Google query operators are little tools that allow you to restrict your Google searches so you can find targeted information for your SEO campaigns. This is a great way to get at what you need without taking the long way around, so to speak. How do they work?
They work pretty easily, fortunately! Simply go to a fresh Google page and get to work. Say you want to look at a particular website for a target keyword. This is tremendously useful for SEO purposes. All you’d do is enter:
site:www.targetsite.com target keyword
So, let’s say we want to look at SEOFuel for the keyword “ecommerce.” We’d enter: site:www.seofuel.co.uk ecommerce
And viola. We have results that show us “ecommerce” restricted to this site. Here are a few more that you’ll find useful (and for more still, check out SearchEngineLand’s list).
Operator: | Format: | Purpose: |
inurl: | inurl: ecommerce | You can search for a word/phrase within a given URL |
intext: | intext: ecommerce | You can search for a word in the main text |
allintext: | allintext: ecommerce | Search for multiple words in the body of the text. |
allinanchor: | allinanchor: ecommerce | You can search for multiple words within anchor text. |
cache: | cache: www.seofuel.co.uk/cachedpage example | With this operator, you can display Google’s cached version of a page. |
*Note: Google operators are case-sensitive!
You can even combine these operators to really zero in on the information you want. Check out GoogleGuide for some tips as there are some operators that cannot be combined.
A little Google finesse can help you access valuable information for your SEO campaigns; experiment with it and see what you can dig up.