Quotes lock an exact phrase: avoid loose matches

When you wrap a phrase in double quotes, the search engine treats it as a single unit and returns only pages that contain that exact word sequence. Without quotes, the engine may show results where the words appear separately or in a different order, which can bury the specific document you need. For example, searching for "notice of competition" without quotes might bring up pages about notices and competitions in general, whereas with quotes you get only the precise legal phrase used in EPSO announcements.

A common pitfall is overusing quotes on every search, which can miss relevant results where the phrase is slightly reworded. Use quotes only when you know the exact wording, such as a law title, an article name, or an error message. Another trap: some sites, like certain government databases, ignore quotes entirely, so if your quoted search returns nothing, try removing the quotes and using other operators like AND or a minus sign to narrow results.

To test whether quotes are needed, try the search both with and without them and compare the number of results and the relevance of the top links. A quick memory aid: think of quotes as handcuffs that lock the words together in order, so you only use them when you are sure of the exact sequence. If the phrase is common, quotes can cut through noise; if it is rare, they may filter out too much.