Ease Your Searching: Google Search Operators:
With the amount of information available on the web, it can be a daunting task directing search engines to display results that are exact or similar to what you are looking for.
Thankfully, there are Google search operators to aid you. These are basically special commands that we used to make a search more specific and relevant. One can combine different operators for the desired results. The following list contains both basic and advanced search operators and examples showing how to use them.
Top Google Search Operators:
AND:
If you want results related to two things, say X and Y, use and between the two words. While Google anyway displays related results without it, it can be useful when added with other search operators.
Example– Apple AND Banana.
Result: This will display results only about apple and banana i.e. where Apple and Banana both are present
Parenthesis ():
Used to control the order in which the search turns out by grouping search operators.
Example– (apple or banana) fruit- here, a combination of two operators.
Result: The outcome of such type of query must contain the word “fruit” along with Apple or Banana (anyone of them)
“Quotation”:
Using quotation marks narrows down the search to the quoted term, providing concise results and eliminating undesired synonyms for searches.
Example– “excellent”
Result: This will provide results for only this word and eliminate synonyms such as outstanding.
OR:
This displays results for two specific searches, eliminating the need for conducting separate searches.
Example– Apple OR Banana.
Result: This will return the results for only apple or banana.
Remember: Apple or Banana | Apple OR Banana will yield a different result.
Vertical bar |:
It has the same use as OR.
Asterix *:
Used as a wildcard symbol to give related words as a way of “filling in the blanks”.
Example- *lifestyle blogs.
Result: This tells the search engine to find pages that contain “lifestyle blogs” after any word. Probable results would display “10 best lifestyle blogs”, “top 100 lifestyle blogs” and so on.
#..#:
Inserting two dots in between two numbers after a query will return results within that range of numbers or years.
Example- Olympic football gold medal winners 1991..2004.
Result: This will display winners between 1991-2004
Plus (+):
It will return results with exact matches while including the additional words for the searched phrase.
Example- apple+mango.
Result: It will display pages containing only about apple and mango.
Minus (-):
This is a wildcard sign and using it before an unwanted word in the search will exclude results for that word.
Example- Use Delhi – Capitals if you want to exclude results for the IPL team.
Result: It will display anything about Delhi barring Delhi Capitals.
~:
We use this operator to include synonyms for queries.
Example- ~shoes
Result: It will give results mentioning shoes as well as footwear or sandals, etc.
#:
Useful for finding hashtags across social media sites.
Example– #throwbackthursdays
Result: It will display all social media sites mentioning the hashtag.
@:
Use it to search for a particular handle in social media domains.
Example– @onlineseoblog
Result: It will display social media sites with the handle (Onlineseoblog).
$:
Adding the dollar sign shows the price of the search item with exact or close matches or items by price.
Example- $1000 laptops.
Result: It will show laptops priced at 1000 dollars.
€:
The Euro symbol too can search for prices. But other currency symbols are not so effective.
In:
Use it to covert any unit to the desired unit, even currencies- Google can also be a calculator!
Example- The Rock’s height in feet-
Result: Displays pages with the actor’s height in feet and inches.
Define:
Just as it sounds, it displays definitions of a query from different websites when putting before the query.
Example- define: search operators-
Result: Displays pages defining the term.
Related:
Displays results related to the queried domain site or topic.
Example- related:Gaana.com,
Result: It will also display results about streaming services similar to Gaana like Saavn and Spotify.
Remember: There should not be spaces between the operator and keyword
AROUND (X):
This one is interesting. It specifies that two words must appear (x) number of words apart from each other.
Example- apple AROUND(4) banana-
Result: It will only show pages in which banana appears four words apart from apple.
Site:
This gives results only within a particular site or domain.
Example– site:thehindu.com | content writing site:Onlineseoblog.com
Result– It will show pages from only this site | This will show all the content writing-related articles from the provided domain
Intitle:
It displays results with the searched word or phrase included in the title of a site.
Example– intitle:SEO
Result: It will display pages with titles like “best SEO practices for your website”, “Top 10 SEO tools”, etc.
Allintitle:
Instead of using multiple intitle we can use allintitle operator to further restrict our search
Example– allintitle:SEO basics
Result: Pages like “SEO Basics: A Beginner’s guide to SEO” or any page with titles that mention “SEO basics” will show.
inurl:
It results in sites with the exact query in the URL.
Example– SEO inurl:basics
Result: Shows URLs mentioning SEO basics.
allinurl:
It is like multiple inurls. It displays sites with all the mentioned words around the operator.
Example– allinurl:SEO operators
Result: This will display result like www(dot)seo(dot)com/operators
Inposttitle:
It searches for blog posts with the desired words in the title. This has been replaced by intitle
allinpostauthor:
Use this operator to fetch posts written by a specific author.
Example: allinpostauthor:steve jobs
Info:
Get informational details about a website using this operator.
Example– info:thehindu.com
Result: It will show pages from this site you have already visited before and also related pages.
intext:
Use it to search for exact words or phrases in the text body of pages. It is effective with quotes.
Example– intext:”SEO”
Result: It will appear all the web posts with SEO in the body.
allintext:
It works as multiple intext with no quotes.
Example– allintext:SEO tips
Result: All pages with SEO tips mentioned in the body will get appear over SERP
Filetype:
Using it will narrow down the search to a specific file.
Example- California Girls filetype:mp3
Result: It will only show mp3 files of the song “California Girls”
Blogurl:
It is basically a variation for allinurl. You can use either of them.
Loc:placename:
It will display results from a specified place. But it is not so consistent now.
Example– loc:”delhi” hotels
Result: Displays information about hotels in Delhi
Source:
Displays results from the specified source in Google News.
Example– Arun Jaitley source:thehindu
Result: It will show news results about Arun Jaitley only from The Hindu.
Map:
It will display a map or sites containing maps of the specified location.
Example– map:Lodhi garden
Result: Websites with the map of Lodhi garden will get appear
Movie:
It displays information about the searched movie. It will also provide showtimes in your location if the movie is still in theatres.
Example– movie:”Mission Mars”
Result: Get result about the mentioned movie including, showtime, reviews, rating, etc.
Cache:
This option will show the recently cached version of the website.
Example– cache:thehindu.com
Result: This will display cached version of this website irrespective of website live version working or not
Stocks:
It induces the results to display stock information of the specified company.
Example– stocks:Reliance
Result: It tells Google to provide latest stock information of Reliance.
Weather:
It displays weather information results for the specified area.
Example– weather:Delhi
Inanchor:
Displays sites with anchor text specified in the query. Not useful for two words.
Example: inanchor: apple iphone
Result: This will run as Apple or iPhone and display result accordingly
Allinanchor:
It will display broad results, unlike inanchor, with all the query words intact.
Example: allinanchor: apple iphone
Result: This will run as Apple AND iPhone and display result accordingly
Language:
This will display results in the specified language.
Example: seo language:hindi
Result: Get SEO knowledge in hindi
Linkdomain:
This search operator of Yahoo display a compreehnsive list of web URL for the mentioned website.
Example: linkdomain:onlineseoblog.com
Result: Get all the relevant web posts of the provided website
Few of the BING search operators:
Feed:
It finds feeds with the queried words or phrases in a website in Bing.
Inbody:
In Bing, it displays results with the queried text in the body of a page just like intext in Google.
Contains:
In Bing, it displays results with links to the particular filetype.
I hope the google search operators will help to ease your searching over search engines. Some search operators may misbehave as Google used to change its algorithms
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