{"id":141444,"date":"2020-06-30T15:20:12","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T15:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.searchenginewatch.com\/?p=141444"},"modified":"2020-06-30T15:20:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-30T15:20:12","slug":"google-advanced-search-six-powerful-tips-for-better-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/06\/30\/google-advanced-search-six-powerful-tips-for-better-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Google advanced search: Six powerful tips for better SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"well\">\n<h3>30-second summary:<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google advanced search helps you get granular with your searches and deliver hyper-focused searches with the help of search operators (or a combination of them). <\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, you can search for articles published in the last week by your competitors or discover internal linking opportunities you might\u2019ve missed.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this how-to guide, Venngage&#8217;s Aditya Sheth outlines six Google advanced search hacks you need to know to master Google search and become a better SEO.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I have to come clean on something: I\u2019m lazy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While being lazy may not be a virtue, it does come with an unseen advantage:<\/span> It allows you to look for creative ways to get things done without necessarily spending more time.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And as an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/webris.org\/intro-to-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SEO<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, I\u2019m always looking for ways to get more done without working longer hours. Essentially: aiming to accomplish more with less.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way to do more with less is to look for tools, tactics or even hacks that help you cut down time wasted and get more done, faster.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of my favorite hacks ever? <\/span>Google advanced search.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But what is it? In simple terms, the Google advanced search helps you fine-tune your searches to find exactly what you\u2019re looking for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is an especially useful skill if you want to quickly pull up small-bits of information without always having to rely on tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMRush to do it for you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this how-to SEO guide, you\u2019ll use advanced search operators to:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Find <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2014\/01\/23\/what-is-duplicate-content\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">duplicate content<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that could be hurting your site&#8217;s rankings.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Uncover a gold mine of guest posting opportunities in your niche.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Discover missed <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/09\/29\/internal-linking-for-seo-examples-and-best-practices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">internal linking opportunities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Before we dive into the meat of this guide, first things first:<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>A mini-crash course on advanced search operators<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To keep things simple, we\u2019re going to cover four operators I, as an SEO, use most often.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first operator is the site search operator. What this allows you to do is retrieve results from a single website. All you have to do is type site:[any website] into Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, If I enter site:semrush.com, I will only see results pertaining to SEMrush:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141460\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Site-Operator-SEO.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Site-Operator-SEO.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Site-Operator-SEO-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don\u2019t need the http:\/\/, https:\/\/, or www prefixes when using the site operator.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That\u2019s not all, you can even use a keyword in addition to the site operator to find if that site has written any content around that keyword.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s say I want to find whether we\u2019ve covered the keyword \u201cinfographic\u201d on the site. I\u2019ll enter \u201csite:semrush.com infographic\u201d and this is what comes up:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141461\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Site-Operator.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1672\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Site-Operator.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Site-Operator-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I personally use the site operator very frequently as it limits my search results to a single domain. Keep this operator in mind as we\u2019re going to be relying on it later.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next operator you\u2019ll find useful is the quotes or exact-match (\u201c\u201d) operator. What the exact-match operator does is limit your searches to exact-match phrases only.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, here is a normal Google search (notice the number of results):<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141456\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Quotes-Operator.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"668\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Quotes-Operator.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Quotes-Operator-300x70.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And now the same phrase wrapped in quotation marks:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141459\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SEO-Quotes-Operator.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SEO-Quotes-Operator.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SEO-Quotes-Operator-300x115.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Notice something different?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Compared to a normal Google search, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.adzooma.com\/blog\/google-ads-keyword-match-types\/#Exact_match\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exact-match queries <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">will only show you results where your keyphrase has been mentioned exactly as it is (and not a variation).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This operator is especially powerful to identify if your site has any duplicate content that could be sabotaging your rankings (more on this later).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last but not the least, we\u2019re going to learn the dash (-) and plus (+) operators to perform laser-targeted searches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What the dash (-) operator does is excludes certain keywords from appearing in the search results. So if I wanted to read about the topic of search engines but not search engine optimization, I\u2019d use the following query:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141448\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Dash-Search-Operator.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Dash-Search-Operator.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Dash-Search-Operator-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By using the \u201c- optimization\u201d in my search, I\u2019ll only see results about search engines and not search engine optimization.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The plus (+) operator, you guessed it &#8212; does the exact opposite. You can use the plus operator to add words to your original search and show you a different set of results.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, here\u2019s a query I entered in Google search:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141455\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Plus-Search-Operator.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"872\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Plus-Search-Operator.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Plus-Search-Operator-300x91.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What did I do here? I used the site:, dash and plus operators in conjunction to show me articles that closely relate to search engine marketing but not SEO on the Search Engine Watch blog.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Venngage<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> There are many search operators out there (too many to list in fact). You can find a much more comprehensive <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/moz.com\/learn\/seo\/search-operators\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">list of search operators on the Moz blog<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But for simplicity&#8217;s sake, we\u2019re going to stick to the site, exact match, dash, and plus operators in this guide.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Six Google advanced search tips for better SEO<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the Google advanced search operators above, you can access exactly what you\u2019re looking for and spend less time searching for it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Advanced search can come really handy especially when you\u2019re just starting out and don\u2019t have the budget for expensive SEO tools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine all the endless possibilities that lie in wait for you as an SEO; if only you got better at googling. Well, it\u2019s easier than you think. I&#8217;ll show it to you:<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>1. Conduct basic but insightful competitor research<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conducting competitor research on Google is really easy. All you have to do is use the \u201crelated:\u201d search operator followed by a website URL.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cRelated:\u201d allows you to find sites that are closely related to a specific URL. You can use related to identify not only direct competitors but also indirect peripheral competitors that you might\u2019ve missed in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/01\/17\/seo-competition-research-the-complete-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">your competitor research<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only that, the related: operator also helps you understand how Google is categorizing your competitors and your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Let\u2019s look at what Google returns if we search for competitors related to Venngage<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I already know the first three results are our direct competitors, but the last two are surprising because they seem to be indirectly competing with us (and I wasn\u2019t even aware of them).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141457\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Related-Search-Operator.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1668\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Related-Search-Operator.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Related-Search-Operator-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We\u2019re an <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">online infographic maker tool<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> while both Column Five Media and InfoNewt appear to be done-for-you agencies. Google has identified and categorized them as sites related to Venngage which is an insightful find.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t dismiss this advanced search hack because of its simplicity. Try it for yourself and see what Google comes up with. You might just come away with a better understanding of the competition as it pertains to SEO.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>2. Stalk your competitor&#8217;s content strategy<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sticking to the topic of competitor research, here\u2019s a cool way you can spy on your competitor&#8217;s content strategy: combining the site operator and Google\u2019s date-range filter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let\u2019s try this on one of our direct competitors: Piktochart.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141446\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Competitor-Stalking-Google.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1673\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Competitor-Stalking-Google.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Competitor-Stalking-Google-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To limit my search to only blog-related results, I\u2019ll use Piktochart\u2019s\/blog subdomain instead of their website. And by the looks of it, they have 790 pages on their blog.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I can use the date-range filter (click on tools and filter by date) to further drill down these results to identify what content they published in the last month only. Here\u2019s what comes up:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This not only tells me Pitkchart published four new articles last month but also gives me insight into Piktocharts&#8217; content strategy and the keywords they\u2019re targeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can find even more data by filtering the results by days, months, or custom time periods.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I can even include exact-match (\u201cyour keyword\u201d in quotes) keywords to find out how much content Piktochart has published on any given topic, which is a clever way to uncover their <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/terakeet.com\/blog\/topic-clusters\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">topic cluster strategy.<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Let\u2019s take content marketing as a topic for example<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the site operator in conjunction with the date filters on Google search gives you information on:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How much content your competition has published till date<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How often they publish new content in a given time period<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What kind of content they publish at a certain point in time<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How often your competitor has written about a given topic<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pretty cool right?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>3. Unearth a gold mine of guest posting opportunities\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If your goal is to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2020\/06\/08\/10-advanced-seo-tactics-to-drive-more-traffic-to-your-website\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">drive quality traffic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> back to your website, pick up high-quality backlinks, boost your website&#8217;s domain authority and even <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/paperform.co\/blog\/unlock-search-engine-traffic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rank higher on Google<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8212; guest blogging will help you do all of the above.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141453\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Guest-Posting-Opportunity.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1673\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Guest-Posting-Opportunity.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Guest-Posting-Opportunity-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anybody that tells you <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2013\/07\/08\/guest-posting-a-quick-start-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">guest blogging<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is dead is either lying or in on it. Guest blogging still works, even in 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that we\u2019ve briefly covered how important guest blogging really is, how do you uncover guest blogging opportunities in your niche or industry?<\/span><\/p>\n<h4>Here are a few advanced search queries you can copy and paste into Google<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Keyword \u201cguest post opportunities\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Keyword \u201cguest post\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Keyword \u201csubmit guest post\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Keyword \u201csubmit blog post\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Keyword intitle:\u201cwrite for us\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Your Keyword intitle:\u201cguest post guidelines\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If I\u2019m looking to guest post for sites in the design space, for example, I\u2019d use the following query:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sites bookmarked. Guest post pitches sent. Fingers crossed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try out these search queries for yourself and you\u2019ll be able to build a respectable list of sites to contribute for.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brian Dean has the most <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/backlinko.com\/the-definitive-guide-to-guest-blogging\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">exhaustive guide on guest blogging<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I\u2019ve read (it includes a huge list of search operators that will help you find even more guest posting opportunities).<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>4. Discover hidden opportunities for internal linking<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2015\/09\/29\/internal-linking-for-seo-examples-and-best-practices\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Internal linking<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> plays a small but important role in the ranking factors that determine how well you rank on Google.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Irrespective of how well-designed and easy-to-navigate your site may be, a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.hubspot.com\/blog\/tabid\/6307\/bid\/31388\/how-to-use-internal-linking-to-improve-your-website-s-seo.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">great internal linking structure<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> can make all the difference when it comes to driving traffic from one post to another across your entire blog.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Internal linking also creates <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/diggitymarketing.com\/how-to-get-unstuck-by-establishing-topic-relevance\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">topical relevance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by creating supporting content for the main topics of your website.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few weeks ago, I published a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/what-is-a-webinar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">mammoth webinar guide<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the Venngage blog. I wanted it to start driving traffic to the post and rank for high-volume keywords immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I got to work by finding out where I could link to our guide internally from as many relevant posts on our blog as possible. All I did was use the site operator and the keyword \u201cwebinar\u201d:\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141454\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Internal-Linking-Opportunties.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Internal-Linking-Opportunties.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Internal-Linking-Opportunties-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Boom! Barring the first result, I found 47 internal linking opportunities with a simple search. And all it took was a few seconds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can even use this search query: site:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">www.yourweb<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">site<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.com\/blog<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> intext:\u201dyour keyword\u201d to pretty much do the same thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This advanced search hack won\u2019t be as useful if you\u2019ve recently started blogging, but it will come in handy if you manage a huge blog that already has a lot of existing content.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>5. Find duplicate content on your website<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2014\/01\/23\/what-is-duplicate-content\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duplicate content<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is content that appears on more than one location on your website and can confuse search engines when it comes to deciding which page to rank higher.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>In short: Duplicate content can hurt your website rankings and it\u2019s a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bigcommerce.com\/ecommerce-answers\/technical-seo\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">technical SEO issue<\/a> you cannot afford to ignore.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To show you an example of duplicate content, I\u2019ll use this small piece of copy from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.walmart.com\/ip\/Apple-AirPods-with-Charging-Case-Latest-Model\/604342441\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Apple Airpods product description on Walmart<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141450\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Duplicate-Content.png\" alt=\"Google advanced search tips: Duplicate Content\" width=\"2880\" height=\"602\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Duplicate-Content.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Duplicate-Content-300x63.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using the site operator, I\u2019ll paste the copy into Google using the exact-match operator. Here\u2019s what I come up with:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141449\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Duplicate-Content-SEO.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1674\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Duplicate-Content-SEO.png 2880w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Duplicate-Content-SEO-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2880px) 100vw, 2880px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same piece of copy shows up on six other pages on Walmart. Things could be a lot worse but still, not ideal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But if I were to search for the same piece of copy across the web (not just Walmart) using the dash operator, this is what comes up:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141458\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SEO-Duplicate-Content.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"2878\" height=\"902\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SEO-Duplicate-Content.png 2878w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/SEO-Duplicate-Content-300x94.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2878px) 100vw, 2878px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The same piece of copy appears on ~19,000 other websites (excluding Walmart). That\u2019s a lot of duplicate content.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Duplicate content is especially a major issue for website blogs with 1,000s of pages or ecommerce sites with the same product descriptions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>6. Find missed content opportunities<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the last search operators I\u2019ll cover is the \u201cfiletype\u201d operator.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Filetype can help you find non-HTML content on your site, such as Word Documents or PDF files. This content is often valuable, but not <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/2016\/01\/21\/seo-basics-22-essentials-you-need-for-optimizing-your-site\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">search optimized<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. And traffic to it doesn\u2019t show up in your Analytics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To use this search operator, simple type in \u201csite:yourwebsite.com filetype:pdf\u201d like so:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-141451\" src=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Filetype-Search-Operator.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1076\" height=\"99\" srcset=\"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Filetype-Search-Operator.png 1076w, https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Filetype-Search-Operator-300x28.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1076px) 100vw, 1076px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then look at that content. Have you published it as HTML content? Is it search optimized? Is there an opportunity to make it a valuable, rank-worthy and trackable webpage?<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PDF files are often <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.orbitmedia.com\/blog\/remove-from-your-site\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the rust of the internet<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, added to sites because the content manager doesn\u2019t have an easy way to publish actual web pages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They should always be an alternate (print-friendly, download-friendly) version of HTML content. They should almost never be the only version of a piece of content.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Your turn to master Google search<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Congratulations! You\u2019ve officially made it to the end of this mammoth guide.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google is far more powerful and robust than we realize or give it credit for.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Knowing what to search for and how to search for it with the help of Google advanced search operators will help you harness Google\u2019s true power and in turn, grow your site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As SEOs, our job comprises <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/seotesting.com\/blog\/seo-testing-guide\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">running SEO tests<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, tinkering with Google\u2019s algorithms, and staying on top of the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/venngage.com\/blog\/seo-content-marketing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">latest search trends.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google advanced search is not only a fun skill that you can learn over the weekend. It can help you uncover opportunities hiding in plain sight and help you be more effective at your job.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>The real kicker<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google is and always will be free. The know-how to fine-tune your searches will help you become a better SEO and pay dividends over the long term.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Has using Google advanced search in your day-to-day made you a better SEO? Which search operators do you use most frequently? Did I miss any advanced search tips?<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Drop them in the comments below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aditya Sheth does Content &amp; SEO at Venngage. You can connect with him on <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/adityashth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Linkedin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or find him on Twitter <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/iamadityashth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">@iamadityashth.<\/span><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Become a better SEO with six advanced search tips to help you find guest posting opportunities, uncover missed internal linking opportunities, unearth duplicate content, and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":141462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[146,22649,27402,601,667,369,37,27878,1407,18,103,22,32],"content_type":[],"class_list":["post-141444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo","tag-backlinks","tag-buy-backlinks","tag-competitor-research","tag-content-strategy","tag-duplicate-content","tag-evergreen-content","tag-google","tag-google-advanced-search","tag-how-to-guide","tag-internal-linking","tag-search-rankings","tag-seo","tag-serps"],"acf":{"tad_independentcommercial":false,"tad_content_format":false},"post_info":{"name":"idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com idris.nagri@blenheimchalcot.com","title":"","thumbnail_url":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/Six-powerful-Google-advanced-search-tips-for-better-SEO.jpg","category":"SEO","timeago":"6y"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141444"},{"taxonomy":"content_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searchenginewatch.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content_type?post=141444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}