What are Google Search Operators?
Google Search Operators, to put it simply, are your secret weapon to more specific Google searches.
Think of them as special commands or symbols you sneak into your search phrase to up your search game.
Just a few reasons you’d want to use them:
- Want your search focus tightened to just the words you specify? Use operators.
- Tired of sifting through an endless sea of search results? Operators help refine your quest.
- Let’s say you fancy results from a certain website, say Meetanshi.com. BAM! The ‘site:’ operator is your friend here.
These operator shortcuts have a handy range of uses, even in SEO.
The Complete List of Google Search Operators
1. intitle:
‘Intitle:’ is a Google Search operator that helps you find pages whose titles contain your specific keyword.
When you use ‘intitle:’, Google delivers results only with that term in the page title.
For instance, in the search term “intitle:apple”, results would include only pages where ‘apple’ appears in the title.
This operator is highly beneficial for targeted searches and SEO purposes.
Another example: To find pages with ‘pizza’ in the title, you’d type “intitle:pizza”.
2. intext:
The Google search operator “intext:” helps you pinpoint specific words or phrases within a page’s content.
It refines your search to include results where the keyword appears in the body of a web page.
For example, you can use it like this: intext:android smartphone.
This command searches for all web pages containing the words “android smartphone.”
Keep it simple and swift for a tailored search experience!
3. allintitle:
The Google Search Operator “allintitle:” is an advanced tool that lets you discover web pages with your exact keyword phrase strictly in their title section.
This can be a goldmine for search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and content strategy planning.
Here’s how you can use it:
- Start your search query with “allintitle:”
- Stack your search terms immediately after. Example: allintitle:best vegan pizza nyc
- Press enter, and voila! You’ll get results with all your terms in the title.
This operator helps to zero-in on very specific content or accurately scout the competition.
However, remember it may overlook equally important pages where the exact phrase falls outside the title.
4. allintext:
- The operator ‘allintext:’ is a Google search tool. Use it by typing ‘allintext:’ followed by the words you want to find on a page. For instance, ‘allintext: keyword1 keyword2 keyword3’.
- This tool scans webpages, returning only those containing every keyword in their body text. Think of it as a word-specific searchlight, illuminating only those sites fully relevant to your search.
- Use ‘allintext:’ instead of others when you need results where all your specific words appear in the text of a page. But remember, this operator doesn’t worry about word proximity; it only focuses if the words are present.
5. inurl:
‘Inurl:’ is a handy Google search operator you can use when you’re looking for a specific keyword within the URL of a web page.
For instance, typing ‘inurl:recipe’ will return results with ‘recipe’ somewhere in their URL.
Consider using ‘inurl:’ for tasks such as:
- Diagnosing website indexing issues by typing ‘inurl:tag’
- Brainstorming content ideas across varied topics
- Finding guest posts opportunities using queries like ‘inurl:guest-post’
- Excluding certain words from your search, as in ‘site:website.com -inurl:www’
Remember, it doesn’t matter where you place the keyword in relation to the operator.
6. site:
The Google search operator ‘site:’ is a handy tool that allows you to narrow down your search to a specific domain.
When you use ‘site:’ followed by a domain name in your Google search, it restricts the search results to pages from that particular website.
For example, typing ‘site:wikipedia.org football’ will show you only the pages related to football on Wikipedia.
The ‘site:’ operator is especially useful for website owners and SEO enthusiasts as it gives an insight into how a website is indexed by Google, aiding in more targeted SEO efforts.
However, keep in mind, this shouldn’t be used as an audit tool as it doesn’t necessarily pull up all the related pages from the site.
7. filetype:
- The Google Search Operator ‘filetype:’ is a handy tool that enables you to narrow down your search results to a specific file type. By combining ‘filetype:’ with a particular file extension like PDF, DOCX, or PPT, you can search for specific kinds of documents.
- For example, if you’re looking for Excel spreadsheets related to budget planning, you could use this operator as follows: “budget planning filetype:xlsx”.
- This operator is incredibly useful when searching for research materials, case studies, or statistical data that are typically saved in these file formats.
- It’s also worth mentioning that you can use ‘filetype:’ to search for specific image types, and the ‘ext:’ can replace ‘filetype:’ in the search and yield the same results.
8. daterange:
- The ‘daterange:’ operator refines your Google search within a specific time frame.
- Dates are entered in Julian format, where the year is followed by the day count from the start of the year.
- It can be useful for tracking content volume on a topic within a given period.
- For accuracy, use an online converter to translate normal dates to Julian format.
- However, results can be inconsistent.
- Example use: ‘daterange:2458881.34039-2459002.06315’. Note: This may vary due to the use of the Julian date format.
9. quotation marks:
The Google search operator “quotation marks” tells Google you want an exact match search.
By putting your keywords or phrase in quotation marks (” “), you’re directing Google to search for that exact string of text.
Example:
To find sites that copy-pasted your content, just copy your paragraph, put it in quotes, and search.
Like this – “copy your own content here”. You can exclude your site by adding -site:yourdomain.com.
Seeing duplicates?
Now’s the time to send a DMCA notice. Refine your search, and protect your work, with the power of quotation marks.
10. proximity search operator:
The proximity search operator, “AROUND(X)”, optimizes your Google search by finding pages where your chosen terms appear within X words of each other.
For instance, type “pasta AROUND(2) recipe” and Google brings up pages where “pasta” and “recipe” are two words apart or less. It’s a handy shortcut for finding specific content with controlled keyword distance.
11. minus sign:
The minus sign (-) in Google Search is an operator that helps you exclude specific keywords from your search results.
Essentially, it narrows down your search by removing unwanted topics or sites. Here’s how you do it:
- Consider you’re looking into digital marketing, but want to exclude content about jobs. Simply type: “digital marketing -jobs”.
- To exclude more keywords, just add another minus sign with the keyword, like: “digital marketing -jobs -articles”.
Bear in mind that you can combine multiple operators and keywords for more precise results.
12. asterisk:
The asterisk (*) in Google search is your wildcard buddy. It tells Google, “Hey, fill in this blank!” Use it when you’re unsure of an exact phrase, keyword or missing words. Google will do its best to find the most likely match.
Just input your unsure parts with an asterisk in-between. For instance, wish to dig into everything related to digital? Fire up your Google and type, “Digital * Strategy”.
Google will return varying results like “Digital Marketing Strategy”, “Digital Media Strategy”, etc. Whichever wildcard the algorithm finds, it delivers.
13. wildcard symbol:
The wildcard symbol (*) in Google search operators acts as a “fill in the blank” command that can match any word or phrase.
This symbol helps you find the best match for your search terms. For instance, if you’re unsure of a word in a phrase, place an asterisk in its position.
Example: “best * in San Diego” will give results like “best restaurants in San Diego” or “best hotels in San Diego”.
You can even use it between two words like “Obama * donation” to fetch all possible phrases that fit.
Similarly, use it in quotes, like “digital * strategy”, to find variations of that phrase, offering you more enriched search results.
14. plus sign:
The Plus sign Google Search Operator, replaced by quotation marks, was a smart trick for narrowing down your Google search.
Here’s how it worked:
- Firstly, it’s not used anymore. Google swapped it for the quote (“ ”) function when Google+ launched. They never brought it back in 2019 when Google+ closed.
- Secondly, its purpose? To force exact-match search results. That means, Google had to find and return precisely what you entered.
- For example, finding a job at Apple used to be: jobs +apple.
Now it’s “Jobs Apple”. So, remember, the “+’’ is no more, but the principle still works perfectly with quotation marks.
Have fun!