Advanced Google search operators have their place in this biological community of tools. However, these operators can enable you to pick up knowledge into SEO openings.
Google is a top tool to aid you finds what you are searching for, so knowing the particulars of using Google’s various search operators can help you use it to its full potential.
I have piled up a list of Advanced Google search tips, which are key phrases/symbols you can add to the search bar or the URL in a Google search to get more refined results.
What Are Google Operators?
Google search operators are special characters and commands (at times called “Google Advanced Search Operators”) that extend the proficiencies of regular text searches.
Search operators can be useful for the whole thing from content research to technical SEO specialist
Google Search Operators Sheet
The Advanced Google search operators are divided into three categories: “Basic”, Advanced”, and “Unreliable.”
| Search Service | Search Operators |
| Web Search | allinanchor:, allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, cache:, define:, filetype:, id:, anchor:, info:, intext:, intitle:,inurl:, link:, related:, site: |
| ImageSearch | allintitleHYPERLINK “http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html”:, allinurl:, filetype:, inurl:, intitle:, site: |
| Groups | allintext:, allintitle:, author:, group:, insubject:, intext:, intitle: |
| Directory | allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, ext:, filetype:, intext:, intitle:, inurl: |
| News | allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, intext:, intitle:, inurl:, location:, source: |
| Product Search | allintextHYPERLINK “http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators_reference.html”:, allintitle: |
1) List of Google Search Operators
” ” “nikola tesla” You can narrow your search with “ ”, Put any phrase in quotes to force Google to use the precise match.
OR tesla OR edison If you exactly want a logical OR between keywords or operators, specify “OR” for a logical OR in ALL-CAPS.
| tesla | edison The pipe (|) operator is same to “OR”. Useful if your Caps-lock is broken
( ) (tesla OR edison) alternating current Use parentheses to group operators “Tesla OR Edison” and then are adding “alternating current” and control the order in which they execute.
– tesla – motors Put minus (-) in front of any term (including operators) to exclude that term from the results.
* tesla “rock * roll” An asterisk (*) can use as a wild-card to replace on any word.
#..# Seo news 2015..2016 Two periods with no spaces to see results that include a range like dates and prices.
2) Google advanced search operators
Advanced Google search operators are special commands that modify searches and may need additional parameters (like the domain name). These are mainly used to narrow searches and look deeper into results.
intitle: intitle:”tesla vs edison” Search only in the page’s title for a word or phrase. Use exact-match (quotes) for phrases.
allintitle: allintitle:inbound marketing campaign Searches for every word in the title.
inurl: inurl:ranking websites Look for words in the URL.
allinurl: allinurl: amazon field-keywords nikon Search the URL for every individual word following “allinurl:”. Same as multiple inurl:’s.
intext: intext:”orbi vs eero vs google wifi” Search for a word or phrase (in quotes), but only in the body/document text.
allintext: allintext:Best Link building Tools Allintext is used to restrict a search to only show results with all of the keywords appearing in the body
filetype: “tesla announcements” filetype:pdf Use file type, to search for specific files like xml, jpeg, txt, doc or pdf’s.
Site: Site:example.com Site:example.com will refine a Google’s search for a single website.
Related: related:nytimes.com Return sites that are related to a target domain. Only works for larger domains.
date: Content marketing articles date: 4 Search for a range of months.
author: author:Jeff Bullas Search for an author of a newsgroup post.
info: info:www.targetmantra.com Find info about a page. (Find information about The Digital Marketing Knowledge website.)
AROUND(X) tesla AROUND(3) edison Returns results where the two terms/phrases are within (X) words of each other.
“list of + Keyword + sites” “list of + SEO + sites” Find a list of sites for a certain term.
insubject: insubject: website optimization Search only the subjest of a newsgroup post.
cache: cache:www.targetmantra.com/Show Google’s cached results of a specific page.
define: define:kerning Provide definitions for words, phrases, and acronyms from the Web.
Keyword + “top 10 resources”/”top resources” SEO + “top 10 resources”/”top resources” Use when searching for top ten resources for a certain keyword. You can substitute resources for things like sites/”top sites,” websites/”top websites, tools”/”top tools,” etc.
3) Unreliable/Deprecated Operators
Unreliable operators have either been found to produce unstable results or have been deploring altogether. Use link-based operators only for initial research.
~ ~cars Include the tilde sign before a word to search fornthat word and even more synonyms
+ +cars Force exact-match on a single phrase.
daterange: tesla announcements daterange:2457663-2457754 Produce results in the specified range. Can be unstable. And, it needs Julian dates.
link: link:nytimes.com Find pages that link to the target domain.
inanchor: inanchor:”tesla announcements” Find pages linked to with the specified anchor text/phrase. Data is heavily sampled.
allinanchor: allinanchor: tesla announcements Find pages with all individual terms after “inanchor:” in the inbound anchor text.
Keyword + directory Content Marketing + directory Find directories based on keywords.
Keyword + “guide” Content Marketing + “guide” Locate guides specific to a certain keyword.
Keyword + site:wordpress.com Analytics + site:wordpress.com You can replace WordPress with other blogs or sites.
Keyword +”add your business”/”list your business” Digital Marketing +”add your business”/”list your business” Find sites where you can list or add your business.
Keyword/yourCompetitorName + “guest blog” Search Marketing/SEER + “guest blog” Find blogs to guest post on based on a specific word.
ProductName + review + site:wordpress.com Mac Book Pro + review + site:wordpress.com You can replace review with ratings, comparison, price, or replace WordPress with another site.
industryName + site:facebook.com Technology + site:facebook.com Find industry-specific social profiles.
The actual power of Advanced Google search operators is in relating multiple operators to create custom query threads to get really targeted results— as a digital marketer, I often use this and find them to be helpful.
