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The search on Google can produce a wide variety of results depending on the input of individual search terms. If you don't find the exact keyword that the SEO person used for the page you're looking for, you may have to scroll for a long time until you see what you want. When searching for a specific article on a website using the Google search function, certain words can decide about success or failure. That's why I've listed a few useful Google search operators below. In this context, operators are small, text-based commands that refine the search. This makes finding certain information easier and faster.
Google Search Operators - The search operator as an aid
When searching with one or more operators, you don't have to pay much attention. Most of the time, you just put the relevant term in front of your search query with a colon. Especially if you want to fight your way through several marketing articles in the SEO jungle, although you are looking for a product, news or a scientific article, Google search operators are quite useful. You can find more cases for the use of search operators for better search results for this and that search term, each with an example in the table below.
Search operators, explanation and example
Search operators for searching in Google offer you the opportunity to initiate more targeted searches apart from the search engine optimization of some pages, sometimes also apart from cache and cookies. In addition to words and colon characters, other terms, characters, quotation marks and the like also serve as an aid. In the following table I have listed the best Google search operators for better searching and better finding, including an example:
| Google search operator | Used for | Example |
| „Suchbegriff“ | Search for that exact term / phrase to exclude synonyms | „Sir Apfelot Apple Blog“ |
| or | The English "or" triggers the search for term A or B or both. It will find everything, not just search results with both. | iPhone or iPad |
| and | The English “and” leads to search results that contain both search terms. Results that only deal with one term are discarded. | Mac and MacBook |
| - | The minus ensures that any related keywords are excluded from the search. The example searches for Wozniak without reference to Apple. | Wozniak-Apple |
| ~ | The "~" sign indicates that you also want to search for synonyms for the term entered. | ~ House (can lead to results with "property", "apartment", "building", etc.) |
| () | As in mathematics, search queries can be combined, removed or multiplied by using brackets. | (Mac or MacBook) Apple |
| $ / € | Dollar or euro symbols without spaces in front of a price are used to search for that amount. | MacBook € 800 |
| define: | Calling the dictionary function from Google to get a definition of the term in the SERPs. (Also applies to the next operators: use without spaces) | define: apple |
| cache: | Calls the last "cached" version of a website. | cache:Sir-Apfelot.de |
| filetype: | Search for specific file formats such as PDF, DOCX, PPT, TXT, RTF - alternatively, ext: can also be used. | Cabinet assembly instructions filetype: PDF |
| website: | Limits the search results to the articles / Pages a website. | Test report site: Sir-Apfelot.de |
| related: | This Google search operator finds web pages related to the page you are looking for. | related: wikipedia.de |
| intitle: | This search operator finds websites that have certain words in their title. Search terms A and B are also searched individually. | intitle: Apple Blog |
| allintitle: | Again, words are searched in the title of the page, but this time all specified search terms. | allintitle: Apple Blog |
| inurl: | Finds pages with search terms A or B or both in the URL. | inurl: Sir Apfelot |
| allinurl: | Displays the pages with all the specified words in the URL. | allinurl: Sir Apfelot |
| intext: | Here, single or multiple words are found in the content of the page and the results are displayed. | intext: Apple iPhone test |
| allintext: | Finds websites with exactly the specified phrase in the text or content. | allintext: Apple iPhone test |
| AROUND (x) | The proximity search for certain words. A and B may only have the selected maximum number of words between them for the display in the results overview. | Apple AROUND (3) iMac |
| weather: | Search for the weather of a specific region / city. Display in a Google field as well as search results from weather sites. | weather: Stuttgart |
| stock: | Retrieval of shares or the share price of companies, share codes | stocks: aapl (different result than stocks: Apple) |
| map: | Directly displays map results for searching. | map: Black Forest |
| movie: | Finds information about a specific movie. If applicable, also shows showing times of current movies. | movie: Deadpool |
| in | Convert units with "to". Works with currencies, temperatures, mass units, and more. | $ 399 in € |
| source: | Searches for the results of a provider (the URL does not have to be written out as with site:) | iPhone source: Sir Apfelot |
| news: news: | First displays news / headlines about the search term and then the search results. | news: football |
The Google search operator as a search aid
In the beginning you have to try out the Google search operators to find the results you want. But once you have internalized them, you can often use a search operator to search a certain website, combine searches effectively and exclude individual terms. Which operator have you already used on Google or another search engine for a better list of results? Feel free to leave a comment on the topic - even if Google search operators are old hat for you and you use them daily for targeted search queries;)
After graduating from high school, Johannes completed an apprenticeship as a business assistant specializing in foreign languages. But then he decided to research and write, which resulted in his independence. For several years he has been working for Sir Apfelot, among others. His articles include product introductions, news, manuals, video games, consoles, and more. He follows Apple keynotes live via stream.
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