The Google Search Operators or search operators They come from the early days of search engines and at that time they were essential to get meaningful results. Currently, they are mostly replaced by automatic detection, especially in the case of Google. However, some search operators continue to provide practical assistance to users to get better and more accurate results. They are mainly used in a search query.
Basic Google Search Operators
The basic operators consist of individual characters that are set at the beginning and end of the desired keyword or combination of keywords.
- +: With the plus symbol several concepts can be combined. Previously this was the only way to tell the search engine that all words should be searched in combination. Currently, a space is used instead, but the method with the plus symbol as a link also works. An example of this search operator would be "SEO + search + operator".
- –: You can exclude certain keywords with the minus symbol. For example, if you enter "SEO -search-operator" in the Google search field, you will only have results related to SEO. The keyword "search operators" is filtered. The combination of the minus sign and the search word to be excluded must be clearly distinguished from other search terms with a space.
- …: If you have a query that consists of at least two terms, such as "search operators", you can put the combination of keywords in quotes. Consequently, the terms you entered will not be separated by more than ten words in the results. When this is not fulfilled, the webs will not appear in the search results.
- *: The asterisk, which is also called "wildcard search", can substitute for a keyword that is not yet known at the time of the query. If you enter, "SEO *", the result suggestion for combinations of search terms is often listed in Google containing the keyword SEO. Regardless, this procedure is now mostly replaced by the Google Suggest breadth (plus Google autocomplete). This way, popular keywords or combinations appear automatically as you type your search word.
Google Advanced Search Operators
- if you: An example of this type of search operator is: "SEO site: .org". If this is entered, Google search results will be limited to a particular TLD. In the example above, only sites that include the ".org" span and the SEO keyword will be displayed in the results. Another viable application is to restrict the search to a domain. If you enter "SEO site: ryte.com" in the search bar, only results that contain the keyword SEO and that are found on any page of the domain ryte.com will be displayed.
- info: If a user types "info: www.ryte.com", a large amount of information about the web entered will be displayed. This includes the cache of the web portal, similar sites or web pages that contain a link to the page entered in the text area.
- filetype: If you need in Google "filetype: pdf SEO", for example, it will show all PDF files that contain the SEO parameter.
- intitle: If you specify in the Google search box, for example, "intitle: Madrid", only documents that contain the word "Madrid" in their title will be searched on the Internet.
Relevance for SEO
You can get specific information regarding various websites using search operators for the purpose of search engine optimization. At the same time, users have the option of combining search operators to make the search more efficient. For example, you can search for "SEO Madrid -nofollow intitle: search operator", which would exclude pages whose links are devalued with the tag "nofollow" and you will only have pages whose title contains the term "search operators".
