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When I saw this article, I thought it was great- especially since I am so prone to look up what’s ailing me on WebMD. Here are the best search strategies for finding medical advice online.

Rule No. 1: Skip Google
While it’s smart to use a general search engine such as Yahoo! or Google to answer specific questions or to track down details on news and trivia, it’s better to turn to sites specifically designed for health queries — such as Healia, Healthline, MedStory, and EverydayHealth — for medical questions. These search engines point you to respected health organizations, like WebMD, MayoClinic, or womenshealth. gov. (In contrast, Google and Yahoo! could send you to unaccredited sites or anywhere else on the Internet that matches your search terms.)

Some of these specialized websites also have functions that help refine your results. On Healia, for example, you can sort your results by sex, age, and race; and tabs at the top of the search-results page let you view categories such as treatment, causes, symptoms, and prevention.

Search Strategy: To avoid being bombarded with information that doesn’t apply to you, make your query as specific as possible. If you have a chronic cough and want to know what’s causing it, type in “cause and chronic cough,” rather than just “chronic cough.” When it makes sense, add relevant information about yourself, like “cause and chronic cough and pregnancy.” If you have a couple of symptoms and want to bring up information only about both these symptoms, not just one or the other, narrow the search by using the “+” symbol (for example, “cough + fever”).

Rule No. 2: Use a health portal.
Sometimes it’s better to skip the search engines and go straight to a reputable health site, like MayoClinic or Intelihealth, particularly when you have a straightforward question, like “What’s the best way to treat a sprain?” These sites are often offshoots of respected universities or medical organizations and provide concise, timely medical advice. Intelihealth, for instance, features content from Harvard Medical School, and the information on www.mayoclinic.com and www.hhs.gov, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ site, is reviewed by doctors.

Rule No. 3: Find a site dedicated to a specific illness.
When you have many questions about a certain disease or condition, go directly to a site that specializes in it. Sites that focus on one disease have information that’s more targeted and in-depth than what’s found on general-health sites. For example, the glossary of terms on the polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) website helps newly diagnosed PCOS patients understand the medical jargon that’s being thrown at them.

Rule No. 4: Don’t use the Internet as a substitute for medical care.
Give the Web too much credence and your medical problems can seem to multiply. If, say, you wake up one day and have difficulty swallowing and you type “difficulty swallowing” into a search engine, you might conclude from the results that you have nothing more alarming than a dry throat or dehydration. Then again, you may also find that you have something more dire, like esophageal cancer.

This is partly because searching misses the most important aspect of a diagnosis: the patient interview, which gives doctors crucial information that’s usually not plugged into a search bar — things as varied as age, recent travel destinations, dietary and exercise habits, and current medication regimens.