7 Google Search Operator Hacks to Supercharge Your SEO

Intro

Are you looking for ways to take your SEO to the next level?

Google search operators can help.

By using these commands in combination with keywords, you can find out exactly what people are searching for online and how they are interacting with content related to your industry.

With these SEO hacks, you will be right on your way to improving your SEO performance.

Ready? Let's dive in.

What Are Google Search Operators?

Search Operators are special commands that Google understands as queries. You can enter them into the search bar and get more specific results than you would with a normal query.

For example, if you wanted to find pages with the exact phrase “SEO performance”, you could enter:

"How to Measure SEO Performance"

This would return results that include these exact keywords and are more relevant to SEO performance than a simple search without inverted commas:

Some common search operators include:

• OR (used to search for alternative options)
• Site: (used to limit results to a specific website)
• NOT (used to exclude words from your query)
• +(used to include words in your query)
• - (used to exclude words from your query)

Google Search Command Hacks

Now that you know what Google search operators are, let’s look at some SEO hacks you can use to get the most out of them.

Search for Duplicate Content

Duplicate content is a major SEO no-no.

If you want to make sure that your website isn’t penalized by Google, you can use the site: operator in combination with keywords related to your industry.

For instance, if you wanted to find out if you have duplicate content on your website, you could use the following command:

site:yourwebsite.com "the exact content or keywords you are looking for"

And Google would only return results from your website.

On the other hand, if you wanted to find out if someone else is using your content without permission, you could use the same command but add the minus sign (-) before the website address:

-site:yourwebsite.com "the exact content or keywords you are looking for"

Find Guest Posting Opportunities

Guest posting can be a powerful SEO strategy.

It not only helps you get backlinks to your website, but it also exposes you to a larger audience and increases brand awareness.

You can use the operator “inurl:” in combination with keywords related to guest posting and your industry.

For example, if you have a finance site and wanted to find guest posting opportunities related to investment, you could use the following command:

inurl:"write-for-us" + "investment"

This would return pages that mention the word “investment” and also have an URL that contains the phrase “write-for-us.”

In other words, sites that are looking for guest posts related to your industry.

And it's just an example!

Here are some other search commands you should try:

• inurl:blog + "your industry"
• inurl:"guest post" + "your keywords"
• intitle:"submit a guest post" + "your keywords"
• intitle:"guest post" + "your niche"
• "guest posting guidelines"

Look for Indexing Errors

Indexing errors can lead to SEO issues, so it’s important to check for them regularly.

Other than using Google Search Console, you can also use the Google search operator “site:” to find errors in indexed pages.

You can do this by searching for:

site:yourwebsite.com

And look for pages that don’t belong or have been removed from your website. This way, you can easily spot and take care of any SEO issues related to indexing errors.

You can also search subdomains or specific pages with the same operator.

For example:

site:ranktracker.com/blog

It would return only blog posts from the Ranktracker website.

If you're looking for methods to investigate indexation issues with WordPress "tag" or category pages, some of the commands you can use are:

• site:yourwebsite.com inurl:tag
• site:yourwebsite.com/category/

Check for Non-HTTPS Pages

Websites that are not secure can harm the user experience. And Google counts this as an SEO factor.

Fortunately, you can easily check which pages on your website are not secure by using the following operator:

site:domainname.com -inurl:https

For example:

site:ranktracker.com -inurl:https

This would return all the pages on the Ranktracker website that don’t have an HTTPS connection.

In this case, none:

Discover PR Opportunities

Public relations can be quite complex, but you can use Google search operators to make it easier.

For example, you can use the “related:” operator to look for websites that are related to yours.

With this operator, you can search for news sites that publish content related to your industry. That way, you can get an idea of who to contact and how to pitch.

For instance:

related:ranktracker.com

This would return a list of websites that are somehow related to the content or services offered by Ranktracker.com.

You can also use the operator “inurl:press” to find press pages on other websites and look for opportunities to do PR.

For example:

inurl:"press" + "your industry keywords"

Discover Brand Mentions

Brand mentions around the internet (better if they are in your industry) will help you increase your authority and how users perceive your business.

For that reason, it’s important to track them regularly.

You can use:

"Your Brand" -site:yourwebsite.com

to look for mentions.

For example, if you wanted to search for mentions of Ranktracker:

"RankTracker" -site:ranktracker.com

This would return all the pages mentioning Ranktracker, except those within the website itself.

Get New Content Ideas

Content is essential for any website's success. But, before you start writing, it's important to have a topic.

Google search operators can be useful in this regard too. You can use “intitle:” to find pages with a specific keyword in the title.

For example:

intitle:"SEO tips"

This would return all the pages with SEO tips in their title.

You can also use Google search operators to look for content gaps.

For example, let’s say you want to know what SEO topics haven’t been covered on your website.

You can use the operator “site:” to look for SEO topics that have not been covered on your website.

For example:

SEO hacks -site:yourwebsite.com

This would return SEO-related content that hasn't been created yet on your website.

Final Words

Google search operators can be a powerful tool.

They can help you find errors in your indexed pages, discover public relations opportunities, track brand mentions, and get new content ideas to create SEO-friendly content.

If you want to stay ahead of the competition and increase your website’s visibility on Google’s search engine results pages, using these operators can help you build a successful strategy.

Now you know how to use Google search operators for SEO – all that’s left is for you to start implementing them in your daily routine!

Good luck!