Use Google's Advanced Search Operators to Assist SEO

Ever wonder how search engine optimizers find certain
information online about your Web site, like how many other Web
sites link to yours, how many Web pages you have indexed, or
what date search engines last visited your site? Here are some
of the latest SEO tools they use to determine the level and
degree of work involved in an SEO campaign.

Using these advanced search operators modify the search results
in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type
of search on your Web site. Keep in mind too that some of these
operators can be used in other search engines as well, like MSN
and Yahoo! Note that there are no spaces between the search
operator and the Web page URL.

site: Using the site: in the search box followed by
www.yourwebsiteaddress.com determines how many Web pages within
the entire Web site are currently being recognized by Google.
This function also limits results to one particular domain. This
helps SEO experts know which Web pages are already being seen
(and which ones aren't yet), so we can optimize those first.

cache: Using the cache: in the search box followed by
www.yourwebsiteaddress.com shows the last time the search engine
crawled a particular Web page. You may enter your homepage
address or an inside Web page to find out the most recently
spidered version of a Web page stored in a search engine's cache.

info: The search query info: presents a collection of
data that a search engine has about that Web page, like its
latest cache date, Web pages similar to your site, Web pages
that link to your site, Web pages within your site and Web pages
containing the your domain name.

link: This search query results in finding all Web
sites that are currently linking to your site. This helps
determine how much link building services are needed in an SEO
program for a client. Link popularity is still considered a
major factor to achieving high keyword rankings in search
engines. It also helps knowing what sites are linking to yours,
so you can then determine whether or not you want them linking
to your site.

related: This search shows Web pages that are similar
to a specific URL. For example, related: www.santaclaus.com will
list all web pages that are similar to the Santa Claus homepage.

allinurl: or inurl: These searches display all Web
pages where the search terms queried appear in the URL. For
example, allinurl: circus world will return only Web sites that
have the words circus and world somewhere in the URL. The
advanced search operator inurl: is used only when a single
search term queried is necessary

allintext: This search results in showing Web pages
where all search terms listed appear in the body content
(visible text) portion of a Web page. In SEO campaigns, using
this advanced search operator helps in discovering other related
sites for possible link exchanges or link submissions.

allinanchor: or inanchor: These queries display all
Web pages where the search terms listed appear in the URL. For
example, allinanchor: circus world will return only Web sites
that have the search terms circus and world appear in the text
of links pointing to a Web page. The advanced search operator
inanchor: is used only when a single search term listed is
necessary

allintitle: or intitle: These advanced search
operators display all search terms listed appear in the title of
Web pages. For example, allintitle: circus world will return
only Web sites that have the keywords circus and world in the
titles of Web pages. The search operator intitle: only shows Web
pages where a single word appears in the title of Web pages.

define: Although SEO experts may not use this
advanced search operator often, sometimes it comes in handy just
to quickly learn what a particular word or phrase means, instead
of going to other online dictionary Web sites.

Author: Wendy Suto

About the author:
Wendy Suto is president and CEO of Search Circus, Inc., an http://www.searchcircus.com organic SEO firm in
Cleveland, Ohio. She keeps pace with the latest optimization,
link building and article submission tactics. As a certified
search engine optimization consultant, she teaches SEO classes
throughout Cleveland, Ohio.
wendy@searchcircus.com