There are wonderful shortcuts available on Google to make searching easier. One of those methods we particularly enjoy is the use of Google’s advanced operators, commonly called ‘shortcuts’. As we mentioned earlier with the ‘related:yoursite.com’ shortcut, these operators can have an impact on your search engine marketing efforts.

These nifty shortcuts can be sorted into groups by their functions including:

• Restricting the search
• Specializing information queries
• Restricting to sites where query words appear
• Restricting to Google Groups, News, and Froogle

A few of our favorites include:

• site: – searches only one website or domain
• define: – Provides definitions for words, phrases, and acronyms from the Web
• link: – Find linked pages that point to a URL. This comes in quite handy to see who’s linking your website!
• movie: – Find reviews and show times for a particular movie
• weather: – Shows the weather for a given location

The entire list of advanced operators for Google is located here. Take a look around. You may find an easier way to search.

If you need help understanding how search engines work, please contact Marion at 713-623-6444 or info2@marion.com.