It seems to me that many users of this site do not know how to properly search it using Google's advanced search facility, which offers far more control than the site's own search function.
To search only this site using Google, type the following directly into Google's search box:
site:taxresearch.org.uk followed by [your search term]
For example:
site:taxresearch.org.uk sectoral balancessite:taxresearch.org.uk household budget analogysite:taxresearch.org.uk wealth tax
You can add a date range using Google's filter tools: click Tools under the search bar, then select Any time, and choose the period you want.
To search for an exact phrase, put it in quotation marks. For example:
site:taxresearch.org.uk “money is a social construct”
This is the fastest way to find a specific post or all posts on a particular topic.
Does this help?
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I believe you can add Google Search to your WordPress site. That way you don’t have to specify your web site, but you may get Google adverts in the results.
See:
“How to Add Google Search in a WordPress Site” (YouTube)
“How to Add Google Search in a WordPress Site (The Easy Way)
Thanks Ian
This has, I think, happened now
It is lovely to see people talking about search.
BUT
You have not highlighted the biggest error people make, the search term itself.
The search term is in effect a loaded question and search engines return an answer to that question with whatever loading was in the original query.
Search for “Does water damage your body” and whilst we all know it doe snot, in practice your search engine will find the lunatic that thinks it does and promptly server up the result.
May I add, for those of us who prefer not to use Google directly, that the same technique also works in DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant and Startpage. At least the search I used as a test (site:taxresearch.org.uk “money is a social construct”) works the same way; the one exception is Startpage which only returns one result.
Thanks
And Brave.
Please don’t use google
A blog tends to be reactive, it is a push down stack with the latest one top and oldest at the bottom. For example, the pearls of wisdom that opened many people’s eyes (including mine) to MMT may be buried deep within the stack.
Yes, a search will find things – but the search results can be as daunting as having to plough down through the blog (I tried one for MMT – it was still going after 10 pages of links!) – and, I imagine, most newcomers don’t plough very deeply.
First time visitors arrive because they are interested in something. As with all education, they need guidance to find what they need – they need to be directed to what you consider to be the key topics and the best articles/videos/posts on those topics. They need to learn from the ground up. Unfortunately a blog structure does not permit this because it is not designed to.
A prominent link, not in the almost invisible menu bar at the top of blogs but perhaps in a side bar “Newcomers please start here!” could jump to a post listing topics, providing links and showing how to search for information beyond that provided in the links.
Blogs are a commentary, they share material with a specific group of interested people and they make assumptions about shared values and knowledge. Adding some structural guidance would be a straightforward way to help newcomers self-educate about topics which will, initially, appear quite difficult.
Mike
I am planning this.
I am also in hospital again later this week and so Thursday and Friday are going to be very low productivity.
But, I have been looking at this. Might I even mail you what I am planning when I have usable draft?
Hope all goes well in hospital for you.
Thanks
Great Richard!
Of course, contact me at any time.
Good luck at the hospital.
Yes
Thanks
Excellent. Just tried it to search for your comments on (so-called) AI and found 6 immediately. Had previously tried an failed to do this via the search facility on the blog .
It really does work
Thank you Richard, that is helpful! The other day I asked Chat GPT for your view on Land Value Tax which gave me a summary but I’ve just used the above to search google and it led me to your video on the subject from August 2024, which gives more detail.
Yay!
If people want a simple to remember way to do Advanced Google search they could bookmark this webpage:
https://www.google.co.uk/advanced_search
Just Copy & Paste the domain part from the URL that you have ( e.g. taxresearch.org.uk )
into the box marked ‘Site or domain:’
and experiment from there.
😉
Thanks
You are also perfectly free to modify the search function on this site so that it goes directly to Google to do the search for you. Of course, as some people have already commented, they prefer to avoid Google. But you’re already suggesting it’s better than the built in one, so…
Search By Google
I see from an earlier comment you are due back in hospital. Best wishes for that.
Thanks
This is too mmuch for me right now
Sorry
I’ve yet to find a site commercial or otherwise, whose own search facility was any good, compared with the “site search” of a search engine.
I echo other’s remarks about Google. I simpy do not trust them, especially with my FFT searches. At some point they will mess with your rankings for political reasons, and sadly, that will probably affect independent search engines like DuckDuckGo (my choice) that use Google’s results. I avoid Startpage too for reasons I won’t go into, relating to privacy, dating back to my NoDPI days.
Best wishes for the next blast of ultrasound – may those uroliths crumble into tiny painless pieces that end up in the Cambridge sewers. Do the hospital know how many people are out here rooting for you & team Murphy?
Thank you….