Whether you’re a SEO professional or enthusiast, you can benefit from using Google’s advanced search operators. Learning how to run an advanced search effectively can help you navigate Google search thoroughly and improve your link-building strategy.
Google advanced search uses special search operators to narrow down your search results. You can use search operators to filter results by domain, specific phrase, or more.
Whatever you’re looking for, Google search operators can help you find it faster. Once you learn how they work, they’re easy to use.
To use the advanced search feature on Google, all you need to do is add a search operator in front of your usual search query.
For example, if you want to read about the latest series of The Great British Bake Off but only want to see articles from BBC.com, you can use an operator to narrow down search results to only those that are relevant to your keyword (“The Great British Bake Off”) and featured on your target site (“bbc.com”
Here’s what you’d enter into Google:
In this example, “site:” is the search operator. There are plenty of search operators you can use on Google.
Google advanced search is often used by marketers to support content marketing, SEO, and competitor research goals. Though they’re not generally used to boost link-building strategies, they should be!
There are a number of advanced search operators that can help you build a link-building strategy or campaign.
Google advanced search can:
Ideally, your backlinks should come from a site that is in the same industry or about the same topic as yours. The more relevant the site is to yours, the more impact the backlink can have. Aim to vet sites before including them in your backlink strategy.
Use the “site:” operator to search websites for relevant keywords and topics. To use this operator:
Although this is not a complete vetting process, it can help eliminate irrelevant sites. However, we still recommend that you thoroughly vet all of your link prospects with a link-building tool.
Guest posts can still be a decent link-building strategy. You’ll just need to ensure your post is relevant by finding websites with high domain authority that accept blog posts.
You can find such websites using exact match operator (“ ”). You use this operator to only see “exact match” results that feature your target keyword or phrase.
To use this operator:
Using the exact match operator will only return results that include your query as it appears in your search bar.
A quick way to generate backlinks is to add your website to resource lists. Resource lists link to other websites that provide valuable resources and information to readers.
To feature these websites in one of these lists, you’ll need to be able to find a relevant resource list and contact the writer or website. You can find resource lists with the exact match search operator.
From here you can reach out to the websites in your Google results to be added to their resource list. However, bear in mind that you will need to have a useful and relevant resource for this outreach to work.
Part of your backlink strategy should include monitoring your competitors’ backlinks. Keeping an eye on your competitors can help you identify link opportunities for your own site and indicate where your competitors are focusing their link-building efforts.
You can use the “link:” search operator to find your competitor’s backlinks.
You may find that step 1 does not return relevant results. Step 2 is more useful because it will return all backlinks to every page on your competitor’s site except the homepage.
If you want a reliable view of all links on your competitor’s site including the homepage, a third-party tool like the Backlink Analytics tool can identify all links to your competitor’s site, including spam and toxic links.
Internal links aren’t necessarily part of a backlink strategy, but they are an important part of your overall link architecture. While you’re earning quality backlinks, make sure your internal linking structure is solid to pass any “link juice” through your site.
You can use Google advanced search to find ways to improve your internal linking by finding pages that mention the same topic.
Google returns any pages on your site that mention your topic in its content. Link these pages together to increase your internal linking profile.
Check the status of your internal links to ensure your linking profile stays intact. Site auditing tools can indicate the health of your internal linking structure and identify any links that need fixing.
You can use Google’s advanced search operators in the Link Building tool to generate better link-building prospects. The tool automatically suggests prospects based on the keywords, competitors, linking brand mentions or prospects you enter.
To make your keyword-based link building more relevant, you can use advanced search operators in the tool’s configuration process:
Google advanced search operators can help you specify your searches so you always receive the most useful results. Try combining multiple search operators to narrow your search results even further.
In the Link Building tool, you can use advanced search operators to modify your keywords and find better opportunities.
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