Google Search Operators: The Complete List

Technology has advanced with such speed that mankind has been unable to keep up. Every new technology coming into the world entombs the previous ones and this process goes on. By the time we learn every feature of a new technology it becomes obsolete.

Search engine operator is one of those newcomers in this industry that has always seemed tricky but in reality isn’t. And, one best thing about it is that it can ease your life to a great extent.

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.

What is a search engine operator?

Search engine operator is like car’s steering. These inputted operators will drive you to exact destination that is what you are searching for. Make your own guide of search engine operators and set out to hunt exact results.

So rather than listing all the search engine operators let’s try a different approach here and start by searching with the beginning.

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

Now let’s check out the complete list of Google Search Operators.

“ ”

This search will refine results and will provide you the dedicated result to the typed keyword between inverted commas.

Example: “Apple”

OR

Using “OR” in between A and B will provide you results related to A or B, or both. Rather than using “OR” you can also use the pipe (|) operator.

Example: Apple OR Microsoft / Apple | Microsoft

AND

Use “AND” in between A and B will give you results to both X and Y. Google usually put “AND” anyways in the regular searches but this can be very useful when paired with other operators.

Example: Apple AND Microsoft

–

Use this operator when you want to exclude something from your search.

Example: Apple -Blogs

*

This sign works as a wildcard and matches any word or phrase.

Example: Apple * Microsoft

()

This can group multiple terms to control the execution of the search.

Example: (Apple OR Microsoft) mobile

$

Searching for prices is made easy with this operator. It works with Euro but not for GBP.

Example: iPhone $400

Define:

This basically is a dictionary built in Google. This operator will show you the meaning of the word in a card like result in the SERPs.

Example: Define: mobile

Cache:

This operator shows the most recent cached version of the web page. One requirement is the page must be indexed.

Example: Cache:Apple.com

Filetype:

This operator restircts the results to certain file types. E.g. PDF, DOCX, TXT, PPT.

Example: Apple filetype: DOCX

Site:

Limit your results to a specific website.

Example: Site:Apple.com

Related:

This will show results from a specific domain.

Example: Related:Apple.com

Intitle:

This operator will show the results with the certain title. The mentioned keyword will be in the title of the results.

Example: intitle: Apple iPad

Allintitle:

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

Example:allintext:apple iphone

AROUND

This is a proximity search. It finds the results of two phrases or words that are X words apart.

Example:apple AROUND(5) iPhone

inurl:

This operator will result in the pages with a certain word in the URL.

Example:inurl:apple iphone

allintitle:

This will result in all the mentioned keywords in the title of the results.

Example:allintitle:Apple iPhone

weather:

You can find the weather of a specific location and the result is displayed in a snippet.

Example:weather:Miami

stocks:

Find the stock information of a specific ticker.

Example:stocks:apple

map:

Find the map for a specific location.

Example:map:Hawaii

movie:

Find about a specific movie by the input of the movie name after the operator.

Example:movie:The Sahwshank Redemption

in

This operator is used for conversion between unites.

Example:Dollars in Pounds

source:

Use this operator for finding results from a certain source in google news

Example:apple source: Stocks

_

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:

#..#

Search for the results in between range on numbers.

Example:Apple stocks 2011…2017

inanchor:

Find the pages that are linked with a specific anchor.

Example: inanchor:apple iphone

allinanchor:

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

Example:allinanchor:apple iphone

blogurl:

You can find the URLs for a blog under specific domain.

Example:blogurl:apple.com

Sidenote.

Google blog search discontinued in 2011

loc

This will shoe results from a specific location

Example:loc:”China” apple

Sidenote.

Not officially deprecated, but results are inconsistent.

location:

Use this operator to find the google news from a specific location.

Example:loc:“Russia”1 Apple

Sidenote.

Not officially deprecated, but results are inconsistent.

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

+

You can use this operator to force an exact match search.

Example: blog +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:

It results in posts written by a specific author, usually this results in google blog search.

Example: inpostauthor:“Steve Jobs”

Sidenote.

Google blog search was discontinued in 2011.

allinpostauthor:

This operator is the same as the inpostauthor but it doesn’t need the quotes.

Example: allinpostauthor:Steve Jobs

inposttitle:

Find blog posts with specific 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 specific 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 specific page, including the most recent cache, similar pages, etc. (Deprecated in 2017). Note: The id: operator can also be used—the results are identical.

Sidenote.

Although the original functionality of this operator is deprecated, it is still useful for finding the canonical, indexed version of a URL. Thanks to @glenngabe for pointing this one one!

Example:info:apple.com / id:apple.com

daterange:

Find the results between a certain date range. It uses the Julian date format. This operator does not work perfectly.

Example:daterange:11278–13278

Sidenote.

Not officially deprecated, but doesn’t seem to work.

phonebook:

Find someone’s phone number.

Example:phonebook:elon musk

The google operator are very powerful and can ease your life a lot and especially when it comes to SEO. In SEO you can use these operators on a daily basis. Some of the complicated ones can’t be used frequently but are very useful.