Brought to you by Ahrefs, a data-driven marketing toolset

powered by a huge index of backlinks, keywords and content

GENERAL SEO

Google Search Operators: The Complete List

(42 Advanced Operators)
Joshua Hardwick Updated: December 24, 2019

For anyone that’s been doing SEO for a while, Google advanced search
operators—i.e., special commands that make regular ol’ searches seem

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 laughably basic in comparison—are nothing new.

Here’s a Google search operator you may be familiar with.

the “site:” operator restricts results to only those from a speci ed site.

It’s easy to remember most search operators. They’re short commands that stick in the
mind.

But knowing how to use them effectively is an altogether different story.

Most SEOs know the basics, but few have truly mastered them.

In this post, I’ll share 15 actionable tips to help you master search operators for SEO,
which are:
1. Find indexation errors
2. Find non-secure pages (non-https)
3. Find duplicate content issues
4. Find unwanted les and pages on your site
5. Find guest post opportunities
6. Find resource page opportunities

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 7. Find sites that feature infographics… so you can pitch YOURS
8. Find more link prospects… AND check how relevant they are
9. Find social pro les for outreach prospects
10. Find internal linking opportunities
11. Find PR opportunities by nding competitor mentions
12. Find sponsored post opportunities
13. Find Q+A threads related to your content
14. Find how often your competitors are publishing new content
15. Find sites linking to competitors

But rst, here’s a complete list of all Google search operators and their functionality.

Google Search Operators: The Complete List

Did you know that Google is constantly killing useful operators?

That’s why most existing lists of Google search operators are outdated and inaccurate.

For this post, I personally tested EVERY search operator I could nd.

Here is a complete list of all working, non-working, and “hit and miss” Google advanced
search operators as of 2018.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 “search term”
Force an exact-match search. Use this to re ne results for ambiguous searches, or to
exclude synonyms when searching for single words.

Example: “steve jobs”

OR
Search for X or Y. This will return results related to X or Y, or both. Note: The pipe (|)
operator can also be used in place of “OR.”

Examples: jobs OR gates / jobs | gates

AND
Search for X and Y. This will return only results related to both X and Y. Note: It doesn’t
really make much difference for regular searches, as Google defaults to “AND” anyway.
But it’s very useful when paired with other operators.

Example: jobs AND gates

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Exclude a term or phrase. In our example, any pages returned will be related to jobs but
not Apple (the company).

Example: jobs ‑apple

*
Acts as a wildcard and will match any word or phrase.

Example: steve * apple 

()
Group multiple terms or search operators to control how the search is executed.

Example: (ipad OR iphone) apple

$
Search for prices. Also works for Euro (€), but not GBP (£) 🙁

Example: ipad $329

de ne:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 A dictionary built into Google, basically. This will display the meaning of a word in a card-
like result in the SERPs.

Example: de ne:entrepreneur

cache:
Returns the most recent cached version of a web page (providing the page is indexed, of
course).

Example: cache:apple.com

letype:
Restrict results to those of a certain letype. E.g., PDF, DOCX, TXT, PPT, etc. Note: The
“ext:” operator can also be used—the results are identical.

Example: apple letype:pdf / apple ext:pdf

site:
Limit results to those from a speci c website.

Example: site:apple.com

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 related:
Find sites related to a given domain.

Example: related:apple.com

intitle:
Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the title. In our example, any results
containing the word “apple” in the title tag will be returned.

Example: intitle:apple

allintitle:
Similar to “intitle,” but only results containing all of the speci ed words in the title tag
will be returned.

Example: allintitle:apple iphone

inurl:
Find pages with a certain word (or words) in the URL. For this example, any results
containing the word “apple” in the URL will be returned.

Example: inurl:apple

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 allinurl:
Similar to “inurl,” but only results containing all of the speci ed words in the URL will be
returned.

Example: allinurl:apple iphone

intext:
Find pages containing a certain word (or words) somewhere in the content. For this
example, any results containing the word “apple” in the page content will be returned.

Example: intext:apple

allintext:
Similar to “intext,” but only results containing all of the speci ed words somewhere on
the page will be returned.

Example: allintext:apple iphone

AROUND(X)
Proximity search. Find pages containing two words or phrases within X words of each
other. For this example, the words “apple” and “iphone” must be present in the content
and no further than four words apart.
Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Example: apple AROUND(4) iphone

weather:
Find the weather for a speci c location. This is displayed in a weather snippet, but it also
returns results from other “weather” websites.

Example: weather:san francisco

stocks:
See stock information (i.e., price, etc.) for a speci c ticker.

Example: stocks:aapl

map:
Force Google to show map results for a locational search.

Example: map:silicon valley

movie:
Find information about a speci c movie. Also nds movie showtimes if the movie is
currently showing near you.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Example: movie:steve jobs

in
Convert one unit to another. Works with currencies, weights, temperatures, etc.

Example: $329 in GBP

source:
Find news results from a certain source in Google News.

Example: apple source:the_verge

_
Not exactly a search operator, but acts as a wildcard for Google Autocomplete.

Example: apple CEO _ jobs

Here are the ones that are hit and miss, according to my testing:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 #..#
Search for a range of numbers. In the example below, searches related to “WWDC videos”
are returned for the years 2010–2014, but not for 2015 and beyond.

Example: wwdc video 2010..2014

inanchor:
Find pages that are being linked to with speci c anchor text. For this example, any results
with inbound links containing either “apple” or “iphone” in the anchor text will be
returned.

Example: inanchor:apple iphone

allinanchor:
Similar to “inanchor,” but only results containing all of the speci ed words in the inbound
anchor text will be returned.

Example: allinanchor:apple iphone

blogurl:
Find blog URLs under a speci c domain. This was used in Google blog search, but I’ve
found it does return some results in regular search.
Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Example: blogurl:microsoft.com

SIDENOTE. Google blog search discontinued in 2011

loc:placename
Find results from a given area.

Example: loc:”san francisco” apple

SIDENOTE. Not of cially deprecated, but results are inconsistent.

location:
Find news from a certain location in Google News.

Example: loc:”san francisco” apple

SIDENOTE. Not of cially deprecated, but results are inconsistent.

Here are the Google search operators that have been discontinued and no longer work. 🙁

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 +
Force an exact-match search on a single word or phrase.

Example: jobs +apple

SIDENOTE. You can do the same thing by using double quotes around your search.

~
Include synonyms. Doesn’t work, because Google now includes synonyms by default.
(Hint: Use double quotes to exclude synonyms.)

Example: ~apple

inpostauthor:
Find blog posts written by a speci c author. This only worked in Google Blog search, not
regular Google search.

Example: inpostauthor:”steve jobs”

SIDENOTE. Google blog search was discontinued in 2011.

allinpostauthor:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Similar to “inpostauthor,” but removes the need for quotes (if you want to search for a
speci c author, including surname.)

Example: allinpostauthor:steve jobs

inposttitle:
Find blog posts with speci c words in the title. No longer works, as this operator was
unique to the discontinued Google blog search.

Example: intitle:apple iphone

link:
Find pages linking to a speci c domain or URL. Google killed this operator in 2017, but it
does still show some results—they likely aren’t particularly accurate though. (Deprecated
in 2017)

Example: link:apple.com

info:
Find information about a speci c page, including the most recent cache, similar pages,
etc. (Deprecated in 2017). Note: The id:  operator can also be used—the results are
identical.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Although the original functionality of this operator is deprecated, it is still useful for nding
the canonical, indexed version of a URL. Thanks to @glenngabe for pointing this one one!

Example: info:apple.com / id:apple.com

daterange:
Find results from a certain date range. Uses the Julian date format, for some reason.

Example: daterange:11278–13278

SIDENOTE. Not of cially deprecated, but doesn’t seem to work.

phonebook:
Find someone’s phone number. (Deprecated in 2010)

Example: phonebook:tim cook

#
Searches #hashtags. Introduced for Google+; now deprecated.

Example: #apple

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 15 Actionable Ways to Use Google Search Operators
Now let’s tackle a few ways to put these operators into action.

My aim here is to show that you can achieve almost anything with Google advanced
operators if you know how to use and combine them ef ciently.

So don’t be afraid to play around and deviate from the examples below. You might just
discover something new.

BORED OF READING?

Check out 9 actionable Google search operator tips in Sam Oh’s video.

How to Google with Advanced Search Operators (9…

Watch later Share

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Let’s go!

1. Find indexation errors

Google indexation errors exist for most sites.

It could be that a page that should be indexed, isn’t. Or vice-versa.

Let’s use the site:  operator to see how many pages Google has indexed for ahrefs.com.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 ~1,040.

SIDENOTE. Google only gives a rough approximation when using this operator. For the full picture, check
Google Search Console.

But how many of these pages are blog posts?

Let’s nd out.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 ~249. That’s roughly ¼.

I know Ahrefs blog inside out, so I know this is higher than the number of posts we have.

Let’s investigate further.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 OK, so it seems that a few odd pages are being indexed.

(This page isn’t even live—it’s a 404)

Such pages should be removed from the SERPs by noindexing them.

Let’s also narrow the search to subdomains and see what we nd.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Here, we’re using the wildcard (*) operator to nd all subdomains belonging to the domain,
combined with the exclusion operator (-) to exclude regular www results.

~731 results.

Here’s a page residing on a subdomain that de nitely shouldn’t be indexed. It gives a 404

error for a start.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Here are a few other ways to uncover indexation errors with Google operators:
site:yourblog.com/category  — nd WordPress blog category pages;
site:yourblog.com inurl:tag — nd WordPress “tag” pages.

2. Find non-secure pages (non-https)

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 HTTPs is a must these days, especially for ecommerce sites.

But did you know that you can nd unsecure pages with the site: operator?

Let’s try it for asos.com.

Oh my, ~2.47M unsecure pages.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 It looks like ASAS don’t currently use SSL—unbelievable for such a large site.

SIDENOTE. Don’t worry, Asos customers—their checkout pages are secure 🙂

But here’s another crazy thing:

ASOS is accessible at both the https and http versions.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 And we learned all that from a simple site:  search!

SIDENOTE. I’ve noticed that sometimes, when using this tactic, pages will be indexed without the https.
But when you click-through, you will be directed to the https version. So don’t assume that your pages
are unsecure just because they appear as such in Google’s index. Always click a few of them to double-
check.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 F U RT H E R R E A D I N G

We Analyzed the HTTPS Settings of 10,000 Domains and How It Affects Their SEO —
Here’s What We Learned
HTTP vs. HTTPS for SEO: What You Need to Know to Stay in Google’s Good Graces

3. Find duplicate content issues

Duplicate content = bad.

Here’s a pair of Abercrombie and Fitch jeans from ASOS with this brand description:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 With third-party brand descriptions like this, they’re often duplicated on other sites.

But rst, I’m wondering how many times this copy appears on asos.com.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 ~4.2K.

Now I’m wondering if this copy is even unique to ASOS.

Let’s check.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 No, it isn’t.

That’s 15 other sites with this exact same copy—i.e., duplicate content.

Sometimes duplicate content issues can arise from similar product pages, too.

For example, similar or identical products with different quantity counts.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Here’s an example from ASOS:

You can see that—quantities aside—all of these product pages are the same.

But duplicate content isn’t only a problem for ecommerce sites.

If you have a blog, then people could be stealing and republishing your content without
attribution.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Let’s see if anyone has stolen and republished our list of SEO tips.

~17 results.

SIDENOTE. You’ll notice that I excluded ahrefs.com from the results using the exclusion (-) operator—this
ensures that the original doesn’t appear in the search results. I also excluded the word “pinterest.” This
was because I saw a lot of Pinterest results for this search, which aren’t really relevant to what we’re

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 looking for. I could have excluded just pinterest.com (-pinterest.com), but as Pinterest has many ccTLDs,
this didn’t really help things. Excluding the word “pinterest” was the best way to clean up the results.

Most of these are probably syndicated content.

Still, it’s worth checking these out to make sure that they do link back to you.

FIND STOLEN CONTENT IN SE CONDS

Content Explorer > In title > enter the title of your page/post > exclude your own site

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 You will then see any pages (from our database of 900M+ pieces of content) with
the same title as your page/post.

In this instance, there are 5 results.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Next, enter your domain under “Highlight unlinked domains.”

This will highlight any sites that don’t link back to you.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 You can then reach out to those sites and request the addition of a source link.

FYI, this lter actually looks for links on a domain-level rather than a page-level. It
is, therefore, possible that the site could be linking to you from another page, rather
than the page in question.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 4. Find odd les on your domain (that you may have forgotten
about)
Keeping track of everything on your website can be dif cult.

(This is especially true for big sites.)

For this reason, it’s easy to forget about old les you may have uploaded.

PDF les; Word documents; Powerpoint presentations; text les; etc.

Let’s use the filetype:  operator to check for these on ahrefs.com.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Remember, you can also use the ext:  operator—it does the same thing.

Here’s one of those les:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 I’ve never seen that piece of content before. Have you?

But we can extend this further than just PDF les.

By combining a few operators, it’s possible to return results for all supported le types at
once.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. The letype operator does also support things like .asp, .php, .html, etc.

It’s important to delete or noindex these if you’d prefer people didn’t come across them.

5. Find guest post opportunities

Guest post opportunities… there are TONS of ways to nd them, such as:
Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 But you already knew about that method, right!? 😉

SIDENOTE. For those who haven’t seen this one before, it uncovers so-called “write for us” pages in your
niche—the pages many sites create when they’re actively seeking guest contributions.

So let’s get more creative.

First off: don’t limit yourself to “write for us.”

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 You can also use:
“become a contributor"
“contribute to”
“write for me” (yep—there are solo bloggers seeking guest posts, too!)
“guest post guidelines”
inurl:guest-post
inurl:guest-contributor-guidelines
etc.

But here’s a cool tip most people miss:

You can search for many of these at once.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Did you notice I’m using the pipe (“|”) operator instead of “OR” this time? Remember, it does
the same thing. 🙂

You can even search for multiple footprints AND multiple keywords.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Looking for opportunities in a speci c country?

Just add a site:.tld  operator.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Here’s another method:

If you know of a serial guest blogger in your niche, try this:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 This will nd every site that person has written for.

SIDENOTE. Don’t forget to exclude their site to keep the results clean!

HOW TO FIND EVEN MORE AUTHOR GUE ST POS TS

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Content Explorer > author search > exclude their site(s)

For this example, let’s use our very own Tim Soulo.

BOOM. 17 results. All of which are probably guest posts.

For reference, here’s the exact search I entered into Content Explorer:

author:”tim soulo” -site:ahrefs.com -site:bloggerjet.com

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Basically, this searches for posts by Tim Soulo. But it also excludes posts from
ahrefs.com and bloggerjet.com (Tim’s personal blog).

Note. Sometimes you will nd a few false positives in there. It depends on how

common the persons name happens to be.

But don’t stop there:

You can also use Content Explorer to nd sites in your niche that have never linked
to you.

Content Explorer > enter a topic > one article per domain > highlight unlinked domains

Here’s one of the unlinked domains I found for ahrefs.com:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 This means marketingprofs.com has never linked to us.

Now, this search doesn’t tell us whether or not they have a “write for us” page. But it
doesn’t really matter. The truth is that most sites are usually happy to accept guest
posts if you can offer them “quality” content. It would, therefore, de nitely be worth
reaching out and “pitching” such sites.

Another bene t of using Content Explorer is that you can see stats for each page,
including:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 # of RDs;
DR;
Organic traf c estimation;
Social shares;
Etc.

You can also export the results easily. 🙂

Finally, if you’re wondering whether a speci c site accepts guest posts or not, try this:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. You could add even more searches—e.g., “this is a guest article”—to the list of searches
included within the parentheses. I kept this simple for demonstration purposes.

6. Find resource page opportunities

“Resource” pages round-up the best resources on a topic.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Here’s what a so-called “resource” page looks like:

All of those links you see = links to resources on other sites.

(Ironically—given the subject nature of that particular page—a lot of those links are broken)

F U RT H E R R E A D I N G

A Simple (But Complete) Guide to Broken Link Building

How to Find and Fix Broken Links (to Reclaim Valuable “Link Juice”)

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 So if you have a cool resource on your site, you can:
1. nd relevant “resource” pages;
2. pitch your resource for inclusion

Here’s one way to nd them:

But that can return a lot of junk.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Here’s a cool way to narrow it down:

Or narrow it down even further with:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Using allintitle: here ensures that the title tag contains the words “ tness” AND
“resources,” and also a number between 5–15.

A NOTE ABOUT THE #. .# OPE RATOR

I know what you’re thinking:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Why not use the #..#  operator instead of that long sequence of numbers.

Good point!

Let’s try it:

Confused? Here’s the deal:

This operator doesn’t play nicely with most other operators.

Nor does it seem to work a lot of the time anyway—it’s de nitely hit and miss.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 So I recommend using a sequence of numbers separated by “OR” or the pipe (“|”)
operator.

It’s a bit of a hassle, but it works.

7. Find sites that feature infographics… so you can pitch

YOURS
Infographics get a bad rap.

Most likely, this is because a lot of people create low-quality, cheap infographics that
serve no real purpose… other than to “attract links.”

But infographics aren’t always bad.

Here’s the general strategy for infographics:

1. create infographic
2. pitch infographic
3. get featured, get link (and PR!)

But who should you pitch your infographic to?

Just any old sites in your niche?

NO.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 You should pitch to sites that are actually likely to want to feature your infographic.

The best way to do this is to nd sites that have featured infographics before.

Here’s how:

SIDENOTE. It can also be worth searching within a recent date range—e.g., the past 3 months. If a site
featured an infographic two years ago, that doesn’t necessarily mean they still care about infographics.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Whereas if a site featured an infographic in the past few months, chances are they still regularly feature
them. But as the “daterange:” operator no longer seems to work, you’ll have to do this using the in-built
lter in Google search.

But again, this can kick back some serious junk.

So here’s a quick trick:

1. use the above search to nd a good, relevant infographic (i.e., well-designed, etc.)
2. search for that speci c infographic

Here’s an example:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 This found ~2 results from the last 3 months. And 450+ all-time results.

Do this for a handful of infographics and you’ll have a good list of prospects.

NOT GET TING GREAT RESU LTS FROM GOOGLE ? TRY THI S.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Have you ever noticed that when an infographic is embedded on a site, the site
owner will usually include the word “infographic” in square brackets in the title tag?

Example:

Unfortunately, Google search ignores square brackets (even if they’re in quotes).

But Content Explorer doesn’t.

Content Explorer > search query > “AND [infographic]”

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 As you can see, you can also use advanced operators in CE to search for multiple
terms at once. The search above nds results containing “SEO,” “keyword research,”
or “link building” in the title tag, plus “[infographic].”

You can export these easily (with all associated metrics), too.

F U RT H E R R E A D I N G

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 The Visual Format You Should be Using for Link Building (No, It’s NOT Infographics)
6 Linkable Asset Types (And EXACTLY How to Earn Links With Them)
Deconstructing Linkbait: How to Create Content That Attracts Backlinks

8. Find more link prospects… AND check how relevant they

really are
Let’s assume you’ve found a site that you want a link from.

It’s been manually vetted for relevance… and all looks good.

Here’s how to nd a list of similar sites or pages:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 This returned ~49 results—all of which were similar sites.

SIDENOTE. In the example above, we’re looking for similar sites to Ahrefs’ blog—not Ahrefs as a whole.

WANT TO DO THE SAME FOR SP E CI FI C PAGE S? NO P RO B LE M

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Let’s try our link building guide.

That’s ~45 results, all of which are very similar. 🙂

Here’s one of the results: yoast.com/seo-blog

I’m quite familiar with Yoast, so I know it’s a relevant site/prospect.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 But let’s assume that I know nothing about this site, how could I quickly vet this
prospect?

Here’s how:
1. do a site:domain.com  search, and note down the number of results;
2. do a  site:domain.com [niche]  search, then also note down the number of
results;
3. divide the second number by the rst—if it’s above 0.5, it’s a good, relevant
prospect; if it’s above 0.75, it’s a super-relevant prospect.

Let’s try this with yoast.com.

Here’s the number of results for a simple site:  search:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 And site: [niche] :

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 So that’s 3,950 / 3,330 = ~0.84.

(Remember, >0.75 translates to a very relevant prospect, usually)

Now let’s try the same for a site that I know to be irrelevant: greatist.com.

Number of results for site:greatist.com  search: ~18,000

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Number of results for site:greatist.com SEO  search: ~7

(18,000 / 7 = ~0.0004 = a totally irrelevant site)

IMPORTANT! This is a great way to quick eliminate highly-irrelevant tactics, but it’s not
foolproof—you will sometimes get strange or unenlightening results. I also want to stress
that it’s certainly no replacement for manually checking a potential prospect’s website.
You should ALWAYS thoroughly check a prospects site before reaching out to them.
Failure to do that = SPAMMING.

HERE’S ANOTHER WAY TO FI ND SI MI L A R

DOMAINS/PROSPECTS…

Site Explorer > relevant domain > Competing Domains

For example, let’s assume I was looking for more SEO-related link prospects.

I could enter ahrefs.com/blog into Site Explorer.

Then check the Competing Domains.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 This will reveal domains competing for the same keywords.

9. Find social pro les for outreach prospects

Got someone in mind that you want to reach out to?

Try this trick to nd their contact details:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. You NEED to know their name for this one. This is usually quite easy to nd on most websites
—it’s just the contact details that can be somewhat elusive.

Here are the top 4 results:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 BINGO.

You can then contact them directly via social media.

Or use some of the tips from steps #4 and #6 in this article to hunt down an email address.

F U RT H E R R E A D I N G

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 9 Actionable Ways To Find Anyone’s Email Address [Updated for 2018]
11 Ways to Find ANY Personal Email Address

10. Find internal linking opportunities

Internal links are important.

They help visitors to nd their way around your site.

And they also bring SEO bene ts (when used wisely).

But you need to make sure that you’re ONLY adding internal links where relevant.

Let’s say that you just published a big list of SEO tips.

Wouldn’t it be cool to add an internal link to that post from any other posts where you
talk about SEO tips?

De nitely.

It’s just that nding relevant places to add such links can be dif cult—especially with big
sites.

So here’s a quick trick:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 For those of you who still haven’t gotten the hang of search operators, here’s what this
does:

1. Restricts the search to a speci c site;

2. Excludes the page/post that you want to build internal links to;
3. Looks for a certain word or phrase in the text.

Here’s one opportunity I found with this operator:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 It took me all of ~3 seconds to nd this. 🙂

11. Find PR opportunities by nding competitor mentions

Here’s a page that mentions a competitor of ours—Moz.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Found using this advanced search:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 But why no mention of Ahrefs? 🙁

Using site:  and intext: , I can see that this site has mentioned us a couple of times
before.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 But they haven’t written any posts dedicated to our toolset, as they have with Moz.

This presents an opportunity.

Reach out, build a relationship, then perhaps they may write about Ahrefs.

Here’s another cool search that can be used to nd competitor reviews:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Because we’re using “allintitle” rather than “intitle,” this will match only results with both the
word “review” and one of our competitors in the title tag.

You can build relationships with these people and get them to review your
product/service too.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 GO EVEN FURTHER WITH CONTENT EXP LOR E R

You can also use the “In title” search in Content Explorer to nd competitor reviews.

I tried this for Ahrefs and found 795 results.

For clarity, here’s the exact search I used:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 review AND (moz OR semrush OR majestic) -site:moz.com -site:semrus
h.com -site:majestic.com

But you can go even further by highlighting unlinked mentions.

This highlights the sites that have never linked to you before, so you can then
prioritise them.

Here’s one site that has never linked to Ahrefs, yet has reviewed our competitor:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 You can see that it’s a Domain Rating (DR) 79 website, so it would be well worth
getting a mention on this site.

Here’s another cool tip:

Google’s daterange:  operator is now deprecated. But you can still add a time period
lter to nd recent competitor mentions.

Just use the inbuilt lter.

Tools > Any time > select time period

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Looks like ~34 reviews of our competitors were published in the past month.

WANT ALERTS FOR COMP E TI TOR ME NTIONS I N R E AL-TI ME ?

DO THIS.

Alerts > Mentions > Add alert

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Enter the name of your competitor… or any search query you like.

Choose a mode (either “in title” or “everywhere”), add your blocked domains, then
add a recipient.

Set your internal to real-time (or whatever interval you prefer).

Hit “Save.”

You will now receive an email whenever your competitors are mentioned online.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 12. Find sponsored post opportunities
Sponsored posts are paid-for posts promoting your brand, product or service.

These are NOT link building opportunities.

Google’s guidelines states the following;

Buying or selling links that pass PageRank. This includes exchanging money for links, or
posts that contain links; exchanging goods or services for links; or sending someone a
“free” product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link

This is why you should ALWAYS nofollow links in sponsored posts.

But the true value of a sponsored post doesn’t come down to links anyway.

It comes down to PR—i.e., getting your brand in front of the right people.

Here’s one way to nd sponsored post opportunities using Google search operators:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 ~151 results. Not bad.

Here are a few other operator combinations to use:

[niche] intext:”this is a sponsored post by”

[niche] intext:”this post was sponsored by”
[niche] intitle:”sponsored post”

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 [niche] intitle:”sponsored post archives” inurl:”category/sponsored-
post”
“sponsored” AROUND(3) “post”

SIDENOTE. The examples above are exactly that—examples. There are almost certainly other footprints
you can use to nd such posts. Don’t be afraid to try other ideas.

WANT TO KNOW HOW MUCH TRA FFI C E ACH OF TH E SE SI TE S

GET? DO THIS.

Use this Chrome bookmarklet to extract the Google search results.

Batch Analysis > paste the URLs > select “domain/*” mode > sort by organic search traf c

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Now you have a list of the sites with the most traf c, which are usually the best
opportunities.

13. Find Q+A threads related to your content

Forums and Q+A sites are great for promoting content.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Promoting != spamming. Don’t join such sites just to add your links. Provide value and drop
the occasional relevant link in there in the process.

One site that comes to mind is Quora.

Quora allow you to drop relevant links throughout your answers.

an answer on Quora with a link to an SEO blog.

It’s true that these links are nofollowed.

But we’re not trying to build links here—this is about PR!

Here’s one way to nd relevant threads:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Don’t limit yourself to Quora, though.

This can be done with any forum or Q+A site.

Here’s the same search for Warrior Forum:

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 I also know that Warrior Forum has a search engine optimization category.

Every thread in this category has “.com/search-engine-optimization/” in the URL.

So I could re ne my search even further with the inurl: operator.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 I’ve found that using search operators like this allows you to search forum threads with
more granularity than most on-site searches.

HERE’S ANOTHER COOL TRI CK…

Site Explorer > quora.com > Organic Keywords > search for a niche-relevant keyword

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 You should now see relevant Quora threads sorted by estimated monthly organic
traf c.

Answering such threads can lead to a nice trickle of referral traf c.

14. Find how often your competitors are publishing new

content
Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Most blogs reside in a subfolder or on a subdomain.

Examples:

ahrefs.com/blog
blog.hubspot.com
blog.kissmetrics.com

This makes it easy to check how regularly competitors are publishing new content.

Let’s try this for one of our competitors—SEMrush.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Looks like they have ~4.5K blog posts.

But this isn’t accurate. It includes multi-language versions of the blog, which reside on
subdomains.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Let’s lter these out.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 That’s more like it. ~2.2K blog posts.

Now we know our competitor (SEMrush) has ~2.2K blog posts in total.

Let’s see how many they published in the last month.

Because the daterange: operator no longer works, we’ll instead use Google’s inbuilt
lter.

Tools > Any time > select time period

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 SIDENOTE. Any date range is possible here. Just select “custom.”

~29 blog posts. Interesting.

FYI, that’s ~4x faster than we publish new posts. And they have ~15X more posts than us
in total.

But we still get more traf c… with ~2x the value, might I add 😉
Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Quality over quantity, right!?

You can also use the site: operator combined with a search query to see how much
content a competitor has published on a certain topic.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 15. Find sites linking to competitors
Competitors getting links?

What if you could also have them?

Google’s link:  operator was of cially deprecated in 2017.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 But I’ve found that it does still return some results.

SIDENOTE. When doing this, always make sure to exclude your competitors site using the “site” operator.
If you don’t, you’ll also see their internal links.

~900K links.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 WANT TO SEE EVEN MORE LI NKS?

Google’s data is heavily sampled.

It likely isn’t too accurate either.

Site Explorer can provide a much fuller picture of your competitor’s backlink pro le.

~1.5 million backlinks.

That’s a lot more than Google showed us.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 This is yet another instance where the time period lter can be useful.

Filtering by the last month, I can see that Moz has gained 18K+ new backlinks.

Pretty useful. But this also illustrates how inaccurate this data can be.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Site Explorer picked up 35K+ links for this same period.

That’s almost DOUBLE!

F U RT H E R R E A D I N G

7 Actionable Ways to Loot Your Competitors’ Backlinks

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 The Ultimate Guide to Reverse Engineering Your Competitor’s Backlinks

Final Thoughts
Google advanced search operators are insanely powerful.

You just have to know how to use them.

But I have to admit that some are more useful than others, especially when it comes to
SEO. I nd myself using site: , intitle: , intext: , and inurl:  on an almost daily
basis. Yet I rarely use AROUND(X) , allintitle: , and many of the other more obscure
operators.

I’d also add that many operators are borderline useless unless paired with another
operator… or two, or three.

So do play around with them and let me know what you come up with.

I’d be more than happy to add any useful combinations you discover to the post. 🙂

Article by:

Joshua Hardwick
Head of Content @ Ahrefs (or, in plain English, I'm the guy
responsible for ensuring that every blog post we publish is

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 EPIC).

Founder @ The SEO Project.

 

Search the blog...

Main Tools

Site Explorer

Keywords Explorer
Pick a Language
Content Explorer
English
Site Audit

Rank Tracker

Other Tools Best of the Ahrefs Blog

Backlink Checker SEO Basics (5 Steps)

Website Authority Checker Keyword Research Guide

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD
 Website Authority Checker Keyword Research Guide

Keyword Rank Checker Long-Tail Keywords Guide

Broken Link Checker Complete Link Building Guide

SERP Checker On-Page SEO (Actionable Guide)

75 Actionable SEO Tips

Blogger Outreach Guide

Get Noti ed of New Articles

Leave your email to get our weekly newsletter.

Enter your email SUBSCRIBE

© 2020 Ahrefs Pte Ltd.

Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API PDFCROWD