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Handy Search Shortcuts

  • August 20, 2008
  • by Jennifer Grappone

Use these search shortcuts to turn your favorite search engine into a high-powered SEO research tool!

Google

Search for sites linking to a URL: [note: Google does not list all linking sites. For a more fun list, sign up for Google Webmaster Tools and view links to your site within the tool.]

link://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their HTML Page Title:

allintitle:”Handy Search Shortcuts” try it now

Search for related sites:

related://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for all pages indexed within a website:

site://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for all pages with a certain word in their URL:

inurl:search try it now

See more Google Search Shortcuts on Cyberwyre.

Yahoo!

Search for sites linking to a URL: [note: this search and the site: search below will be redirected out of standard Yahoo! search results and into Yahoo!’s Site Explorer]

link://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their HTML Page Title:

allintitle:”Handy Search Shortcuts” try it now

Search for all pages indexed within a website:

site:www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Or you can do this the “old-fashioned” way and stay within standard Yahoo! search results rather than going to Yahoo! Site Explorer: go to Yahoo! advanced search, enter your domain as yourdomain.com in the box next to “only search in this domain/site:” and enter a word that you know you have on every page of your site into the search query box (we use “SEO”). try it now

See more Yahoo! Search Shortcuts on Yahoo

Bing

Search for pages linking to a URL:

site://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for outbound links from an entire domain:

linkfromdomain://www.yourseoplan.com try it now

Search for pages with certain words in their HTML Page Title:

intitle:”Handy Search Shortcuts” try it now

Ask

Although Ask has a relatively robust menu of advanced searches, it has some restrictions that make it slightly less handy for the average SEO trying to learn more about their own site. Notably, there are no search options for linking sites, and you have to include a term along with the advanced search query. So, for example, you can’t just search for all the indexed pages on your website — you have to search for all the indexed pages on your website that contain a specific term . (Here, we use the word “seo” because we know that every page has that word on it.) Here is an example:

Search for pages indexed within a site:

site:www.yourseoplan.com seo try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their URL:

inurl:”yourseoplan” try it now

Search for pages with a certain phrase in their title:

intitle:”your seo plan ” try it now

Search for pages containing a certain phrase that have been updated within the last week (the “last updated” searches available on the other big search engines start at 3 months):

“seo” last:week try it now

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5 COMMENTS
  • James Norquay
    August 16, 2010 at 5:49 pm

    Another good one for Google is Link: (url) site: .edu Or Link: (url) site:.gov
    To quickly find competitors links.

  • Al
    August 27, 2010 at 3:05 am

    Google does not like people searching using “allintitle:” I used it and got banned from Google for several hours. Now I can only use allintitle:” for just a few queries, usually below 10 and then get locked for the rest of the day.
    If I try again on the same day, I keep getting captcha’s over and over again. Deleting cookies etc. does not work either. That only worked for one day and I was able to get about 200 queries done after using 3 browsers and deleting the cookies and cache over and over again. But that was the last day also.
    Usually you get a message that Google thinks you are sending automated queries. However, the fact is that even after you have verified that you are a human by using captcha, you still won’t get access. Maybe you will for a day or two, but eventually they will get your IP addresses and start to block you for the rest of the day if you exceed more than around 10 “allintitle:” queries.

    This is somewhere written in their terms also and I came across it after doing some research.

    So Jen/Grandiva, you need to tell us about a better way to assess the competitors’ websites. Any ideas?

    1. Gradiva Couzin
      August 27, 2010 at 7:45 pm

      Hi AI,

      I feel your pain – I’ve had Google accuse me of being a robot and temporarily shut me out of searching for using the allintitle search as well as for using the extremely useful inurl search. Maybe some of our other readers would like to share their experiences?

      Gradiva

  • Chelsea
    August 30, 2010 at 10:16 am

    I used Google to do an “Allintitle:” search for 200+ words about 2 months ago and luckily I didn’t have any problems.

    Love the book!

  • صدفة
    November 2, 2010 at 7:58 am

    I used Google to do an “Allintitle:” search for 200+ words about 2 months ago and luckily I didn’t have any problems.

Comments are closed.

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As SEO industry veterans, Couzin and Grappone co-wrote Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day (Wiley, 2006, 2008, 2011) and Five Stars: Putting Online Reviews to Work for Your Business (Wiley, 2014), and enjoy sharing their expertise in speaking engagements and press interviews. 
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