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Google search operators are special commands you can use in the Google search bar to get more specific results.
For example, if you want to find a website that only sells blue widgets, you can use the “site: operator to restrict your results to pages from a specific website.
Or, if you’re looking for information about SEO and want to exclude blog posts, you can use the “filetype: operator to only return PDFs or Word documents on the topic.
There are dozens of different operators that you can use depending on what type of information you’re looking for. In this post, we’ll discuss the 3 most important operators for SEO and 7 other useful operators. We’ll also explore some advanced usage tips for each operator.
The 3 Most Important Operators for SEO
The three most important operators for SEO are “site:”, “filetype:”, and “inurl:”.
“Site:” is used to find pages from a specific website. This is useful if you want to target a specific competitor or industry site.
“Filetype:” is used to find files of a certain type. This is useful if you’re looking for research reports or data sets.
“Inurl:” is used to find pages with a certain keyword in the URL. This is useful if you’re targeting a specific keyword or phrase.
7 Other Useful Operators
There are seven other operators that are also useful for SEO: “intitle:”, “allintitle:”, “cache:”, “related:”, “info:”, “link:”, and “define:”.
“Intitle:” is used to find pages with a certain keyword in the title. This is useful for finding pages that are relevant to your target keyword.
“Allintitle:” is used to find pages with all of the specified keywords in the title. This is useful for finding pages that are very relevant to your target keywords.
“Cache:” is used to find a cached version of a page. This is useful if you want to see what a page looked like before it was updated.
“Related:” is used to find websites that are similar to a specified website. This is useful for finding competitor websites or websites in the same industry.
“Info:” is used to find information about a specified website. This is useful for finding contact information or website statistics.
“Link:” is used to find websites that link to a specified website. This is useful for finding backlink opportunities.
“Define:” is used to find definitions of a word or phrase. This is useful for understanding the meaning of a technical term or jargon.
Advanced Usage of Operators
There are some advanced usage tips for each of the operators discussed above.
“Site:” can be used with a wildcard (*) to find pages from any website. For example, “site:*.com” will return results from all .com websites.
“Filetype:” can be used with a period (.) to find files of any type. For example, “filetype:.” will return all file types.
“Inurl:” can be combined with other operators to target multiple keywords. For example, “inurl:widget site:example.com” will return results for pages that contain the word “widget” in the URL and are from the website example.com.
“Intitle:” can be combined with other operators to target multiple keywords. For example, “intitle:blue widget” will return results for pages that have the word “blue” and “widget” in the title.
“Allintitle:” can be combined with other operators to target multiple keywords. For example, “allintitle:blue widget” will return results for pages that have the word “blue” and “widget” in the title.
“Cache:” can be used with a wildcard (*) to find a cached version of any page. For example, “cache:*” will return a cached version of the homepage of the website you’re currently on.
“Related:” can be used with a wildcard (*) to find websites related to any website. For example, “related:*” will return websites related to the website you’re currently on.
“Info:” can be used with a wildcard (*) to find information about any website. For example, “info:*” will return information about the website you’re currently on.
“Link:” can be used with a wildcard (*) to find websites that link to any website. For example, “link:*” will return websites that link to the website you’re currently on.
“Define:” can be used with a wildcard (*) to find definitions of words or phrases. For example, “define:*” will return definitions of the words in the title of the page you’re currently on.
Conclusion
Google search operators are a powerful tool for SEO. They can be used to find pages from a specific website, filetype, or keyword. They can also be used to find cached versions of pages, websites that are similar to a specified website, or information about a website. Finally, they can be used to find backlink opportunities or definitions of words and phrases.
Jamie Fallon is an SEO expert who lives life to the maximum, redlining every day on a rollercoaster straight to the grave.
In an SEO career of almost ten years, he’s seen it all, he’s done it all, and he’s not impressed: from white text on a white background to today, when you can have robots paint or write for you like some kind of sick science fiction come true.
No matter what life throws at him, Jamie always manages to come out on top. He’s an expert at seeing the silver lining in every cloud and making the best of every situation. His positive attitude and unshakable faith in himself have seen him through tough times. For some people, success goes to their heads; but Jamie never forgets what got him to wherever he thinks he is.
When he’s not busy gaming the system, you can find him writing angry thinkpieces on how Google is ruining everything good about the internet, or hanging out with his wife (pictured).
