Google Search Operators for Effective Work

The ability to find the most important and necessary data on the internet quickly significantly saves a person’s time. Therefore, this skill is useful not only for SEO specialists but also for ordinary users. Undoubtedly, search engines, thanks to more advanced algorithms, have learned to work much better. However, they still make errors, and often the information found is not fully relevant to the query. Today we will tell you about Google search operators. They help users find more accurate information on the internet.

Basic Google Search Operators

First, let’s talk about the search operators that are at the first level of complexity. You may already be familiar with some of them:

• Plus sign “+”. The plus is placed before those words that are the most important. If you use the plus sign, you specify that this word must be present on the page.
• Minus sign “-“. The task of the minus is the opposite – the word before which it stands should not appear to the user. Pages where it exists will not be presented in the search results.
• Quotations (“”). Quotation marks will help you find those sites where the query entered into the search box will appear exactly as is. That is, in the search process, special attention is paid to the number of words, their sequence, and case.
• Asterisk “*”. With the help of the asterisk, you can insert any other words into the specified phrase. As a result, you will be offered all possible word options inserted in place of the asterisk in the search results.
• Vertical line “|”. With the help of the vertical bar, you can replace the word “or”. That is, you want to find a page that will contain any of the two specified words. Instead of the vertical bar, you can also use the “OR” operator. It might be easier to change the language and input these two letters than to look for the symbol you need.
• Two dots “..”. This operator is typically used when you need to find a number within a specified range in a request. In this way, you can specify an acceptable price for you when searching for a product.
• Currency signs “$” and “€”. By using these operators, you can find a product with a set price in the currency you are interested in. For example, you can enter the query “TV € 400”.

Advanced Google Search Operators

On the second level, advanced operators exist. Here is more detailed information about them:

• “site:”. Thanks to this operator, it is easy to search for information not on all existing web resources in this search engine, but only on individual sites and subdomains. Also, the operator is used for controlling the indexation of the web resource. To do this, you need to enter “site:example.com” into the search bar, and then you will see the web pages that have been indexed in the search results.
• “source:”. It bears some similarity to the previous one, but in the search results, apart from the pages of a specific site, you will also see pages where the entered query and source are present.
• “define:”. If you need to find the definition of a word in a dictionary or use a translator, this operator is perfect. It helps in searching reference data.
• “filetype:”. With its help, it’s easy to search for files with the extension you need. As an alternative, you can also use “ext:”.
• “intitle:” and “allintitle”. By applying these operators, you give Google the task of searching data by the site titles. The first one will search for only a single word in the page title, while the second one will search for the entire entered phrase.
• “inurl” and “allinurl”. Their principle is the same as for the previous operators. The difference is that attention will be focused not on the title, but on the URL during the search process.
• “intext” and “allintext”. This pair conducts a search through the text placed on the page, specifically determining the presence of the specified word or phrase there. Meta tags are not considered here.
• “related”. An excellent operator for evaluating the state of sites engaged in the same activity as you (competitors). It allows you to find in the network content similar to yours.
• “cache”. It is used in tandem with the URL of the page. It allows you to return the last loaded copy of this webpage from Google cache.

As a Bonus

At the end of this selection, we want to mention a few additional operators that help search for information in Google faster and more efficiently:

• “imagesize:”. This operator can be applied when searching by picture. With its help, it is easy to find images of the desired size. For example, you can enter into the search bar “tall tree imagesize:1000х700”.
• “weather:”. An operator that helps find the weather forecast in a specific city that interests you. Example – “weather:Kyiv”.
• “loc:”. It helps refine the search goal to make the results more precise. Meanwhile, geolocation is specified. If you enter the phrase “coffee shop loc:Paris”, you will see the addresses of these establishments in Paris and those web resources connected with them.
• “movie:”. If you need to read details about some movie or find out when it can be seen on cinema screens, enter the title of the movie and add this operator.
• “stocks:”. With the help of this operator, you can quickly output stock quotes found on the exchange.
• “in”. It is used for converting digits into the required units of measurement. If you enter 100 F in C, you can see how many degrees Celsius 100 degrees Fahrenheit corresponds to.

Listed search operators significantly simplify the process of finding information and save the user’s time. Try them in practice, and you will see for yourself.