Can you help? I am conducting some research into the search terms used by job seekers within the Industrial Control & Automation markets. Please reply with how you would enter a search term into a search engine such as Google.

For what type of information?

Your quest is a bit too general. The key-terms I use would depend on what I want to find or achieve actually. I searched recently for new job and I used mainly following terms:

" PLC programmer "
" Automation Specialist "
" Software Engineer "
" PLC / SCADA engineer "
" Electrical Engineer "

sometimes I aimed directly at brands and used:

" Siemens S7 " or just " Siemens "
" Mitsubishi "

or just simply:

" PLC ",
" SCADA"
" Software "

Kind regards!

Please let me know specific area of research

When I search Monster resumes looking for automation candidates, I use the following and typically combine several to look for specific skills.

Sensors (temperature, ultrasonic, pressure, flow, load, strain, linear, photonic, pH, humidity, gas detection, torque, magnetic, thermistors, magnetic), instruments, thermocouples, load cells, instrumentation, automation, control, factory automation, building automation, application engineer, sales engineer, regional sales manager, metrology, thermal, calibration, analytical, thickness, non-contact. Distributed control, PLCs, SCADA, controllers, profibus, Modbus, RS232, RS235, fieldbus, OPC.

Hope this helps

Yes, Bob is absolutely correct. Its tough to add keywords; but I'll try to add some -
HMI developer, Network Design engineer, Network Test Engineer, Application Test Engineer, Protocol test, IEC61850, IEC60870-5, Smart Grid application Engineer, Load Dispatch Gateway, OPGW, OFC Splicing technician, Sub-station Automation specialist.

the best search key word is Automation, PLC, Instrumentation, Sensors. but most of time get some unwanted results. This is very hard to get correct job opening on this search string.