How Many Results Do You Wish to Get?

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There is always a limit on the number of search results you can view. It is 1,000 on LinkedIn with any account. On Google, you will not get more than 300-500 results for any search.

If you are a “perfectionist” and always want to see as many results as possible (and maybe with the Verbatim filter), sorry, you are wrong.

For the majority of Google searches, sourcers, as everyone, look just for one, maybe 2-3 top results. We need these searches to gather Competitive Intelligence:

In other types of searches, where you want to see as many results as possible (for example, as many public profiles from a social site as possible) – append &filter=0 to your search URL. You will get more results from each site.

However, remember that the number of search results Google shows is always misleading. You will not get to see more than 300-500 results for any search – even if it shows the number in the millions. The number may change as you go through the pages of results. It may change “the wrong way” if you use Boolean logic on large result sets. Bottom line, ignore the number 😉

Check out my full presentation on Google along with five other recordings on all topics sourcing from seven international practitioners and speakers at our Online Sourcing Learning Day.

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