Google’s advanced search operators make finding exact pieces of information a breeze, and shouldn’t be anything new for a people in the SEO industry. In fact, wise SEOs have been utilizing Google search operators for years to their advantage. These special commands make regular searches seem elementary and almost laughable once you see how you can use these search operators to your SEO advantage.
Most of these Google search operators are easy to remember, but others are easier to forget. I’ll compile the complete list of Google Search Operators for 2019 in this post for all the SEOs out there that need a refresher.
Google Search Operators – The Full List
You might not know that Google is constantly killing useful search operators
For this reason, most lists of Google Search Operators tend to be outdated.
I have tested all of the search operators in the list below to verify that they are all indeed still working as of 2019.
1. “search term”
The use of quotes around a search term forces an exact‐match search. Use this to refine results for ambiguous searches, or to exclude synonyms when searching for single words.
Example: “steve jobs”
2. OR
Search for X or Y. This will return results related to X or Y, or both. Note: The pipe (|) operator can also be used in place of “OR.”
Examples: jobs OR gates / jobs | gates
3. AND
Search for X and Y. This will return only results related to both X and Y. Note: It doesn’t really make much difference for regular searches, as Google defaults to “AND” anyway. But it’s very useful when paired with other operators.
Example: jobs AND gates
4. –
Exclude a term or phrase. In our example, any pages returned will be related to jobs but not Apple (the company).
Example: jobs -apple
5. *
Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase.
Example: steve * apple
6. ()
Group multiple terms or search operators to control how the search is executed.
Example: (ipad OR iphone) apple
7. $
Search for prices. Also works for Euro (€), but not GBP (£) 🙁
Example: ipad $329
8. define:
A dictionary built into Google, basically. This will display the meaning of a word in a card‐like result in the SERPs.
Example: define:entrepreneur
9. cache:
Returns the most recent cached version of a web page (providing the page is indexed, of course).
Example: cache:apple.com
10. filetype:
Restrict results to those of a certain filetype. E.g., PDF, DOCX, TXT, PPT, etc. Note: The “ext:” operator can also be used—the results are identical.
Example: apple filetype:pdf / apple ext:pdf
11. site:
Limit results to those from a specific website.
Example: site:apple.com
12. related:
Find sites related to a given domain.
Example: related:apple.com
13. intitle:
Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the title. In our example, any results containing the word “apple” in the title tag will be returned.
Example: intitle:apple
14. allintitle:
Similar to “intitle,” but only results containing all of the specified words in the title tag will be returned.
Example: allintitle:apple iphone
15. inurl:
Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the URL. For this example, any results containing the word “apple” in the URL will be returned.
Example: inurl:apple
16. allinurl:
Similar to “inurl,” but only results containing all of the specified words in the URL will be returned.
Example: allinurl:apple iphone
17. intext:
Find pages containing a certain word (or words) somewhere in the content. For this example, any results containing the word “apple” in the page content will be returned.
Example: intext:apple
18. allintext:
Similar to “intext,” but only results containing all of the specified words somewhere on the page will be returned.
Example: allintext:apple iphone
19. AROUND(X)
Proximity search. Find pages containing two words or phrases within X words of each other. For this example, the words “apple” and “iphone” must be present in the content and no further than four words apart.
Example: apple AROUND(4) iphone
20. weather:
Find the weather for a specific location. This is displayed in a weather snippet, but it also returns results from other “weather” websites.
Example: weather:san francisco
21. stocks:
See stock information (i.e., price, etc.) for a specific ticker.
Example: stocks:aapl
22. map:
Force Google to show map results for a locational search.
Example: map:silicon valley
23. movie:
Find information about a specific movie. Also finds movie showtimes if the movie is currently showing near you.
Example: movie:steve jobs
24. in
Convert one unit to another. Works with currencies, weights, temperatures, etc.
Example: $329 in GBP
25. source:
Find news results from a certain source in Google News.
Example: apple source:the_verge
26. _
Not exactly a search operator, but acts as a wildcard for Google Autocomplete.
Example: apple CEO _ jobs
27. #..#
Search for a range of numbers. In the example below, searches related to “WWDCvideos” are returned for the years 2010–2014, but not for 2015 and beyond.
Example: wwdc video 2010..2014
28. inanchor:
Find pages that are being linked to with specific anchor text. For this example, any results with inbound links containing either “apple” or “iphone” in the anchor text will be returned.
Example: inanchor:apple iphone
29. allinanchor:
Similar to “inanchor,” but only results containing all of the specified words in the inbound anchor text will be returned.
Example: allinanchor:apple iphone
30. loc:
Find news from a certain location in Google News.
Example: loc:”san francisco” apple
Google Search Operators For SEO
As you can see from the list of Google search operators above, there are many combinations you can use to find exactly what you’re looking for. If you’re an SEO this translates into finding backlinking opportunities, keeping track of competitors, finding guest posting opportunities, seeing how many pages of your website are indexed, finding broken pages on your site, and so much more!
If you’re a business owner that’s just trying to increase website traffic, then this all might seem like a foreign language to you. Frankly, most business owners have very little time to learn all the ins and outs of search engine optimization. Leave SEO to the pros! Learn more about our affordable search engine optimization plans or contact us for a free consultation.
