So imagine this: it is a crisp morning. You are sitting at your desk, a fresh cup of coffee steaming beside you, the analytics dashboard of your website open and staring at the screen and watching these numbers come in. Everything seems to be working, but there is something missing. They have worked. Optimized every keyword to the nth degree, written content that will be of value and relevancy to your audience, and even slung hours at strategies and techniques known as backlinking, the holy grail of SEO. In theory, it all should be falling into place.
And yet after all this, the results aren’t just simply ‘there’. The numbers are zeroing down: not in the right sense, like, there is a wall between where you are and where you want to be. There’s something lurking in the back of your mind, nagging you all the same; it feels that something just isn’t right. You do all the good things suggested by your SEO experts, but somehow feel that you are not using all the potential that is already available. What is that missing piece?
Meet Google Search Operators, the secret weapon you might not even have known you needed. Hiding in plain sight, the wizardry within unlocks possibilities to take your SEO game to a whole new level by opening answers and search efficiencies that probably never even came into existence in your imagination. They are not just a feature-addition; they uncover deeper, smarter ways of tailoring the search presence. Once you understand how to effectively use their strengths, that previously invisible gap will finally begin to close.
Image Source: https://www.serped.com/google-search-operators
One of the least known, perhaps one of the most underutilized stuff in the SEO toolbox. Few use them because the term “search operators” doesn’t even sound remotely sexy. But here’s the truth: if you know how to apply Google search operators, you will unlock the mother vein of SEO your competitors will miss. But trust me, perhaps the line between being an afterthought on page 10 and being at the top of page 1.
Okay, enough of the pre-game jock talk. Let’s get started.
What are Google Search Operators?
Okay, and so we can let them run wild before unleashing them in the wild, so let’s define what these magical tools actually are. Google Search Operators are the special characters and commands you can append to your searches. They refine and sharpen down your results to be laser-focused, which is extremely important for SEO research. One might think of them as little cheat codes hidden in Google that help with precise results.
Why Bother with Google Search Operators?
You could ask, “Why bother?” Instead, ask me this:
- Want to outsmart your competitors by discovering content gaps they have missed?
- Do you find high-quality backlinks that will rank your website?
- Do you want to analyze your site better without paying for SEO tools?
If the answer to at least one of those questions has been “yes“, then search operators are going to become your new best friend.
Alright, here are some of the most important Google Search Operators and how to use them.
1. `site:`
Want to see all the indexed pages on a particular site? Just type `site:yourwebsite.com`. It really helps to make sure that your site gets indexed well with Google or not. If you find nothing of your important pages using this method, then it is a red flag.
Example: `site:yourwebsite.com`
You can see every page at yourwebsite.com, which has been indexed by Google. It is a pretty simple way to see which pages rank, so whether your newly published content has been indexed or not.
2. `intitle:`
The `intitle:` operator returns pages that have your keyword anywhere in the title. It is super useful for keyword research on on-page SEO.
Example: `intitle:SEO tips`
You’ll then see pages labeled “SEO tips” and thus you can see some of the headlines that your competition uses.
3. `inurl:`
If you wish to search for a URL containing the keyword, then use `inurl:` so you can see how other members of the competition structure their URLs.
Example: `inurl:blog SEO
Use this to make a page of blogs with SEO in the URL. That’s pretty handy if you ever come up with ideas about writing a few blog posts or analyzing a competitor’s URL structure.
4. `related:`
The `related:` operator permits you to find websites similar to some specified URL.
Example: `related:moz.com`
It will give you sites relevant to Moz, which you can take as competitors or quality sites to link from yours.
5. ` “search term” `
Quotation marks by themselves aren’t hard to use but pretty useful. When you enclose your search term with quotation marks, you are telling Google to return only results where the words and phrases exactly match what you typed.
Example: ` “best SEO practices” `
It will fetch only the results containing exactly the term “best SEO practices”. This is very handy when you want to search for information with exact details or just want all the content that deals with the problem.
Google Advanced Search Operators for SEO Excellence
So now that you have this basic set in place, the time has arrived to level up. With these advanced operators, you’ll not only dig deeper into available content, backlinks, and technical SEO issues but actually find the most relevant one.
6. `cache:`
Want to know the most recently cached version of a site? You can simply type in `cache:` to see when Google last crawled and then cached a copy of a page.
Example: `cache:yourwebsite.com`
This is also pretty useful for debugging reasons if there is an issue with crawling or indexing on your site.
7. `filetype:`
Want to find specific file types, such as PDFs, Excel or docs? Use `filetype:` to limit by file type.
Example: `filetype:pdf SEO guide`
It returns you PDFs about SEO guides, which can be really helpful when doing content research or finding downloadable content.
8. `allintext:`
If you want to see pages where all of your words appear in the text, you could make use of the operator `allintext:`.
Example: `allintext:SEO strategies link building`
It comes in pretty handy when trying to do content gap analysis or finding keyword-rich pages.
Okay, so we have the key operators, so let’s talk a little bit about how to use them in order to crush your competition. Well, now this is something information is made of: competitive analysis forms an integral part of any good SEO strategy and search operators can give you that little extra that you need.
Find Competitor Content Gaps
This operator will help to find your keyword target and how your competition is using it within a content piece. You will also find gaps that will also include topics nobody has covered, so you can swoop in and make content around those gaps.
Example `intitle:content marketing`
Then you find all pages with the word “content marketing” in the title. You can scroll through the page to get an idea of gaps and fill those gaps with your personal content.
Competitor Backlinks Analysis
Backlinks play a really important role in SEO and are easily discovered by search operators where your competitors are getting their backlinks. Use `inurl:links` along with your competitor’s site name to find backlink sources.
Example: `inurl:links competitor.com`
This shall give you the pages that link to your competitor, which will, hopefully, give you a good idea of where to approach backlinks.
And finally, mentioning backlinks without describing how to grow a killer backlink profile using Google Search Operators is not complete.
Find Guest Post Opportunities
Guest blogging is still pretty powerful for building quality links. You can use this search operator combination of `intitle:` with a word like “guest post” to locate sites doing guest blogging and if they allow guest posts:
Example: `intitle:guest post SEO`
This will turn up pages that are actually soliciting guest authors. Provide some content, and collect that hard-earned backlink in return.
In fact, SEO is not only backlink building and competitor study. Well, actually, it is all about keyword-rich quality content, and, shockingly enough, search operators can be applied in achieving that too.
Finding Keywords with Search Operators
Use operators `intitle:`, `intext:`, and `inurl:`. You will find variations of keywords that your competitors are already using; you will expand your content scope and rank for more long-tail keywords.
Example using: `intitle:SEO tips inurl:blog`
You’ll soon realize why blogs are making a joke out of the term “SEO tips” by merely copying and pasting it as some type of inspiration for organizing content in the titles and in the URL.
Basic vs. Advanced Google Search Operators Comparison Table
| OPERATOR | OPERATIONÂ | EXAMPLEÂ |
| `site:` | See indexed pages of a site | `site:example.com` |
| `intitle:` | Find pages with keywords in the title | `intitle:SEO tips` |
| `inurl:` | Find pages with keyword inside the URL | `inurl:blog SEO` |
| `cache:` | Cache a view of a site              | `cache:example.com` |
| `filetype:` | Find any type of file, like PDFs        | `filetype:pdf SEO guide`  |
| `related:`Â | Find sites that are like the URL given | `related:moz.com` Â |
| ` “search term” ` | An exact word-for-word match of words or phrase in quotation marks. | ` “SEO tips” ` |
| `OR` | Finds results that have at least one of the terms | `kennedy OR garfield` |
| `asterisk` | When used as a wildcard to fill in blank or missing words. | “intitle: social media marketing *” |
These Google Search Operators will greatly help you in competitive research, and set your SEO strategy on the right track as well as perform effective research for your content.
These Google Search Operators have turned out to be backhand heroes of SEO. They are powerful and flexible, and the best is that they are absolutely free of cost as well. Right from competitive analysis to link hunting, these things include all those which enhance on-page SEO very easily.
So the next time you think you’re stuck in the same rut as your SEO strategy, remember that two simple Google Search Operators can unlock an insight or two that puts you a step ahead.
And once you get accustomed to using them, you’ll just be marveling at how you ever managed without them.