The Internet has become the financial hub of the known Universe. You can find anything you want online, from stock trading, to mortgage loan applications. With the uprising in new websites available, it is inevitable that over-all quality will decrease. It has become very difficult to determine which websites are actually helpful and which ones are simply spam. One way to help reduce the amount of bad, irrelevant results is to educate your self on effective keyword search techniques.
As an example, I will demonstrate effective techniques for searching for an auto loan on any popular search engine. For the most part, the top search engines are Google, Yahoo, and MSN. Search techniques for each are basically identical. There is no reason to change the way you look for things on each individual engine.
For example, I will be posing as a consumer with credit trouble interested in getting a car loan. The First mistake people make is usually being too general in their search term. If you simply search for the term "loans" You will find a wide variety of different websites offering everything from "home loans" to "payday loans". You need to be more specific.
A good analogy to use is what I call "Grandfather" logic. You have to search online as if you were asking your grandfather. In other words, BE AS SPECIFIC AS POSSIBLE. Our example is in search of an auto loan, and they have bad credit. So let's "ask grandpa" where we would find a helpful site for that and translate it to the search box.
"Grandpa, where can I find a website that offers auto loans for people with bad credit in Plainview, New York?"
Now, that example is the EXTREME, of how specific you need to be, but you may ultimately find your self using a similarly long and detailed search string in order to find the most relevant results.
Let's use something in between "Loans" and "Grandpa, where can I find a website that offers auto loans for people with bad credit in Plainview, New York?" I would try "Bad Credit Auto Loans" as my first attempt to find relevant websites for a person with bad credit searching for auto financing.
An important part of using search engines is distinguishing advertising from search engine "natural" results. Typically the advertising will look similar to the natural listings (natural means websites listed for free based on relevance of your search query) but there will always be some distinguishing markings or separation. On Google and Yahoo is clearly says advertiser or "paid links" near the ads. Be a savvy searcher and try to stick to the "natural" listings.
If you do not find what you are looking for using "Bad Credit Auto Loans" you might try to be slightly more specific. Include your geographic location.
"Bad Credit Auto Loans New York"
Using the techniques laid out in this article, you should be able to use search engines to your advantage, and not the other way around!
