Keywords are words that can appear anywhere in the text of a detail page. This function is very powerful as well as easily overwhelming when it returns too many results. If you are searching for a specific phrase, such as high school, put that phrase within double quotation marks ("") as "high school." This method will cause the search engine to return results with the phrase high school but not every entry with either the word high or school anywhere on the page.
When searching by keyword, please remember that names and phrases have not always been written the same way in historic property survey forms, National Register nominations, and survey reports. If you're interested in properties designed by the Greenville architect Willie Ward for example, you may not want to stop after searching for "Willie Ward." You might also want to search: "William Riddle Ward," "William Ward," "William (Willie) Ward," etc.
You may also use the AND, OR, NOT menu to refine your search. AND: When you want to search for more than one term. The results of the search will only have both terms. OR: When you want to search by multiple words but recieve results with any of those words represented. NOT: When you want results not described by a particular word. For example, you may want to search for all farms but not any associated with tobacco.