A method and system of visually coding search results is provided. Using a search query containing a plurality of search terms, a web search is conducted and a set of search results is obtained. Occurrence frequencies of the search terms in the returned document are tallied and used to formulate a number of occurrence indicators having color shades based on the occurrence frequencies of the search terms. The search results are then displayed in two levels of detail with a first portion of the search results displayed in a first format and a second portion displayed in a second format. The occurrence indicators for the search terms are displayed beside each returned document to indicate to a user the frequency of the search terms in the search results.