TL;DR

Searching Google without operators only taps into a fraction of its capabilities.
With site:, inurl:, and intitle:, you can find backlink opportunities and indexing issues.
We’ll show you the twelve operators with the greatest SEO impact.
Benefits: faster content research, competitive analysis, and audits.

In a nutshell:

Google search without operators is like a Swiss Army knife without blades.
With site:, inurl:, and intitle:, you can find backlink opportunities, competitor content, and hidden indexing issues.
We’ll show you the twelve operators that have the biggest impact in everyday SEO.

You may have heard of Google search operators before. Search operators are special commands that allow you to narrow down search results.

If you’re heavily involved in SEO, you’re probably already familiar with Google’s search operators—if not, it’s high time to start using them. Because once you start using search operators, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without them.

In this post, you’ll learn how to effectively use the best Google search operators.

What are Google search operators?

Search operators are short commands that are easy to remember. Once you get used to them, there’s no going back.

Google search operators are sometimes also called advanced search operators or search commands. They are special commands that bypass the limitations of standard text search.

Although Google’s algorithms deliver impressive results given the massive amounts of data, it does happen that important information sometimes gets lost. Thanks to Google search operators, you can exclude irrelevant results and thus increase the success of your searches.

Strictly speaking, Google search operators are a relic from the past, when search engine algorithms weren’t as precise as they are today. That’s why some search operators have been phased out in recent years, such as the tilde (~) in 2013.

Search operators can help you with content research, competitive analysis, and SEO audits. You can also use them with other search engines.

Table of Contents

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How do we use Google search operators?

Approximately 3.5 billion Google searches are performed every day. For each individual search, the search engine must sift through an incredible amount of data to find the desired information. Using search commands therefore greatly enhances your search queries.

Searching with search operators isn’t actually that different from a regular Google search. You still enter your search query in the search bar and add search operators consisting of Boolean operators and special characters.

"economy" site:morningbrew.com

Note that Google usually ignores punctuation unless it is part of a search operator. However, you can use symbols and words in your search terms. Do not, however, insert spaces between the symbol or word and your search term. The search command site:pizza.de would work, while site: pizza.de would not work.

List of Search Operators

Since Google continues to phase out search operators, we have tested every search operator on this list. Here is a list of the current Google search operators:

"Search text" performs an exact search for the search term.
OR searches for this OR that. Returns results related to both terms.
AND searches for this AND that. The results relate only to the search terms mentioned.
– excludes a term or search phrase.
* is a wildcard for words or phrases
() groups terms or operators
$ and € search for prices
define: Displays the meaning of a word.
cache: Returns the most recent cached version of a webpage.
filetype: Displays specific file types.
site: Limits results to a specific website.
related: Finds websites related to the one you entered.
intitle: Finds pages that contain a specific word in the title.
allintitle: Finds web pages that contain all specific words in the page title.
inurl: Finds web pages that contain the search term in the URL.
allinurl: Finds web pages that contain all specific words in the URL.
intext: Finds web pages that contain a specific word.
allintext: Finds web pages that contain all specific words on the page.
AROUND(X): Finds pages that contain two words or phrases within X words of each other.
stock: Finds information about specific stocks.
map: Finds maps for a specific location.
movie: Finds information about a movie.

Combining search operators

To get the most out of Google search operators, you can also combine them. For example, you can find specific documents, quotes, or images. Let your imagination run wild.

If you use too many search operators, Google may ask you to prove you’re not a robot via reCAPTCHA. Simply fill out the reCAPTCHA and continue your search.

Basic search operators

Here you’ll find a more detailed description of the search commands mentioned above.

Quotation marks

Quotation marks help you search for a specific text passage on the internet. For example, you can check whether a certain phrase already exists. This helps, for instance, to find plagiarism or duplicate content.

In this example, you can see that this quote from Confucius appears on approximately 132,000 pages. (Image source: © google.de)

"Everything has abeauty, but not everyone sees it."

Searching for this sentence yields no results, which means it is unique and not plagiarized. (Image source: © google.de)

You can also use quotation marks to find opportunities for backlink building. To do this, enter your phrase in quotation marks, along with words such as “forum.”

Here, approximately 2,830 results appear on the topic “buy a mountain bike.” (Image source: © google.de)

"mountainbike kaufen" forum

OR

The OR search operator allows you to search for results that meet one of two conditions. To do this, enter OR in uppercase between the two keywords.

Wildcard *

The wildcard operator * is particularly useful for topic research or brainstorming. When you use the asterisk as a wildcard in a phrase, Google displays various variations of that phrase.

When researching topics, this might look like the following:

mountain biking in *

A search for “mountain biking in *” returns 889,000,000 results. The asterisk expands the search to include “Germany” and “Allgäu,” as well as other variations. (Image source: © google.de)

You can also use the wildcard to find a word that is surrounded by the two keywords.

digital * technology

Here, Google returns over five billion results for phrases like “digital transformation: technology” or “digital CMOS technology.” (Image source: © google.de)

Vertical bar or pipe |

If you want to search for multiple keywords at the same time, you can use the pipe operator |. Alternatively, you can also use the OR search operator.

This search displays images of Star Wars and Harry Potter. (Image source: © google.de)

AROUND(X)

This Google search command displays results for search terms that are close to each other. The variable X represents the maximum number of words allowed between the two search terms.

For example, it looks like this: keyword1 AROUND (X) keyword2

This search operator is useful when you need to find quotes or sentences that you can’t quite remember.

Plus sign

Normally, searching with a string of search terms already yields relevant results. However, if a specific word must appear in the results, you can add a plus sign to it. This search operator helps, for example, when searching for forums for backlink building.

user experience design +forum

A search using the plus sign might look like this. (Image source: © google.de)

Minus sign –

The opposite of the plus sign is the minus sign. You can use this to exclude terms that shouldn’t appear in the results. This is especially helpful when searching for ambiguous topics and you want to prevent the search from going in the wrong direction. You can also use the minus sign to exclude branded search results.

hauptstadt baden-württemberg -stuttgart

Here’s an example of how to use the minus sign as a search operator. (Image source: © google.de)

You can also use the minus sign to exclude entire phrases. To do this, place the minus sign without a space before the first word of the phrase.

Examining specific parts of web pages

Google search operators can also be used to examine specific parts of web pages.

Site command

To get an overview of a specific domain, you can use the “site:” operator.

site:britannica.com

This search returns approximately 14,300 results. (Image source: © google.de)

In some cases, you can also limit the query to specific subdomains, such as country-specific domains (.de, .uk, .nz, etc.) or blogs.

Now you can combine the “site:” command with a specific keyword to get targeted results.

This targeted search is often more precise than the website’s internal search. (Image source: © google.de)

site:britannica.com german art historian

Inurl

If you want to find URLs containing a specific keyword, you can use the “inurl” command.

site:schwaebische.de inurl:ravensburg

You can also combine this search with the “site:” operator to get even more targeted results. (Image source: © google.de)

Allinurl

If you want to add more search terms, you can add them using another “inurl” command. For multiple terms, you can also combine them using “allinurl”.

allinurl:ravensburg oberschwaben

If you only want to view the subdomains to make your search more targeted, you can use the following trick:

site:amazon.com -inurl:https

Here, only the subdomains of amazon.com are displayed. Any URLs starting with www will not appear in the results.

Intitle

The “intitle” operator shows only results that contain the specified keyword in the page title. This search command is particularly useful when combined with other search operators.

intitle:"laufschuhe" 2022

For example, you can combine the “intitle:” command with a year to find up-to-date websites on a topic. (Image source: © google.de)

Allintitle

As an alternative to intitle, you can also use allintitle if you want to specify multiple keywords.

This search only displays results where both words appear in the title. (Image source: © google.de)

However, searching with the “allintitle” command does not work in Image Search or Google News.

Intext

With the “intext” search operator, you can search the text of web pages. Similar to inurl and intitle, the “intext” command works well when combined with other search operators.

The “intext” command is particularly useful when searching for duplicate content, as it displays all results that contain the specified keyword in the webpage text.

Allintext

To find entire phrases or multiple keywords in the page text, you can use the “allintext” operator. This is especially helpful when you’re looking for a phrase or term in an article but can’t remember where it is.

Cache

The “cache” search operator is helpful for viewing the most recently cached version of a URL if it’s currently down.

From an SEO perspective, the “cache” command is also interesting because it displays the date of the last crawl by a Google bot. If that date is far in the past, it’s obviously not ideal when it comes to SEO.

Here’s what the search command for a cache query might look like. (Image source: © google.de)

cache:hubspot.com

And this is what an excerpt from the website looks like. In the upper section, you’ll also find the date the page was last crawled. (Image source: © google.de)

Google Search Operators for SEO

Google search operators are not only useful for refining search results but also for SEO research. In this section, you’ll learn how to use Google search operators for SEO.

Finding Related Websites

The “related” search operator is particularly useful for competitor analysis. For example, you can use it to search for pages similar to your own. Or perhaps you’re interested in a specific website and want to find similar pages.

related:burgerking.com

Make sure there is no space between “related” and the search term. (Image source: © google.de)

Finding indexing errors

Indexing errors occur on most websites. For example, a page that should be indexed might not be. Or pages that shouldn’t be indexed might be.

site:waterproof-web-wizard.de/blog

This search returns 10 results. (Image source: © google.de)

You can use the “site:” operator to find out how many pages Google has indexed for a specific site. To do this, enter the following: site:[website].

You’ll then see the number of indexed pages right below the search bar. However, this is only an approximate estimate.

If the site is your own, you can view the exact result in Google Search Console.

You can also refine your search by entering more specific URLs, such as site:website.de/blog or site:website.de/contact. (Image source: © google.de)

If you know that the number of posts is higher than what’s shown in the search results, this is an indication that Google hasn’t indexed all of them.

In some cases, you may also find pages that shouldn’t be indexed, such as freebies or broken and outdated pages. These should then be removed from the SERPs by setting them to noindex.

You can also detect indexing errors using Google search operators: site:website.com/category or site:website.com inurl:tag.

You can also find specific content on a website by using this search command: site:[website] “keyword.” This will display all web pages that contain the keyword.

site:waterproof-web-wizard.de "seo"

This search command helps you find internal linking opportunities. (Image source: © google.de)

Finding insecure pages

Nowadays, a security certificate is an absolute must, especially for e-commerce sites. The “site:” operator helps you find insecure pages by excluding “https” with the “inurl:” command.

site:amazon.com -inurl:https://

This search found approximately 58,200 pages without a security certificate. (Image source: © google.de)

However, this combination of search commands also helps you find non-HTTPS pages on your own website.

Sometimes pages without HTTPS are indexed, but when you visit the website, you’re automatically redirected to the HTTPS version. So be sure to double-check the pages. If your site is actually marked as insecure, you should check your SSL certificate.

Finding duplicate content

Duplicate content is less beneficial, as Google penalizes websites with duplicate content in the SERPs.

It’s common for e-commerce sites to copy product descriptions verbatim from other sites. But even if you have a blog, people can steal your content and pass it off as their own.

If you want to check whether someone has stolen your text, you can enter the following in the search bar: intitle:“blog title” -yourblog.com.

So you enter the title of the post and use the minus sign to exclude your own website.

This example search found no results, which means that no one is using the same title or content. (Image source: © google.de)

Check for placeholder content

Even the typical placeholder text “Lorem Ipsum” can be viewed by Google as duplicate content. Therefore, you should definitely check your website for this.

The same applies to the “Hello World” post on WordPress, which is often forgotten.

Even large websites sometimes forget to remove the Lorem Ipsum text. (Image source: © google.de)

To check your site for placeholder text, enter the following search operator combination: site:yourwebsite.com “Lorem Ipsum”

The sample post on WordPress reads as follows: “Hello World,” or “Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start writing!”

The same applies to the automatically generated sample page: “Sample Page,” or “This is a sample page. It differs from posts because it always stays in the same place.”

Finding Unwanted Files

Especially with large websites, it can be difficult to keep track of everything. As a result, you may have forgotten about old files you uploaded.

There are also documents you want to keep hidden from your website visitors, such as freebies, online course materials, or e-books. These documents are often uploaded as PDF or Word files.

With the “filetype:” operator, you can search specifically for these files. You just need to add the file type after the colon, for example, pdf or doc.

In combination with the “site:” operator, you can search specific pages.

A search for a specific file type might look like this. If you don’t want people to find these files, you should remove them. (Image source: © google.de)

You can also expand your search to include additional file types by entering: site:website.com (ext:PDF OR ext:docx OR ext:txt).

The “ext:” operator is an alternative to the “filetype:” command. However, the latter supports more file types.

Another useful trick is to combine the “filetype:” operator with a keyword to find specific documents on a particular topic.

Here, you’ll see results for files related to SEO. (Image source: © google.de)

Finding Opportunities for Guest Posts

Google search operators are also great for finding guest post opportunities. This allows you to find pages that match your keyword exactly.

For example, you can enter the following after the “intitle:” operator: “write for us,” “contribute to,” “guest post guidelines.” Alternatively, you can also use the “inurl:” command. (Image source: © google.de)

You can also combine search terms with the pipe operator |, which makes your search more efficient. (Image source: © google.de)

You can also combine this with the “site:” operator to search a specific website for guest post opportunities.

This also allows you to search for guest post opportunities in a specific country, for example, by adding the following to your search: site:.co.nz.

Finding opportunities for resource pages

A resource page provides an overview of the best resources on a topic. It usually consists of links that lead to other pages.

Here’s what HubSpot’s GDPR resource page looks like, for example. (Image source: © google.de)

This trick is particularly useful for you if you have a valuable post that would perform well on a resource page. To do this, you first need to search for relevant resource pages and then “pitch” your resource.

Resource pages on other websites offer a great opportunity for backlinks.

For example, you can search for relevant resource pages as follows:

This search yielded more than two million results. (Image source: © google.de)

A good way to narrow down the number of results is as follows

Now only 3,590 results appear. (Image source: © google.de)

Alternatively, you can also try these search operator combinations:

[topic] intitle:resources | inurl:resources
allintitle:[topic] 5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15 resources

The results of the latter combination contain a number between five and 15, as well as the word “resources.”

Once you’ve found a relevant resources page, all you need to do is find the contact information for the site owner or administrator and ask them to add your link.

Finding Websites for Infographics

Infographics need a home, too. To find one, you can, of course, also use Google search operators. These can help you find sites that are likely to be interested in your infographic.

To do this, you should first look for websites that already use infographics, as they are likely to publish more infographics.

To find more up-to-date results, you can also narrow down this search query using the built-in date filter. You’ll find this under “Tools” below the search bar.

Finding social media profiles

Are you looking for a specific person online? To find their contact information as quickly as possible, you can use this trick.

Finding internal linking opportunities

Internal links are incredibly important because they help visitors navigate the website. Therefore, they also play a major role in search engine rankings, provided they are used appropriately.

This means inserting internal links only where they are relevant.

However, it can sometimes be difficult to find relevant spots for internal links—especially on large websites.

This search for “site:wizardingworld.com -site:wizardingworld.com/features/dobbys-guide-to-fashion intext:’house-elf’” returns results for internal linking opportunities on wizardingworld.com. (Image source: © google.de)

Here’s a quick summary:

First, identify a specific webpage.
Exclude the post or page for which you want to find internal linking opportunities.
Search for a specific keyword or phrase.

Internal links improve your website’s user experience and also boost your Google ranking.

Find mentions of competitors

You can also use Google search operators to find mentions of competitors. This helps you identify opportunities to get your own website mentioned.

With this search, you can find other websites that mention your competitors. The following was entered into the search bar: (intext:"deutsches museum" OR intext:"pinakothek") -site:deutsches-museum.de -site:pinakothek.de. (Image source: © google.de)

To summarize:

Search for your competitors using the “intext” or “intitle” operator.
Exclude your competitors’ websites.

This combination of search operators helps you find opportunities for mentions.

Find opportunities for sponsored posts

Sponsored posts promote your brand, product, or service. This is not a link-building opportunity, but rather a PR campaign. Sponsored posts should always be marked as “nofollow,” as Google may penalize them.

You can use Google search operators to find opportunities for sponsored posts.

The following was entered into the search bar: "sponsored post" intext: "sponsored post" inurl: "category/sponsored-post". Nine results were found. (Image source: © google.de)

Here are some more ideas for search operator combinations:

[niche] intext: “sponsored post by”
[niche] intitle: “sponsored post”
“sponsored” AROUND(5) “post”

Let your imagination run wild and try out other search combinations!

Find out if your website has been hacked

If your website has been hacked, it’s likely being used to generate ad revenue. This means your website (either fully or partially) is being redirected.

Hackers often create hundreds of new pages to get them indexed by Google. Sometimes, unwanted ads are simply published on the hacked site.

Such hacking attacks are often not obvious and can go unnoticed. This significantly harms Google rankings.

If you want to find out whether your site has been hacked, you can enter the following in the search bar: site:domain.com porn OR casino OR dating OR debt OR insurance OR poker OR get rich quick.

Fortunately, this page from a local brewery was not hacked. (Image source: google.de)

You can also expand this search to include other typical spam terms. This will also find spam comments that were accidentally approved.

To avoid having to check this manually on a regular basis, it’s worth setting up a Google Alert.

Finding Comment Opportunities

Comments on blogs are a great way to connect with other bloggers in your niche. To find relevant blog posts, you can use this search command: [topic] “save comment”

Alternatively, you can also search for the following:

Write a comment
Send comment
Submit comment

Find partners and competitors

To identify your competitors, you can also use Google search operators. As a blogger, it’s especially important to connect with other bloggers in the same niche.

Find Q&A discussions about content

Q&A sites help with marketing your website. Forums like Quora give you the opportunity to place links in questions and answers.

Always make sure your answer is relevant. While these links are “nofollow,” the goal isn’t backlink building but rather PR.

To find suitable forums, you can enter the following in the search bar:

With over 285,000 results, there are plenty of Q&As on Quora that are ideal for promoting your content. (Image source: © google.de)

However, don’t limit yourself to Quora—conduct this search for other Q&A forums as well.

Find out how often competitors publish new blog posts

You can relatively easily find out how often your competitors publish new blog posts, since most blogs are located on a subdomain (blog.website.com) or in a subfolder (website.com/blog).

To find out how many blog articles have been published recently, click on “Tools” to the right of the search bar. There, you can select a date range.

This gives you a good idea of how often your competitors publish new posts.

Search operators that no longer work

Here is a list of search parameters that have been discontinued over time.

daterange: This operator allowed you to set the time range for search results.
@: This search command allowed you to search specifically on social networks.
~: The tilde was useful for including synonyms of the search term in the results.
#: The hashtag was introduced for Google+. However, after the network was discontinued, it was removed as a search operator.
link: The “link” operator helped find pages that link to a specific URL.
blogurl: This search command allowed you to find all blogs with a specific domain.
inpostauthor: Finds posts created by a specific author. This command only worked in Google Blog Search.
info: This command found information about a specific page, including the latest cache. The search operator was discontinued in 2017.
phonebook: This allowed you to find phone numbers for specific people.

FAQ

Here you’ll find the most frequently asked questions about Google search operators.

Are there other ways to perform an advanced search on Google?

Yes, you can select “Advanced Search” in the “Settings” menu on Google.

You can also use search filters to narrow down your search results.

Do search operators work for other search engines as well?

There are also search operators for other search engines like Bing or Yahoo.

Conclusion

If you know how to use Google search operators effectively, they are incredibly helpful. While some are more useful than others, it can’t hurt to familiarize yourself with Google search commands. Because when you combine them correctly, it almost feels like a trick.

Play around with the search operators and try them out thoroughly if you weren’t familiar with them before. You’ll probably be surprised by the new possibilities they open up for research and brainstorming.