Search engines do not comprehensively search individual Web sites, much less all available Web sites. Individual search engines vary on their depths of searching. Search results are often not ranked by relevance; most likely they are ranked by popularity. Companies and organizations often pay to be among the top results.
Use two or more search engines for more thorough search results.
- Search by topic
- Use synonyms for the disease or condition in search phrases (as lung OR pulmonary, heart OR cardiac).
- Use synonyms for statistics connected by OR in the search phrase (as statistics OR prevalence OR incidence OR data)
- Some examples:
- ("skin cancer" OR "skin neoplasms") AND (incidence OR statistics OR data OR rates)
- (swine flu OR h1N1 ) AND "hospitalization rates"
- "chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder" AND (statistics OR data)
- Search by organization
Many organizations and agencies include health statistics that they collect or that are included in their outside links.
- Search for a known organization using quotes, as "American Heart Association".
- Search the Internet for organizations using at least two search engines .
- Limit by domain
Consider limiting results by domain name through using search engine options.
These entities are often less biased and contain more health statistics than commercial sites (.com)
- organizations (.org)
- government entities (.gov)
- educational institutions (.edu)
