Visual inspection of the first few pages of the hits indicates the results are the same regardless of the phrasing of the keywords higher education . Capitalization of keywords should and does reduce the number of hits. Both as a two keyword query and as a phrase query, Higher Education , results in 227,052 hits. Query keyword capitalizing allows matches only with index keywords that are also capitalized. Lowercase query keywords match index keywords regardless of case.
Capitalization helps in the refinement of searches for proper names.
In the case of higher education, however, it may not be appropriate. Important sites have been lost. A method for improvement in a simple search is to specifically include or exclude keywords. To expand our example, of higher education, let's say only undergraduate schooling is of concern. Refining the search for higher education first by looking for education and including higher, results in a considerable increase in hits, 3,842,602.