Which of the following strategies is recommended when conducting keyword searches?

Question

Options

• AUse nouns instead of verbs for keywords.
• BUse verbs instead of nouns for keywords.
• CUse as few keywords as possible.
• DInclude at least one preposition such as"the"or"an"in your list of keywords.

• A
  94% (17)
• C
  6% (1)

Explanation

Using nouns as keywords is correct because search engines and databases index content around concrete subjects and objects - nouns like "climate," "migration," or "database" directly represent topics, making results far more relevant and precise. Verbs (option B) describe actions rather than subjects and tend to return broad, unfocused results since they appear in countless unrelated contexts. Using as few keywords as possible (option C) is counterproductive - more targeted keywords narrow results and reduce noise. Prepositions like "the" or "an" (option D) are stop words that most search engines ignore entirely, so including them wastes query space and adds no value.

Memory tip: Think of keywords as the things you're searching for, not the actions around them. If your search were a library card catalog, you'd look under "volcanoes," not "erupting."

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