Here are some search engine search shortcuts you can use for Google. Make sure you use these when you’re doing some sneaky competitor research! Many of these shortcuts can also be used in Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask.
Search for sites linking to a URL:
link:http://www.securenetsystems.net
(Copy and paste link:http://www.securenetsystems.net into the Google search bar, but don’t forget to replace http://www.securenetsystems.net with your own URL)
This shortcut shows you how many links a website has; this determines a websites’ link popularity. The link popularity influences your Google PageRank as well as the search engine position. However, more links doesn’t mean better ranks. Links must be of good quality and be somewhat related to your website. Google penalizes for paid links or links through link-farms as these are not recognized as genuine, or quality, links because it violates their guidelines. If you see your website listed in a link farm, I’d suggest removing it ASAP as this could negatively affect your ranks.
Search for pages indexed within a website:
site:http://www.securenetsystems.net
(Copy and paste site:http://www.securenetsystems.net into the Google search bar, but don’t forget to replace http://www.securenetsystems.net with your own URL)
This shortcut shows you how many of a site’s webpages are indexed in the search engine. For example, if you have 15 webpages in your website you can run this search to see if all 15 pages are indexed. If all of your pages aren’t indexed it’s best to submit your sitemap to Google through Google Webmaster Tools. Submitting your sitemap to Google ensures that all of the pages you want indexed will get indexed. This is a fairly simple process, you just need to know a small amount of programming - if you don’t think you can do it, try finding someone who can do it for you as you will greatly benefit from this free tool. To setup and create a Google Webmaster Account, click here.
Search for related websites:
related:http://www.securenetsystems.net
(Copy and paste related:http://www.securenetsystems.net into the Google search bar, but don’t forget to replace http://www.securenetsystems.net with your own URL)
This shortcut shows a list of websites related to the one you type in.
Search for pages with specific words in the title:
allintitle:”online marketing blog”
(Copy and paste allintitle:”online marketing blog” into the Google search bar, but don’t forget to replace “online marketing blog” with your own keywords)
This shortcut shows you listings of websites that have specific words in the title of the webpage. This is especially helpful if you’re looking for something very specific; it generally weeds out junk. If I wanted to specifically search for an “online marketing blog” I would use this search shortcut so I don’t get flooded with websites talking about blogs.
Search for pages with specific words in the URL:
inurl:seo
(Copy and paste inurl:seo into the Google search bar, but don’t forget to replace seo with your own keyword)
If you’re looking for specific URLs that contain certain words, this shortcut can find them.
