your Google Search results.
To do this, add a minus sign - directly before the term you want to filter out, with no space. For example, searching red might return results about the color, a camera, or a movie.
If you want to exclude the camera from search results, you will include a minus sign before camera. In the below example, you will notice that the search result no longer contains the excluded word.
If you want to remove camera-related results, search: red -camera. You’ll notice the excluded word no longer appears in the results.
To exclude results from a specific site, add the minus sign before the site’s URL, like red -wikipedia.org. This keeps that site’s content out of your search.
If you want to exclude a phrase from search results, you will enclose the phrase in quotation marks "". The minus sign should be added before the opening quotation mark. This targets the exact phrase.
You can exclude multiple words, phrases, and URLs simultaneously, provided you add the minus sign before each item. This refines your results even further.
2 Use Advanced Search
Another way to refine your search is using Google’s Advanced Search option.
To do this, head over to the Google homepage and click Settings at the bottom-right area of the screen. From there, select Advanced Search, as shown below.
Optionally, on a Google Search results page, click the Settings icon at the top-right area of the screen.
Alternatively, on a Google Search results page, click the Tools option in the top-right corner, then choose Advanced Search, as shown below. This will bring you to the Advanced Search page.
Next, go to the field labeled all these words: and type the keywords you want included in your search results. For this, we’ll use red.
Once done, head over to the field labeled none of these words: and enter the items you want to exclude from the search result. You should leave a space between each item and put phrases in quotation marks, as shown below.
Then, move to the field labeled none of these words: and enter the terms you want to exclude. Separate each item with a space, and use quotation marks for phrases, as shown below.
Note: You should not include a minus sign in Advanced Search. Adding a minus sign will reverse the effect and cause the words you are trying to exclude to be displayed.
When ready, click Enter on your keyboard or scroll down and click Advanced Search, as shown below.
You will be redirected to the Google Search results page, as shown below.
You may notice that Google auto-added a minus sign to the words in the quotation marks. You need not worry about this. Sites containing the phrase will be excluded from search results, while those containing the individual words will be displayed.
We hope you are able to exclude words from Google Search. If you have questions, you’re always more than welcome to contact our dedicated support team. We’re available 24/7, 365 days a year…