Google Search Operators

The following article explains the use of common search operators that work with Google’s search engine.

allinanchor:
Anchor text is text on a web page that serves as the actual link text for another web page. For example, the search “allinanchor: android developer” will return web pages that have links on their own page which include the words android or developer. Do not include any other search operators when using allinanchor:.

allintext:
Starting your search with allintext: will restrict Google results to those which contain your search term in the text of the web page. It is similar to allinanchor:, but doesn’t restrict the results to only web pages with links that match the search terms.

allintitle:
The title of a web page is the text that is displayed at the top of the browser or is the text that populates a certain tab of a browser. Using this search operator will return web pages that contain the search phrase in the title of the web page.

allinurl:
Using the search operator allinurl: will provide results with the words you specify only in the URL of the returned web results. For example, if you query “allinurl: android seo”, you may see the following web page in your results: http://www.promoteseo.com/android.php. URLs frequently use run-together words, but you don’t need to worry about this when using allinurl: because Google will look for your search characters throughout the whole url.

author:
If you include this search operator, Google will restrict Google Groups results to include articles by the author you specify. The author can be a full or partial name or even email address. For example, “android author:john author:doe” will return articles that contain the word “android” with the author John Doe. As another example, “android author:[email protected]” will return articles containing “android” by [email protected]. Google will only search exactly what you specify meaning “author: “John Doe”” (with quotes) will not return articles by Doe, John.

cache:
The search operator cache: allows you to view a Google-cached copy of a given website as opposed to the current version. NOTE: do not include a space between the operator and URL. Google will highlight any terms on the cached site if you include them after the URL. If you search for “cache:www.promoteseo.com/android assault alarm”, you will be taken to the cached version of the site with “assault” and “alarm” highlighted.

define:
Starting your query with “define:” will return definitions from pages on the web for the word that follows. For example, “define: android” returns “(in science fiction) A robot with a human appearance.”

ext:
This is an undocumented alias for filetype:.

filetype:
Including filetype:suffix in your query will restrict results to pages whose names end in suffix. For example, (android developer checklist filetype:pdf) will return Adobe pdf files that match the terms “android,” “developer,” and “checklist.” You can broaden your search by using the OR operator (android developer checklist filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc).

group:
Including group: in your search will restrict Google Groups results to newsgroup articles from certain groups. For example, (nexus group:android.developer.bugs) will return results for “nexus” in the group android.developer.bugs. The query (nexus group:android.developer) will return “nexus” results from the group android.developer.

id:
This is an undocumented alias for info:

inanchor:
Including inanchor: in your query will restrict Google results to pages containing the terms that you specify in the links or anchor text of the page. For example, (android inanchor:development) will return pages with links that include “development” and whose page text contains “android.”

info:
The query info:URL will return some information about the particular webpage that you specify. There must be no space between the operator and the URL.

insubject:
Including this operator will restrict articles in Google Groups to those that contain the terms you specify in the subject. For example, (insubject:”android development”) will return articles that contain the phrase “android development” in the subject. It is equivalent to intitle:.

intext:
The query intext:term restricts results to documents containing term in the text of the document. For example, (developer intext:”android”) will return documents that mention the word “android” in the text and “developer” anywhere in the document (text or otherwise).

intitle:
The query intext:term restricts results to documents containing term in the title. For example, developer intitle:android will return documents that mention the word “android” in their title and mention developer in their text.

inurl:
If you include inurl: in your query, Google restricts results to documents containing that word in the URL of the website. For example, (inurl:android site:www.droidforums.com) will return pages on Droidforums.com which contain the term “android” in their URL. If you want to search multiple terms in the URL, just use allinurl:.

link:
The search link:URL shows pages that link to that URL. For example, to find pages that link to Astral Web’s home page, type in (link:www.promoteseo.com). To find links to Astral Web’s home page not on Astral Web’s own site, type (link:www.promoteseo.com -site:www.promoteseo.com).

location:
Including location: in your search on Google News, only articles from the location specified will be returned. For example, (android location:canada) will return articles that match the term “android” from sites in Canada. Two-letter US state abbreviations match individual US states, and two-letter Canadian province abbreviations (like NS for Nova Scotia) also work – although some provinces don’t have many newspapers online, so you may not get many results. Some other two-letter abbreviations – such as UK for the United Kingdom – are also available.

movie:
If you include move: in your query, Google will find move-related information. The possibilities are great for the movie: operator. Examples include searching for a movie from which a quote originates, finding the movie in which “Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball” (movie: Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball), and more.

phonebook:
If you start the query with phonebook:, Google shows all public U.S. residence telephone listings (name, address, phone number) for the person you specify. For example, searching (phonebook: John Doe Los Angeles CA) will return phonebook listings for all named John Doe in Los Angeles, CA.

related:
The query related:URL will list web pages that are similar to the web page you specify. For example, related:www.promoteseo.com will return other websites that deal with search engine optimization (SEO) and other internet services. Don’t include a space between the operator and the term.

site:
If you include this operator, it will restrict Google results to the site or domain you specify. For example, (android site:www.promoteseo.com) will provide all results of “android” on the site specified. You can also specify the domain (android site:gov) which will return all results of “android” on .gov sites. Additionally, you can specify to look everywhere but a specific site (android -site:google.com).

source:
If you include the source: operator, Google News will restrict results to articles from the news source with the ID that you specify. For example, (android source: new york times) will return articles mentioning “android” from the source New York Times.

weather
If you enter a query of the word weather with a city or location name, if Google recognizes the location, it will show forecast for that location. Weather is not an advanced operator like the others that are mentioned here.

Htaccess Page Translation

Htaccess Page Translation

Use Google Translate to enable auto translation for foreign speakers to use your site. NOT CLOSE TO PERFECT but a nice feature with htaccess.

Step 1: Add language code to end of URL’s – for example this URL would be https://www.astralwebinc.com/htaccess_page_translation.php-he

Step 2: Add to htaccess file

Options +FollowSymlinks
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)-he$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=he&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)-fr$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=fr&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)-de$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=de&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]
RewriteRule ^(.*)-es$ http://www.google.com/translate_c?hl=es&sl=en&u=http://example.com/$1 [R,NC]

SEO with GooGle Alerts

Use Google Alerts to find out new links gained by your competition, do research and help your SEO efforts in a tremendous way. Setup on an ongoing basis web alerts without you ever needed to move a finger.

Go to Google Alerts and try it yourself.

New Links By Competition

Enter in search query field
competition.com -site:competition.com
Enter in How often field
As it happens
Enter in How Many field
All Results

Find Sites to Submit to

Enter in search query field
“subject” intitle:submit OR “subject” intitle:add
Enter in How often field
As it happens
Enter in How Many field
All Results

Find Data to Write Content About

Enter in search query field
“subject” filetype:txt site:.gov
Enter in How often field
As it happens
Enter in How Many field
All Results

Speed up site with Gzip

Gzip is used for compressing your text files including text, html, php, js and css. There is no need to gzip images for they are already compressed and gzipping them will cause extra server work.
Speed up site with Gzip & PHP

Use the following code at the top of your php files to gzip your page.

Place this at the top of your htaccess file. BE SURE TO REPLACE EXAMPLE.COM WITH YOUR DOMAIN ON LINE 2 & 3:

<?php
ob_start(“ob_gzhandler”);
?>

Speed up site with Gzip & Htaccess

Use the following code in your Htaccess file: (linux and unix servers ONLY)

#Gzip
<ifmodule mod_deflate.c>
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/text text/html text/plain text/xml text/css application/x-javascript application/javascript
</ifmodule>
#End Gzip