Everyone in the world can agree that searching on Google is very easy. The only thing you have to do is locate the search bar and write what you want to investigate. However, if you are doing research for something specific, keywords may not be enough. For these cases, there is a Google search syntax cheat that is good to know how to use and take advantage of; this, is in case you need to perform an advanced search.
In this article, you will see all the information you need to know about Google search syntax cheats. Let us see:
- What is meant by Google search operators?
- Do you know the basic operators and commands for Google search for SEO?
- Learn the advanced operators and commands for SEO search
- Some tricks to master Google operators
- Contact DigitizenGrow, and thus hire SEO services that know how to use Google search
1. What is meant by Google search operators?
We can define search operators as special characters and parameters that you can include in your search. In this way, you will be able to obtain more granular and refined search results. These search operators can cover a wide range of functions. Among them, we find everything from allowing you to limit your results to an exact phrase or excluding certain terms from these results.
By using a combination of these search operators, you can uncover detailed information that is hidden in a typical search. A simple example is if you have a food blog and recently wrote a guide on how to achieve success on the paleo diet. After all your work, you want this post to be included in paleo-related resources.
If you search for the paleo diet, this will return a lot of results. From practical guides to a resource page. In addition, we look at 5.84 million results, which are impossible to review all. So this is where search operators come in. If you use the correct operators, you can reduce this number.
The results are narrowed down to 6990, which is more manageable. Also, these links in the search results are purely resource pages. For this reason, if you use the correct combination of search operators; You will be able to narrow down all those convoluted results to findings that are highly specific and relevant to you.
2. Do you know the basic operators for Google search for SEO?
It is easy to notice that many Google tools can help us in many situations. However, the basic operators can help us transform a standard text search into search results that are more useful and filtered.
There is a Google search operators cheat sheet that will allow us to open a new world of possibilities in our searches. For this reason, next, we will see the commands and search engine symbols that will help us.
2.1 The search term
Using quotes “” refines the search results. This forces a search for an exact match. By placing quotation marks around a single word, they exclude synonyms of the word within the quotation marks.
2.2 The use of OR
This is a search directive that tells Google to display results between two different search terms. This is useful if you want to find results related to both keywords. On the other hand, you can use the | instead of the OR.
2.3 The use of AND
Using the AND operator will return results that are related to the search terms you have typed in the search bar. Thanks to the fact that the Google algorithm can determine with great precision the difference between different search terms and phrase searches; the AND operator won’t make much of a difference.
2.4 Use of –exclude
Adding a hyphen or minus in front of a search term will exclude any page that has this keyword in its content. If you want to exclude different search terms from showing up in your search results, you need to add additional hyphens. An example is to place the following in the search engine: social media –Facebook –Instagram –Twitter.
2.5 The use of the site
The site: search operator will allow you to restrict search results to a given domain. This site: command is much more effective when used with other operators to find specific pages. One of these operators is the – to be able to exclude a specific domain.
3. Learn the advanced operators for SEO search
Generally, people wonder why digital marketing is important and the answer is simple; It helps companies grow in the market. One of the things that are most needed is to optimize the search of web pages and thus, obtain fast results. For this, Google offers different tools.
Earlier, you saw a short Google search cheat sheet, dedicated to displaying operators. In this section, a Google advanced search operators cheat sheet thus you can make use of them and further optimize the search.
3.1 Intitle
The first command to speak is “intitle”. If you use this command and write next to what you are looking for; you will see results from pages that contain the word or phrase in their title. If you want to find only pages with phrases or words that have an exact match; you can use the quotes in the phrase you are looking for.
3.2 Allintitle
If you want to search for pages that have in their title all the words or phrases that you need; you must use the “allintitle” operator. With this, you will get search results exactly as you need them.
3.3 Inurl
If you want to direct your search to URLs, the best command to use is “inurl”. This will return search results that have a specific word or group of words in their URL.
3.4 Allinurl
To perform a more specific search on the URL, use the “allinurl” command. This command is used so that, in the search results, only URLs that contain all the keywords you entered appear. However, it is not recommended to use a very long-phrase; because the search volume is significantly reduced. It may even not show any results.
3.5 Intext
Within the Google advanced search cheat sheet, you can also find the “intext” operator. What this command does is help you find pages that have a phrase or group of words in the body. This operator is rarely used because when using the Google search dashboard, this action is performed. To find this command more useful, use another operator called “site”; thus, you find more specific content.
3.6 Allintext
Within the different Google search syntax cheat is to use this command. The function of this operator is to search in the text of a document or the body of the page, for a group of keywords that you need. Also, if you write the search terms in quotes, you will have more exact matches.
3.7 Filetype
If you use the “filetype” command, you will only get search results for a specific file format. For instance, PPT, DOCX, PDF, and many more. It is important to highlight that this operator cannot be used alone, it must be combined with other terms and improve the quality of results. In addition, “filetype” can also be used for specific image formats.
3.8 Related
When you want to do competitor or market research, the best command is “related”. This operator will help you find different domains that are similar to the destination URL you have added in the search bar.
4. Some tricks to master Google operators
There are about 25 Google tricks that can help you get the most out of operators. In this section, you will see some of them.
4.1 Combine different operators
The first Google search syntax cheat is about combining different operators. You should know that when talking about commands or operators there are infinite combinations that can be made. The truth is that the variety of commands possible only depends on what you need to look for and your creativity. This will help you define the search much more and obtain more effective and faster results.
- Find and remove duplicate content with search operators
The second Google search syntax cheat refers to making the same content appear in several URLs of the same site. Generally, doing this can lead to duplicate content issues. If search engines like Google or Bing find duplicate content, it is more difficult to differentiate between the possibilities.
If you do this, two things can happen, the first is the dilution of link metrics. Which results in a loss of classification. The second is decreased search visibility. In this case, the influx of users on the page may be lost.
4.3 Find plagiarism using search operators
The third Google search syntax cheat is to search for content that has been plagiarized from you using search operators. If there are two identical documents on the web and users search for them, Google will choose the one that is on a page with a higher rating. That is, a higher PageRank. Thanks to this, you will realize that it is important to be aware of whether there are pages that have plagiarized their content. Because that can decrease user traffic to your website.
4.4 Use search operators and find out the difficulty of keywords
If you search on Google, the pages that appear on the first page are those that have your main keyword, in the title tag. With this, you can realize how important the HTML h1 to h6 tags are. So, if you want to find out if a keyword is difficult or easy to rank for, you can investigate how many pages are targeting that keyword in the title tag.
4.5 Use Google’s advanced search operators to search and fix indexing problems
The first step to being able to appear in search engines is to get your website indexed. In case your pages are indexed, they have no chance of ranking. Also, if your pages are indexed, but not correctly, your search visibility will be low and your rankings will be lower. To solve this, you can use the search operator site: which will show you all the indexed pages for your domain.
4.6 Track forgot files on your website using search operators
Many times it happens that files are forgotten on websites because they are very old or because they have not been used for many years. For these cases, it is extremely useful to know how to search for these files and any others. For instance, the most common files these days are PDFs, so you should constantly check on your website how many files you have and which ones you have in this format.
5. Contact DigitizenGrow, and thus hire SEO services that know how to use Google search
As you can see, many operators and commands are part of the Google search syntax cheat. All of them, as well as the different tricks that exist, can be very useful for SEOs. If you are looking for a company that offers the best SEO services, do not hesitate to contact DigitizenGrow.
At DigitizenGrow we have SEOs who have full knowledge of all search tools and many more. In addition, they are in constant research to be at the forefront of all useful and practical techniques for the development of web pages. On the other hand, if you are an SEO who wants to learn different new and updated techniques, you can enter our blog section. If you wish to contact us, do not hesitate to call us at +971 43 316 688 or send us an email at contact@digitizengrow.com.
