Google has a list of advanced operators popular among the SEO community. However, most web site owners are not aware of these, so I will take the time to explain what they are and how they work.
These operators are used as part of your search, requesting certain information from the search engine:
This one is popular. [ LINK: ]. Using this along with you domain name will show you who is linked to you. Typing “link:http://www.mysite.com” in the Google search bar will return links pointing to your site. This will show you who is linking to you. Do not place a space between link and the address, and be sure to add http:// to your domain name. Results may not show otherwise.
Another great operator is [ INURL: ]. This will restrict your search to one site only. Typing “inurl:www.mr-seo.com Joe Balestrino” will return results for Joe Balestrino only on www.mr-seo.com. This is great if you are looking for a specific phrase on a site.
The [INTITLE: ] operator will return web sites that have the requested keyword or phrase in their title tag. For example, “intitle: keyword”. If you have several keywords, you could enter “allintitle: keyword phrases”. This will search for all listed keywords in the title.
Another useful operator is [ CACHE: ]. If you enter “cache:www.mysite.com book” you will see the web page with the word book highlighted. You can also just type “cache:www.mysite.com”. This will just show you how the site looked when it was last cached – good if you want to see at what point your site was last indexed.
To learn about other Google operators, visit here.
Some operators work on other search engines as well, so try them out. Memorize these operators to help speed up — and narrow down – your every day searches. But more importantly, use them to keep track of your SEO efforts as well as your competitors.
To learn more about web design and SEO visit http://www.mr-seo.com. There you can request a free web design quote. Also visit Joe’s blogs at http://mrseonewz.blogspot.com/ and http://mr-seo.blogspot.com
