If you've used an online index to take you directly to a record, don't just look at the desired entry and immediately go back to do more searching. Look at the entries before and after the one for your ancestor. How are they the same? How are they different? This is very helpful for records you've never look at before. And for census records, look at the names of the neighbors and where they are from. There may be clues in those names and locations as well.