Google is a very powerful search engine, however many of us only perform very basic searches. In the post, I discuss my favorite advanced searches that can be performed. This list was compiled from various sources on the web including various Google ‘cheat sheets’.
The Cache Command
Google takes a snapshot of each page it searches and caches (stores) that page as a backup. The cached version is what Google uses to judge if a web page is a good match for your search query. The cache command shows the cached snapshot of any page on the web. For example Cache of http://www.thewebpitch.com. Google typically caches the first 101K of a page and not the images. It’s a great way to discover how a web page looked before it was updated.
The Filetype Command
Google indexes more than just web pages, the filetype command is a great one to use if you need to identify a particular file type as part of your search. For example, here’s a search for PDFs that contain the word iPad. The command works equally well for PPTX, DOCX etc.
The Site Command
The site command restricts a Google keyword search to a single site. For example, if I wanted to see all references to ‘Microsoft’ in my blog, I would type: site:www.thewebpitch.com Microsoft
This is a very handy command, especially if you looking for certain keyword on a website that has no search capability. The site command can either include or remove the ‘www’ in a web domain, removing the www will show all the sub domains from the domain which Google has found.
The Link Command
Google’s link command lists pages which “link back” to the specified website. These links are also known as “inbound Links” or “IBLs”. For example, here’s a link search for www.thewebpitch.com
In general terms, a site with more link backs is more of an authority than a site with fewer link backs. However, not all link backs are of equal ranking!
The Related Command
The related command allows you to find pages which discuss a similar topic to a website that you have already found. For example, here’s a related:www.thewebpitch.com search.
The Info Command
This command shows some limited information about a particular page that Google has in its index. Typically, the command shows the page snippet and title as well as links to the cache or related pages. For example, here’s an info search for www.thewebpitch.com
The Define Command
The define command displays Google’s glossary of definitions for a particular searched term, for example: define: Semantic Web results in definitions for ‘semantic web’ in a bullet point format with a link to the authoritative URL.
The Allintitle Command
This command restricts a Google search so that all the listed keywords must appear in a page’s title tag. For example: allintitle: apple iPad shows a good example of this.
The NCR Command
This command is particularly useful if you are abroad, and Google redirects your search page to the local country you are in. If you type /ncr after google address, no redirection is made. For example:
http://www.google.com/ncr = google.com
http://www.google.co.uk/ncr = google.co.uk
This should equally work for other countries.
Other useful search commands include:
The Allinurl Command
Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the page results. For example, here is a simple search for pages with 720p and video in their URLs.
The Allintext Command
Restrict a search so that all of the keywords must appear in the body text For example here is a simple search for pages with 720p and video in their body text.
