The following tips will help you to get the best search results possible when searching for information on the Service Canada Web site.
Selecting one language in the "Language to search" drop-down menu will limit your search to all documents on a chosen topic, written in a specific language.
Example:
If you select French from the drop-down menu when searching for pensions, your results page will include French language Web pages with the word pensions.
Using lowercase text tells the search tool to find both upper and lowercase results. Using upper case text tells the search tool to only find results written in upper case.
Example:
When you search for ottawa, you'll find Ottawa, ottawa, and OTTAWA in your result pages. However, when you search for Ottawa, you'll only see Ottawa in the result pages.
Placing the plus (+) symbol before the key word in the search box ensures that a specific word is always included in your search topic. Placing an exclamation point (!) sign before the keyword in the search box ensures that a specific word is always excluded from your search topic.
Example:
To find pensions and plans excluding international pensions try pensions + !plans international.
Typing an * at the end of a keyword, searches for the word with multiple endings.
Example:
Try tax*, to find taxes, taxable and taxation.
You can link words and numbers together into phrases if you want specific words or numbers to appear together in your result pages. If you want to find an exact phrase, use double quotation marks (") around the phrase when you enter words in the search box.
Example:
To find youth employment strategy, type "youth employment strategy" in the search box.
Note: You can also create phrases using punctuation or special characters such as dashes, underscore lines, commas, slashes, or dots.
Example:
Try searching for 1 800 622-6232 instead of 1-800-622-6232. The dashes link the numbers together as a phrase.
Try using synonyms to improve your search results. For example, you will get different results for the search words pension, benefit, or payment.
Common words such as the, a, and an are found on all of our pages. To improve your search results, remove the common word and resubmit your search.
If you do not type letters with the accents or the diacritic marks in the search box, the search engine will find all related words and not only the word you are seeking. For example, if you type "eleve," Web pages will be returned that contain the words élevé, élève, etc. If you type élève, the search will return pages that contain only élève.