3 Easy Ways to Exclude Certain Words from Google Search

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A quick guide to make Google search exclude multiple words or specific phrases for better results
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Is the Google search results page not showing you what you need? Since Google is so vast, the search engine can have trouble understanding your exact needs without a little help. Luckily, it'll just take a few symbols and phrases to get your Google search to yield better and more refined results. This wikiHow will show you how to exclude a word, term, or website from the Google search engine.

Things You Should Know

  • Use a minus sign to exclude a word. For example, search: best laptops -HP.
  • Use a minus sign and quotations to exclude a phrase. Search: best laptops -"budget laptops".
  • If using the minus sign doesn't exclude a word or phrase from the results, try the advanced search form or exclude additional words.
Method 1
Method 1 of 4:

Excluding One Word

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  1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/f\/f1\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-1.jpg\/v4-460px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-1.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/f\/f1\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-1.jpg\/v4-728px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-1.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":344,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":544,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    When there's a minus sign followed by a word, Google Search knows to ignore any results containing that word. [1]
    • For example, if you want to search for "best laptops" and exclude certain models, input the following search:
      • best laptops -HP
    • If you want to include more than one exclusion, add another minus sign with the word or phrase. Be sure to include a space between each. This will look like:
      • best laptops -HP -Chromebook
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Method 2
Method 2 of 4:

Excluding Precise Terms

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  1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/2\/24\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/2\/24\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-2.jpg\/v4-728px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":349,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":552,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    In normal Google searches , putting a phrase in quotations is a neat search trick to find results containing specific words. By adding a minus sign, Google will exclude those specific words.
    • For example, if you want to search for "best laptops" and want to exclude the term "budget laptops", input the following search:
      • best laptops -"budget laptops"
Method 3
Method 3 of 4:

Excluding Specific Websites

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  1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/b\/be\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-3.jpg\/v4-460px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-3.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/b\/be\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-3.jpg\/v4-728px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-3.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":346,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":548,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    to exclude results from specific websites. The "site:" tag allows you to ignore any searches from a website. This can be helpful if you want to find less popular results when searching the internet .
    • For example, if you want to search for "best laptops" and want to exclude the Amazon website, input the following search:
      • best laptops -site:amazon.com
    • You can also use Google to search within specific websites by removing the minus sign.
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Method 4
Method 4 of 4:

Troubleshooting

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  1. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/d\/d2\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-4.jpg\/v4-460px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-4.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/d\/d2\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-4.jpg\/v4-728px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-4.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    Use the Advanced Search form . Many Google users report that the using the minus/hyphen symbol to exclude words and phrases doesn't work as reliably as it used to. If you're unable to exclude certain words from your search, go to https://www.google.com/advanced_search . Here, you can enter your search terms, and enter your exclusion(s) into the "none of these words" field for better results.
  2. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/a\/a7\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-5.jpg\/v4-460px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-5.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/a\/a7\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-5.jpg\/v4-728px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-5.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    If you're trying to exclude a word that's in most or all of the results, Google may ignore the modifier. Google also may show you results containing a variation of the excluded word, such as misspellings or pluralizations. You can i improve your results by excluding even more words or concepts, and adding more keywords to your query.
    • For example, if you're searching for the emotion "euphoria" but don't want to see results about the TV show Euphoria , you'll still see results about the show using euphoria -tv . In this case, a search like euphoria emotion -tv or euphoria -tv -series would yield better results.
  3. {"smallUrl":"https:\/\/www.wikihow.com\/images\/thumb\/b\/b4\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-6-Version-2.jpg\/v4-460px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-6-Version-2.jpg","bigUrl":"\/images\/thumb\/b\/b4\/Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-6-Version-2.jpg\/v4-728px-Exclude-Words-from-Google-Search-Step-6-Version-2.jpg","smallWidth":460,"smallHeight":345,"bigWidth":728,"bigHeight":546,"licensing":"<div class=\"mw-parser-output\"><p>License: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer noopener\" class=\"external text\" href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fair_use\">Fair Use<\/a> (screenshot)<br>\n<\/p><\/div>"}
    The - modifier doesn't work on the Google Shopping page. As of now, there's no way to exclude specific words and phrases when searching Google's Shopping tab.
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      References

      1. ↑ https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/2466433?hl=en&sjid=16215862139351459712-NA

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