Google Search Operator Tricks For SEO
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In the past, SEO companies used direct submissions and SEO tools to get links. These outdated tools and tactics are no longer useful. In fact, a few of the old techniques can actually attract penalization from Google.
Today, most webmasters are well versed with the advanced SEO tactics to find link building opportunities but analyzing these activities through Google Search is a whole new ball game. To remain on top of this game, you need to be well versed with the search operators.
Search operators enable you to clear the clutter from your search and make it more effective.
The infographic here narrows them down for you through an easy-to-understand description. Below, I’ve explained, in detail, some of the vital search operators that will aid in your efforts.
Find links to your website
Don’t you wonder which other websites are linking to your webpages? Finding these links which are indexed by Google is easier than you thought.
All you need to do is type “link:” followed by your website and the search results will cough up all the webpages linked to your website.
For instance, if your website is seooptimizers.com, just type “link:seooptimizers.com” (without space and without quotes), but if you check this out then you will find very few links.
This is because Google restricts showing all the links publicly.
Instead, I’ve found a better approach. It involves simply removing the home page links from the query.
To get the complete picture, instead of the above search, try“Link:seooptimizers.com –seooptimizers.com” and see the magic.
Find your webpages pages indexed by Google
Now, this can be a vital source of information.
To find out which of your webpages have been indexed by Google, simply type “Site: yourwebsite.com” and all the pages of this website indexed by Google will appear before you.
Guide Google to Yield Exactly What You Want
It can be quite frustrating to not get the exact results you are looking for.
Eliminating this problem is actually very simple. Use of quotes in your search query gives you the exact results you are looking for.
For instance, if you are looking for guest blogging opportunities, simply type guest blogging within quotes, like this – “guest blogging.” You’ll be amazed by the number of highly relevant exact matches that Google brings forth.
Check cache to look through Google’s eyes
Not everything that’s on your website might be indexed by Google.
To see how Google views your website, you just need to type “cache: yourwebsite.com”.
This will give you an idea of what Google saw the last time it visited your website.
Get comprehensive info about your website
Using “info:” is perhaps the best way to gather quick information about several aspects of your website at one go. Typing “info: yourwebsite.com” will give you information such as pages that link to your website, cached version, similar pages and all details about your domain.
These are just a few search operators at your disposal but there is a vast array of advanced search operators that can help you to find out more precise results.
I have highlighted several vital operators in the infographic below. Just explore them and get to know them better. Don’t forget to let me know your thoughts in the comment section.
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Extensive Guide on How to Use Google Search Operators
If you google almost all the time and do not know what the Google search operators are, you miss out a lot. These operators can make your search twice faster and more detailed because you will find what you are looking for at one go.
How Do I Get Google to Search a Word
Before you learn about Google search operators, review how you can search a word on Google in a fundamental way. You can use your computer or mobile devices like tablets and smartphones to open chrome browser applications.
On the top, you will see an address bar where you can type the word that you want to search.
After typing the word, press enter.
How Do I Do a Specific Google Search
Click the three dots aligned vertically on the top right of the page if you want to find the word within a specific page. After clicking it, click find. A bar will appear on the top right part of the screen.
You can place the word there and find what you want to see in highlights. You may also press CTRL+ F to make this process faster.
If you want to look for the word that you found on a webpage, you can highlight it, press right click and search.
For smartphone users, you can search what you find on a particular page by tapping the word to search to highlight it. A panel will pop below the webpage, tap it to see the results.
Please take note that you should set your default browser to Google to be able to do it.
Moreover, if you want to find the specific results for the word that you are searching on Google, you should use Google search operators.
What Are the Search Operators
Whether you are searching for SEO or anything, Google search operators can make your research easier. The result of Google’s search engine is most likely according to your preference for what you want to see.
These are special commands that you can use on the search engine that tells Google what you want or do not want to see on its search results. You do not have to memorize these operators because they are easy to remember. After all, they are short commands. Additionally, many of them are characters that symbolize their function.
For this reason, you do not have to worry about forgetting it.
Although search operators seem useful for researchers and SEO specialists, it seems like Google is starting to get rid of some of the useful ones. There were tons of helpful search operators in the past that people cannot use nowadays.
Therefore, you should know all the search operators that you can still use. Also, it will be helpful to know which are not working or require some trial and error.
How Do I Use Google Advanced Search Operators
You can combine these commands, but knowing the right combination is not easy to reach your target results. However, knowing how to do it will give you an advantage over the others who do not know it.
Here are the SEO tactics that you can use.
Aim for specific results.
The primary function of search operators is to help you get targeted results. That is why you can use their multiple combinations to acquire the results that you want to see.
Exclude the terms that you do not like to see on the results.
The exclusion symbol to get rid of the words or searches on the result is (-). Typing it before the term you want to exclude allows you not to see it on the results page.
This article will delve into this operator later.
Combine the exclusions with exact terms that you do not like to see.
If there are specific words that you do not like to see on the results, you can combine (-) with (“”). For example, you do not like to see the word ‘lorem’ on the search results. What you will do is this:
-“lorem”
Find out how Google indexes your site.
You can find out how Google indexes your site by using the operator (site:) before the domain name. For example:
site:loremipsum.com
Get rid of subdomains
You can get rid of the staging sites and subdomains by using the (-inurl:) search operator.
Find duplicate content
You can also use search operators to find duplicate content on a site. All you have to do is combine the search operator (site:) and (“”).
You use (site:) to index the domain. Use the (“”) to find the internal duplicate of the word inside this operator.
For example:
site:loremipsum.com “dolor”
Which Search Operator Does Google Enable by Default
There are three search operators that Google sets as default now. The first one is (AND), the second is (OR), and the third one is (~).
Google’s logical default is the operator (AND) between the terms of your searches. Google typically ignores both the operators (AND) and (OR) because these are the search defaults.
Also, Google ignores articles, single digits, and other non-valuable words.
The third one is an unreliable operator because Google’s default is now searching for the term’s synonyms.
How do I Search Without a Word
Google is not human, although it seems like it is intelligent enough to know almost anything. It does not know the specific results that you want to return. As a result, once you search for a word, such as ‘divergent,’ it will return all searches related to divergent, whether it is about the movie or the definition of the word.
To let Google know that you do not want it to include particular searches, use the operator (-). For example, you wish to search for a divergent definition, but you do not want it to return results about the Divergent movie. What you need to do is type this:
Divergent -movie -film
Typing these words will get rid of the search results about Divergent movie.
As you can see, using search operators is easy and fun. They allow you to find all you are looking for without cracking your brain to use more specific words to search on Google.
