At our TrustED Conf 2021 VR World Tour, we heard from Oum Chirdchuen, a well-rounded SEO Specialist with almost two decades of experience on some really cool features of Google you might not know about.
Work with Google, Play with Google!
We use Google every day, and we also search Google every day. One thing that is quite useful for us from content research to technical SEO audits are Google Search Operators. They are special characters and commands that extend the capabilities of regular text searches.
What are Google Search Operators?
Google Search Operators are special characters that let you refine and narrow down your searches in Google. These search operators help filter search results to find specific information or search only one specific website.
Different types of Google Search Operators:
The 3 most common types of search operators include:
- Special character operators like “”, –, or *
- Boolean operators like OR, AND, or NOT
- Advanced search commands like site:, inurl:, or filetype:
Frequently Used Google Search Operators
How to check if content is plagiarised
You can use Google search operators to check if someone is plagiarising or copying your website.
Here is the magic formula:
“[unique string of words from your website]” -site:[your domain]
This is one of the few advanced searches which you want to provide no results. If there are no results, it means you are OK.
How to check the indexed files of any website
Some websites upload lots of different types of files without blocking them from indexing. This can be easily found with the help of one or two google search operators.
Here is the formula:
[term] filetype:[file extension] site:[domain researched]
Example: pim filetype:pdf site:comestri.com
You can also look for multiple file types in one query by using OR.
(filetype:pdf OR filetype:docx OR filetype:txt OR filetype:ppt) site:[domain researched]
How to search for other TLDs for a specific brand
It’s sometimes good to know if there are any domains with the same brand at different TLDs.
Detect them easily with the use of the site: search command.
Here is the formula:
site:domain.* -site:domain.com
Example: site:corelogic.* -site:corelogic.com
How to find infographics about a specific topic
Infographics can be very powerful! There is a simple yet powerful way to search for them with the help of Google search commands.
All you need to do is use the inurl:infographic and intitle:infographic in your search.
Here is the formula:
[TOPIC] intitle:infographic inurl:infographic
Example: PIM intitle:infographic inurl:infographic
How to find top/best lists relating to a given topic
The list of top things or ways is usually a very interesting piece of content.
Here is how you can find such lists with the use of Google search operators.
Example: intitle:”top 5..20 ways” “sell your car”
This command will look for web pages that contain the words “top” and “way” in their titles and numbers within the range of 5-20.
How to get more results with wildcard (*)
The wildcard operator is denoted by an asterisk (*). If you add this asterisk in the search command, it will show all the searched phrase variations.
To get relevant results, use it together with the “” search parameter.
Here is the formula:
“Search words * search words”
Example: “the most popular * car in the world”
Narrow down search to a specific location
For local SEO optimisation, location-based searches are always necessary.
Therefore for location-based searches, you can use the command loc: location name to narrow down the results
Here is the formula:
Search term loc:[name of the location]
Example: SEO agency loc: Sydney
Google hidden features, some useful and fun stuff
Google has a lot of cool and fun features, some of which you’ve probably heard of.
Google Screencasting
Don’t have a Google Chromecast? No worries, You can stream from your browser’s in-built cast feature.
Simply click right anywhere in Chrome and then choose Cast. Then select the Chromecast-enabled device for the pop-up window.
Google Timer
While Google makes it extremely easy to ask your phone or Home to set a timer. Did you know you could just set one from the search engine’s homepage?
Go to Google’s homepage and type in ‘google timer X minutes/hours.’ Doing this will automatically load a timer above several search results and begin counting down.
Google Stopwatch
Just like with the timer, you can start a stopwatch right from Google’s homepage.
To do this, go to Google’s homepage and type in ‘start a stopwatch.’
Once it’s running, you can start, stop, and restart the stopwatch.
Google Tuner
Finding lyrics and chords on the internet but your guitar doesn’t tune well? And you’ve misplaced your guitar tuner or don’t have one? No worries, now you can ask Google for help to get your guitar in tune.
Just go to Google and type “google tuner” in the search bar and bam!!! You can tune your guitar right away from your computer or mobile phone!
Google Quick Draw
Do you want to draw something? Go to Google and search “google quick draw” and tap on the first link.
Google will suggest you draw an animal or something and you have to draw it in 20 seconds and Google will try to guess your draw. Try it now!
Play Offline!
Spend a major share of your day on your computer? Care for a break?
To play this, disconnect your device from the internet and open a fresh google search page.
While the page will come up with no internet caption, press the spacebar and begin playing an easy peasy dinosaur game.
Customise Google with your name
Want to have a search engine with your name?
Simply type ‘Goglogo’ in the search bar of Google. Tap on ‘I’m feeling lucky. Now you have to enter your name in the ‘Goglogo’ search box and you have customised the Google homepage with your name.
