Search Operators – Focus Your Link Building Approach
What Are Search Operators?
Search operators are simply commands that are used to broaden or narrow a search through different variables. These allow you to specify (to a more detailed extent) what pages should and shouldn’t be returned in search results. These can be used in most of the reputable search engines, including Google, Yahoo and Ask.
Note: Some Bing operators vary from the norm. Also, some operators such as ‘author’ and ‘location’ are only compatible with Google Groups.
Cheat Sheet
Before we begin, I’ve designed a cheat sheet with an expansive list of search operators ordered by category. There are of course many more than the ones listed – but these are the operators I’ve found most useful in past experience. This is in a printable A4 format and I’d thoroughly recommend you try some of these out.
Please click to download the Link Building Search Operators Cheat Sheet – PDF / JPG
Why Are Search Operators So Important?
Link building post-Farmer/Panda update must adapt to accommodate the difference in worth of links. This image by Smart Insights illustrates the effectiveness of different link building tactics before and after the update:
Source: http://www.smartinsights.com/
As the scope for achieving effective backlinks has narrowed, so must our methods to acquire these links. One such technique is the use of search operators. Widely underused and highly effective – search operators are an ideal way in which to pinpoint potential link targets with minimal effort, helping you filter the poor opportunities from the good. They work by identifying the tell-tale signs of a link-building opportunity – for example, a page named ‘write_for_us’; or the URL of a CMS which might allow the user to register and submit their own posts. We can use search operators to help find the quality links which are vital to any SEO campaign.
Google Alerts
As well as their use in day-to-day searching, one of the main benefits of search operators is their compatibility with Google Alerts – the new (Beta) web monitoring system from Google. Using operators in conjunction with Alerts means that you can have brand new guest blogging opportunities delivered straight to your e-mail inbox on a daily, weekly or instantaneous basis!
Tip: Optimize your alerts by previewing the results of different operators before you sign up for them.
Omgili
Search operators can also be used with the vast number of forum search engines out there (of which Omgili seems to be the most popular). This can help you to identify threads in forums where the owners of sites are asking for content submissions.
Tip: Searches for exact terms such as “bloggers wanted” + keyword(s) can prove particularly fruitful.
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Google Alerts works well for me – particularly in keeping an eye on my competitors and their link successes.
Nice article this Search Lab – thanks for the read…
I would add that smart insights is blowing smoke there… I have changed tactics a bit since the panda undate and it seems the tested methods are still working… if anything i feel well written articles are going much further than before -on the contrary to what they suggest above – chopping up your article and then syndicating and syndicating the spun versions is indeed asking for trouble, but all that juicy content around your link can never really be devalued…
Anyhows – a great read! Thanks for the post!
iDCx
Thanks for this. The Smart Insight graph was very insightful indeed. However, I wasn’t able to find information on their site to support the graphic – do you know how they established these factors?
Hi Mark,
Smart Insights used figures from SISTRIX. These were based on traffic on keywords, search engine rankings and click-through rates on specific sites before and after the update.
You can find their original post here: http://www.smartinsights.com/blog/seo/link-building-techniques-post-the-google-farmer-update/
Thanks for your comment.
Tom.
Google alerts has been the best success for me as well. I can’t wait to add more search operators to it.