{"id":537,"date":"2022-05-03T02:57:22","date_gmt":"2022-05-03T01:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.catedu.es\/zgzsur\/?p=537"},"modified":"2022-05-02T08:01:36","modified_gmt":"2022-05-02T07:01:36","slug":"google-search-operators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.catedu.es\/zgzsur\/google-search-operators\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Search Operators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Twittear<\/a><\/div>\n

Google Search Operators: The Complete List (42 Advanced Operators)<\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
For anyone that\u2019s been doing SEO for a while, Google advanced search operators\u2014i.e., special commands that make regular ol\u2019 searches seem laughably basic in comparison\u2014are nothing new.<\/div>\n

Here\u2019s a Google search operator\u00a0you may be familiar with.<\/p>\n

\"ahrefs<\/p>\n

the \u201csite:\u201d operator restricts results to only\u00a0those from a specified site.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It\u2019s easy to remember most search operators. They\u2019re short commands that stick in the\u00a0mind.<\/p>\n

But knowing how to use them effectively is an altogether different story.<\/p>\n

Most SEOs know the basics, but few have truly mastered them.<\/p>\n

In this post, I\u2019ll share 15 actionable tips to help you master search operators for SEO, which\u00a0are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Find indexation errors<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Find non-secure pages (non-https)<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Find duplicate content issues<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Find unwanted files and pages on your\u00a0site<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. Find guest post opportunities<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. Find resource page opportunities<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Find sites that feature infographics\u2026 so you can pitch\u00a0YOURS<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. Find more link prospects\u2026 AND check how relevant they\u00a0are<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. Find social profiles for outreach prospects<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. Find internal linking opportunities<\/a><\/li>\n
  11. Find PR opportunities by finding competitor mentions<\/a><\/li>\n
  12. Find sponsored post opportunities<\/a><\/li>\n
  13. Find Q+A threads related to your content<\/a><\/li>\n
  14. Find how often your competitors are publishing new content<\/a><\/li>\n
  15. Find sites linking to competitors<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But first, here\u2019s a complete list of all Google search operators and their functionality.<\/p>\n

    Google Search Operators: The Complete List<\/h2>\n

    Did you know that Google is constantly\u00a0killing useful operators<\/a>?<\/p>\n

    That\u2019s why most existing lists of Google search operators are outdated and inaccurate.<\/p>\n

    For this post, I personally tested EVERY search operator I could\u00a0find.<\/p>\n

    Here is a\u00a0complete list of all working, non-working, and \u201chit and miss\u201d Google advanced search operators as of\u00a02018.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    \u201c<\/span>search\u00a0term\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    Force an exact-match search. Use this to refine results for ambiguous searches, or to exclude synonyms when searching for single words.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201csteve jobs\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    OR<\/h3>\n

    Search for X\u00a0or<\/em>\u00a0Y. This will return results related to X or Y, or both.\u00a0Note:\u00a0<\/strong>The pipe (|) operator can also be used in place of \u201cOR.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Examples:<\/strong>\u00a0jobs OR gates<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0jobs |\u00a0gates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    AND<\/h3>\n

    Search for X\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0Y. This will return only results related to both X\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0Y.\u00a0Note:<\/strong>\u00a0It doesn\u2019t really make much difference for regular searches, as Google defaults to \u201cAND\u201d anyway. But it\u2019s very useful when paired with other operators.<\/p>\n

    Example<\/strong>:\u00a0jobs AND\u00a0gates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    –<\/h3>\n

    Exclude a term or phrase. In our example, any pages returned will be related to jobs but\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0Apple (the company).<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>jobs -apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    *<\/h3>\n

    Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase.<\/p>\n

    Example:<\/strong>\u00a0steve * apple<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    ( )<\/h3>\n

    Group multiple terms or search operators to control how the search is executed.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>(ipad OR iphone) apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    $<\/h3>\n

    Search for prices. Also works for Euro (\u20ac), but not\u00a0GBP\u00a0(\u00a3)\u00a0\ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>ipad $329<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    define:<\/h3>\n

    A dictionary built into Google, basically. This will display the meaning of a word in a card-like result in the\u00a0SERPs.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>define:entrepreneur<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    cache:<\/h3>\n

    Returns the most recent cached version of a web page (providing the page is indexed, of course).<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>cache:apple.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    filetype:<\/h3>\n

    Restrict results to those of a certain filetype. E.g., PDF, DOCX, TXT, PPT, etc.\u00a0Note:<\/strong>\u00a0The \u201cext:\u201d operator can also be used\u2014the results are identical.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>apple filetype:pdf<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0apple ext:pdf<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    site:<\/h3>\n

    Limit results to those from a specific website.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>site:apple.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    related:<\/h3>\n

    Find sites related to a given domain.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>related:apple.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    intitle:<\/h3>\n

    Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the title. In our example, any results containing the word \u201capple\u201d in the title tag will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>intitle:apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    allintitle:<\/h3>\n

    Similar to \u201cintitle,\u201d but only results containing\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of the specified words in the title tag will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>allintitle:apple iphone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    inurl:<\/h3>\n

    Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the URL. For this example, any results containing the word \u201capple\u201d in the URL will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>inurl:apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    allinurl:<\/h3>\n

    Similar to \u201cinurl,\u201d but only results containing\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of the specified words in the URL will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>allinurl:apple iphone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    intext:<\/h3>\n

    Find pages containing a certain word (or words) somewhere in the content. For this example, any results containing the word \u201capple\u201d in the page content will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>intext:apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    allintext:<\/h3>\n

    Similar to \u201cintext,\u201d but only results containing\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of the specified words somewhere on the page will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>allintext:apple iphone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    AROUND(X)<\/h3>\n

    Proximity search. Find pages containing two words or phrases within X words of each other. For this example, the words \u201capple\u201d and \u201ciphone\u201d must be present in the content and no further than four words\u00a0apart.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>apple AROUND(4) iphone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    weather:<\/h3>\n

    Find the weather for a specific location. This is displayed in a weather snippet, but it also returns results from other \u201cweather\u201d websites.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>weather:san francisco<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    stocks:<\/h3>\n

    See stock information (i.e., price, etc.) for a specific ticker.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>stocks:aapl<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    map:<\/h3>\n

    Force Google to show map results for a locational search.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>map:silicon valley<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    movie:<\/h3>\n

    Find information about a specific movie. Also finds movie showtimes if the movie is currently showing near\u00a0you.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>movie:steve jobs<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    in<\/h3>\n

    Convert one unit to another. Works with currencies, weights, temperatures, etc.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>$329 in\u00a0GBP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    source:<\/h3>\n

    Find news results from a certain source in Google News.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>apple source:the_verge<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    _<\/h3>\n

    Not exactly a search operator, but acts as a wildcard for Google Autocomplete.<\/p>\n

    Example: apple CEO _\u00a0jobs<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Here are the ones that are hit and miss, according to my testing:<\/p>\n

    #..#<\/h3>\n

    Search for a range of numbers. In the example below, searches related to \u201cWWDC videos\u201d are returned for the years 2010-2014, but not for 2015 and beyond.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>wwdc video 2010..2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    inanchor:<\/h3>\n

    Find pages that are being linked to with specific anchor text. For this example, any results with inbound links containing either \u201capple\u201d or \u201ciphone\u201d in the anchor text will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:<\/strong>\u00a0inanchor:apple iphone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    allinanchor:<\/h3>\n

    Similar to \u201cinanchor,\u201d but only results containing\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0of the specified words in the inbound anchor text will be returned.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>allinanchor:apple iphone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    blogurl:<\/h3>\n

    Find blog URLs under a specific domain. This was used in Google blog search, but I\u2019ve found it does return some results in regular search.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>blogurl:microsoft.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
    SIDENOTE.<\/div>\n

    Google blog search discontinued in\u00a02011<\/p><\/div>\n

    loc:placename<\/h3>\n

    Find results from a given\u00a0area.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>loc:\u201dsan francisco\u201d apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
    SIDENOTE.<\/div>\n

    Not officially deprecated, but results are inconsistent.<\/p><\/div>\n

    location:<\/h3>\n

    Find news from a certain location in Google News.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>loc:\u201dsan francisco\u201d apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
    SIDENOTE.<\/div>\n

    Not officially deprecated, but results are inconsistent.<\/p><\/div>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    Here are the Google search operators that have been discontinued and no longer work.\u00a0\ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

    +<\/h3>\n

    Force an exact-match search on a single word or phrase.<\/p>\n

    Example:<\/strong>\u00a0jobs +apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
    SIDENOTE.<\/div>\n

    You can do the same thing by using double quotes around your search.<\/p><\/div>\n

    ~<\/h3>\n

    Include synonyms. Doesn\u2019t work, because Google now includes synonyms by default.\u00a0(Hint: Use double quotes to exclude synonyms.)<\/em><\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>~apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    inpostauthor:<\/h3>\n

    Find blog posts written by a specific author. This only worked in Google Blog search, not regular Google search.<\/p>\n

    Example: inpostauthor:\u201dsteve jobs\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
    SIDENOTE.<\/div>\n

    Google blog search was discontinued in\u00a02011.<\/p><\/div>\n

    allinpostauthor:<\/h3>\n

    Similar to \u201cinpostauthor,\u201d but removes the need for quotes (if you want to search for a specific author, including surname.)<\/p>\n

    Example: allinpostauthor:steve jobs<\/strong><\/p>\n

    inposttitle:<\/h3>\n

    Find blog posts with specific words in the title. No longer works, as this operator was unique to the discontinued Google blog search.<\/p>\n

    Example: intitle:apple iphone<\/strong><\/p>\n

    link:<\/h3>\n

    Find pages linking to a specific domain or URL. Google killed this operator in 2017, but it does still show some results\u2014they likely aren\u2019t particularly accurate though.\u00a0(Deprecated in 2017<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>link:apple.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    info:<\/h3>\n

    Find information about a specific page, including the most recent cache, similar pages, etc.\u00a0(Deprecated in 2017<\/a>)<\/em>.\u00a0Note:<\/strong>\u00a0The\u00a0id:<\/code>\u00a0operator can also be used\u2014the results are identical.<\/p>\n

    \n
    SIDENOTE.<\/div>\n

    Although the original functionality of this operator is deprecated, it is still useful for finding the canonical, indexed version of a URL. Thanks to\u00a0@glenngabe<\/a>\u00a0for pointing this one\u00a0one!<\/div>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>info:apple.com<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0id:apple.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    daterange:<\/h3>\n

    Find results from a certain date range. Uses the\u00a0Julian date format<\/a>, for some reason.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>daterange:11278-13278<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
    SIDENOTE.<\/div>\n

    Not officially deprecated, but doesn\u2019t seem to\u00a0work.<\/p><\/div>\n

    phonebook:<\/h3>\n

    Find someone\u2019s phone number.\u00a0(Deprecated in 2010<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>phonebook:tim cook<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    #<\/h3>\n

    Searches #hashtags. Introduced for Google+; now deprecated.<\/p>\n

    Example:\u00a0<\/strong>#apple<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

    15 Actionable Ways to Use Google Search Operators<\/h2>\n

    Now let\u2019s tackle a few ways to put these operators into action.<\/p>\n

    My aim here is to show that you can achieve almost anything with Google advanced operators if you know how to use and combine them efficiently.<\/p>\n

    So don\u2019t be afraid to play around and deviate from the examples below. You might just discover something new.<\/p>\n

    \n
    BORED OF READING?<\/div>\n
    \n

    Check out 9 actionable Google search operator tips in Sam Oh\u2019s\u00a0video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    \n