Google search operators make searching for things simpler and better.
Once you have mastered some of these special commands, you will wonder how you managed without them.
In this post, we’ll walk you through some of Google’s best-advanced search operators (which really work) and show you how to use them effectively.
What are Google Search Operators?
Google search operators (sometimes called advanced Google search operators or Google search commands) are special commands that extend regular text searches’ capabilities on Google.
Search operators help you narrow down your search results and help everything from researching content to finding online discussions or technical SEO audits.
They can also be used with other search engines like Bing and Yahoo!
Like the Gmail search operators, using the Google search operators help you find exactly what you are looking for on everyone’s favourite search engine.
Why Use Google Search Commands?
According to Internet Live Stats, 3.5 billion searches are performed on Google every day. That’s a lot of search results to find the information you want.
In addition to showing your search skills: using search commands makes it faster to find things on Google.
Google had a 92.71% global market share in October 2020. That’s a lot of searching to find what you want.
Google search operators are there to make your life easier by refining your searches on the web. So how can you use these magical Google help codes to find web pages quickly?
Actually, it is quite simple:
How Can I Use Google Search Operators?
It’s as simple as googling something. You can enter search operators directly into the Google search box as if it were a text search:
Except in exceptional cases (as with the “in” operator), Google will return standard organic results.
You can use symbols and/or words in your search terms to make the results more precise.
Only remember:
*Google usually ignores any punctuation marks (they are not part of a search operator).
*Do not add spaces between the symbol or word and the search term.
The Google Search Operators List
Here’s a complete list of all Google’s advanced search operators that work:
“Search term” Use this to do an exact search.
OR search for this or that. This will, in turn, show results related to both terms or both.
AND look for this and that. Search for dog and cat. This will in turn show results related to both dog and cat
–Exclude a search term or phrase.
* Act as a wildcard and will find any word or phrase.
() Group multiple terms or operators to control how the search is displayed.
$ Look up prices.
Define: A dictionary built into Google. The meaning of the word will be displayed in the SERP in a card-like result.
Cache: Returns the web page with the most recent cached version (providing the page is indexed, of course).
filetype: Shows the results of a specific type of file (PDF, DOCX, TXT, PPT, etc.)
Site: Limit the results to a particular website.
Related: Find sites related to another site.
Intitle: Find the pages that contain a specific word in the title.
Allintitle: Similar to “intitle”, this finds web pages that contain all the specific words in the page title.
inurl: Find pages with a particular word in the URL.
allinurl: Similar to “inurl”, this finds web pages that contain all the specific words in the URL.
intext: Find the pages that have a specific word in the content.
allintext: Finds results that contain all the specific words somewhere on the page.
AROUND (X) :This proximity search finds pages that contain two words (or phrases) within X words of each other.
weather: Find the weather for a specific place.
stocks: Shows information about stocks
map: Displays the map results for a location search.
movie: Find information about a particular movie.
in: Convert one unit to another (such as currencies, pesos, temperatures, etc.)
source: Find news results from a specific source on Google News.
