Google Search Operators: Tips & Tricks for SEO

A Google search operator is a symbol or command you add to a search to narrow what Google returns — site:, quotation marks, a minus sign. This page lists the operators Google currently documents, the widely used ones it does not, and the ones it has retired, with an example of each.

What are Google Search Operators?

GSOs are shortcuts that provide better and more precise search engine results. They are useful for everything from content research to technical SEO audits.

Most people use GSOs without even realizing it. Have you ever typed quotations into Google to find an exact-match? You’ve used GSOs.

Here are a few of the most common Google Search Operators:

• Quotation marks: Putting your search phrase in quotes tells Google to find exactly what you typed. This prevents synonyms from popping up in your search results.
• OR: Using the word OR in your search phrase will combine searches.
• site:: Put “site:” in front of a site or domain to search that site.
• -: Put a – in front of a word you’d like to leave out. For example, jaguar speed -car.
• …: Search within a range of numbers with a … between two numbers. For example, Camera $50…$100.

Whether or not you use these search operators can drastically change your search engine results. For example, here’s what a search engine results page might look like if you search Jaguar speed:

And this is what happens when you search Jaguar speed -car:

Google Search Operator Cheat Sheet

Google documents the first seven of these on its own help page. The rest still work but are not on that list, so treat them as reliable in practice rather than guaranteed.

The date operators are also the fastest way to pin down when something first appeared: bounding a name search with before: and after: tells you roughly when a piece of negative coverage entered the index, which is where any reputation monitoring response starts.

Operators Google Has Retired

Three operators you will still see recommended in older guides no longer belong on the list. Google does not list link:, info: or related: among the operators on its current help page, and results from them are unreliable — sometimes empty, sometimes partial, never complete enough to work from.

If you were reaching for link: to find who links to a site, the replacement is the Links report in Google Search Console, which draws on Google’s own index instead of a query. For related: and info: there is no direct substitute; a site: query plus the domain name in quotes gets closest.

How to use Google Search Operators for SEO

Now that we’ve defined what Google Search Operators are and how to use them in search, let’s get into how to implement them to reach our search engine optimization goals.

Here are a few tips and tricks to guide you to successful use of GSOs for your SEO strategy:

• Find indexing errors
• Look for unwanted files and pages on your site
• Search social profiles for outreach opportunities
• Search for guest post opportunities
• Check for non-secure pages (non-HTTPS)
• Identify duplicate content issues
• Discover PR opportunities by finding competitor mentions
• Find Q+A threads related to your content

Find indexing errors

Identify indexing problems of subdomains or search pages.

When you are trying to figure out if there are any indexing issues within your blog, simply use this command:

site:domainname.com/blog

This query will provide exact search results about the total number of indexed URLs and pages for the entire blog.

If you happen to see too few (or maybe too many) pages that are indexed, then there must be a problem.

On the other hand, when you see pages appear that shouldn’t be there, you can address the problem by no-indexing pages.

Searching subdomains for indexing errors is also available. To do that, use the following command:

site:*.domainname.com –www

Other ways to explore indexation errors (for WordPress “tag” pages or at level of a category) are:

site:domainname.com/category

site:domainname.com inurl:tag

Look for unwanted files and pages on your site

Use the “filetype:” Google Search Operator to search for old or unwanted files you want to remove from your website.

site:domainname.com filetype:ppt

Delete or no-index files that are:

• No longer relevant
• Contain outdated information 
• Damaging to your reputation

Search social profiles for outreach opportunities

Building high-quality domain backlinks is a vital aspect of SEO. It’s also an area that can be difficult to master.

If you use Google Search Operator tricks, you can increase your chances of finding those awesome opportunities. Little reminder though, you have to know the name of the person to whom you want to reach. For example: 

mark zuckerberg facebook (site:facebook.com | linkedin.com)

Search for guest post opportunities

If done right, guest posting is an excellent opportunity for you to build up your website’s authority through link building. There are plenty of ways to use search operators to find guest post opportunities.

For example:

Seo intitle:“write for us” inurl:“write-for-us”

This is the simplest and most obvious way to use GSOs to find guest post opportunities, but it’s definitely not the only way.

Here are some examples to try out using the above mentioned formula.

• “contribute to”
• “Inurl:guest-post”
• “become a contributor”
• “guest post guidelines”

Check for non-secure pages (non-HTTPS)

Owning HTTPS counts as a ranking signal for Google. Therefore, make sure to secure all of the pages on your website. Check for any possible non-secure pages using the site:operator GSO:

site:domainname.com -inurl:https

Identify duplicate content issues

Use Google Search Operator tricks to find possible duplicate content on your blog.

Site:domainname.com “content you are searching for”

Also use this command for finding duplicate content on another domain and exclude your own site with the command, such as this example below.

-Site:domainname.com “content you are searching for”

Discover PR opportunities by finding competitor mentions

See who’s written about your top competitors. Once you find the sites that are mentioning your competitors, you can reach out to attempt to secure a mention for your company.

It’s very simple, just type site: and intext: to identify possible opportunities.

(intext:”mycompetitor”) -site:mycompetitor.com

Or you can use:

allintitle:review (mycompetitor)

Find Q+A threads related to your content

Use Google Search Operator tricks to identify Q+A threads on forums that can provide PR opportunities.

You can find threads like this using the below command.

site:quora.com intitle:(SEO | ”target keywords”)

Here, we are searching Quora for content and potential link-building opportunities. It’s important to understand that these are no-follow links. Therefore, building links to your website is not a priority, but establishing domain authority is.

Final thoughts

Google Search Operator tricks aren’t just for casual web browsers. The tricks outlined in this article are highly effective and can improve your search engine results and build your brand.

GSOs can be used to find indexing errors, search for outreach opportunities, find duplicate content, and more.

Getting to know GSOs can speed up your SEO research strategy and uncover insights that you may have otherwise missed. Hopefully, this guide gave you a clearer picture in which ways you can use Google Search Operators to gain a competitive advantage over your competitors.