Google search operators and SEO

Do you know you can use Google search operators to gather useful information for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Google search operators allows you to pull out specific data from google search engine. In this article you can find most useful google search operators with examples and explanations for SEO.

What are google search operators?

Google search operators also called advanced operators are query words that have special meaning to Google. Google search operators allows advanced functionality of Google’s Advanced Search Form in a regular search box query. Some of google search operators are site: inanchor:, inurl:, intext:, intitle: ...

Discover pages on the site indexed by Google

site: operator

site: operator in your query will restrict your search results to the site you specify.

Example:

• site:interestingwebs.blogspot.com
  

  returns all web pages indexed by Google on interestingwebs.blogspot.com



• site:interestingwebs.blogspot.com tips
  

  return all web pages indexed by Google on interestingwebs.blogspot.com with keyword "tips"

SEO usage: with site: operator you can find which web pages on the selected site are indexed by google. Not indexed web pages does not appear in search result page.

Results by anchor text

allinanchor: operator

allinanchor: operator return results containing query terms specified in the anchor text on links to the page. Anchor text is clickable text part of a hyperlink.

Example:

• allinanchor:interesting webs
  

  returns all web pages which have terms "interesting" and "web" in anchor text. Result Selina's Wing Blog have one anchor text "interesting webs" and it is a reason why it is in resutls

SEO usage: number of returned results with allinanchor: operator is used by some SEO experts. Number of returned results with allinanchor: operator can be compared to number of google searches for chosen search terms. To find number of google searches use Google adwords: Keyword tool. Smaller number of returned results with allinanchor:, less competition for chosen keywords and better chance to succeed (but don't forget to include number of google searches in formula).

Search title only

intitle: operator

intitle: operator returns all web pages which have query term in title

Example:

• intitle:SEO
  

  return all web pages with keyword "SEO" inside tag title



• expert intitle:SEO
  

  return all web pages with "SEO" in title and keyword "expert" anywhere in the document

SEO usage: The title tag is a very important part of SEO. With this operator you can estimate the approximate number of competitors for specific keyword.

Search URL

allinurl: operator

allinurl: operator search tells Google to return web pages that have query terms inside URL. The searched term can be in the domain name or in the filename.

Example:

• allinurl:SEO expert
  

  return web pages containig keywords "SEO" and "expert" inside URL

SEO usage:text inside URL are very influential in SEO, so it is imperative to find more information about competition.

Further information and resources:

List of all google operators
8 Google Advanced Search Operators for SEO

Force google reindex of site

You want to google reindex your web site as soon as possible? In this artcile you can found how google works, how do you know did google indexed your web page, how often does google reindex, how to tell google to (re)index your web page or site.

How google works

Googlebot is a web crawler that finds and crawl web pages. Googlebot sending a request to a web server for a specific web page, downloading the entire page, then handing it off to Google’s indexer. It request many different web pages simultaneously. When Googlebot fetches a web page, it collect all the hyperlinks appearing on the page and adds them to a queue for subsequent crawling. Those hyperlinks are crawled later, and hyperlinks from those pages are collected too. This technique is called deep crawling. Deep crawling allows Googlebot to probe deep within individual web sites.

Googlebot gives the indexer the full text of the web pages it finds. These pages are stored in Google’s index database. When user submit a query to Google Google's index database is used to return best web pages in google's result page.

How to know did Google indexed web page

To check did google (re)index a web page use "site:" search operator:

• site:[URLOfWebPage]

Examples for checking did google re(index) a web site:

• site:interestingwebs.blogspot.com


• this Google query will return all pages on interestingwebs site which are indexed


• in case you can't find some web page in result list, it can be concluded that this page is not indexed

Examples for checking did google re(index) a web page:

• site:http://interestingwebs.blogspot.com/2009/06/tips-for-html-link-code.html
  
  
  


• in case google return result you know web page is indexed


• with this method you know if page is reindex only if title of web page is changed, for example if I changed title to "HTML code tips" and Google return "Tips for HTML code" I can know that web page is not yet reindexed (yet)

How often does google crawl

It depends on the web page. Some pages be crawled every hour, some pages every day and some pages every few weeks or months. Generally if it is consistently adding new content to web site or page have a lot of backlinks (links pointing to web page) google crawler will probably come back more often. Google don't index sites, Google index pages. So on same site one page can be crawled on daily basis while other on can be crawled once in the month. If you submit sitemaps regularly you can most likely speed up the Google crawling for your site.

Force google to reindex site

You can add your url on Google add url page and wait. When your URL is submitted, it is in google queue and google will index your site when it find appropriate. Unfortunately you can't force Google to crawl your site now and index the content.

What is twittering and best twitter apps

What is twittering?
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send (twittering) and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Updates (tweets) are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Twitter is often described as the "SMS of Internet".

Twittering example

• Twitter user BlogAndSEO tweet message "Just write article about twittering"



• when twitter user BlogAndSEO click on button update message is published (tweeted) and all 20 followers of user BlogAndSEO will see his message (tweet)
  
  



• Now, all followers see a new message, more followers more people see this message

Retweet - what it is and how to retweet

The retweet ("RT") allows Twitter users to share the best links, and tweets they find from others.

• 20 people see message of user BlogAndSEO because he have 20 followers, but in case one of the twitter followers retweet this message, let's say user the_gman all of the_gman followers will see BlogAndSEO's message, and hey, the_gman have 92521 followers!!!


• the_gman send this message : "RT @BlogAndSEO: Just write article about twittering"


• Twitter user BlogAndSEO benefit from retweet because the_gman have many followers

Short guide how to retweet

RT @OriginalPoster: RetweetedMessage

Retweet example
RT @BlogAndSEO: Just write article about twittering

How to know you have been retweeted

Go to web address http://www.retweetist.com/users/. Enter the user name and you will get last 30 day retweets for entered twitter user. This is how you can track your retweets.

Manage twitter followers

Twitter followers are twitter users who follow your messages. One of the methods to increase number of twitter followers is to follow other twitter users. Because you follow twitter user there is a chance that he will follow you back, specially if you share common interest with him.

To find and follow twitter users by tag use : wefollow application.
Enter tag and you will get twitter users who have most followers and twittering about chosen tag.

Twubble - can help expand number of people you follow — it searches twitter friend graph and picks out people who you may like to follow

Mycleenr - sort twitter friends by time of their last tweets. It can be used to easily delete inactive users from friend (following) list

Just Tweet It - directories with twitter users, very useful. You can add yourself to one of this directories to get more followers. You can find Twitter Tools Directory also.

Twitter buttons - if you have your own web site or blog you can put a twitter button which link on your twitter account. This is one more way to get more twitter followers. On site Twitter buttons you can find some interesting twitter buttons.

Tweeting links

You want to put hyperlink in tweet. Don't worry, it is enough to write URL and twitter will automatically convert it to linkable short URL.

Example:
Text entered in twitter:

just write new article about making your own strip http://interestingwebs.blogspot.com/2009/09/make-your-own-comic-strip-online.html

Posted twitter message:

just write new article about making your own strip http://bit.ly/17K9F1

For those who want more control with links in tweets I suggest tinyURL web site.

This is useful in case:

• you want to write fully 140 character tweet and don't have enough space, make tiny URL before posting tweet and save space for more text


• you want decide to how you tiny URL text will look like (for example http://tinyurl.com/comicweb for original url http://interestingwebs.blogspot.com/2009/09/make-your-own-comic-strip-online.html)

Twitter hashtags

The twitter hashtag is used to designate topics or categories of information in tweet. A hashtag is a way for others to find information about your keywords even if they are not following you.

Format for hashtag: #WORD
Hashtag example: #blogspot

When you have tweet with hashtag, twitter users can click on hashtag (it is linkable) word and see last tweets which have this hashtag. For example if you click on this #blogspot hashtag you will find last real-time tweet results containing #blogspot hashtag.

Make your own comic strip online

Do you know that you can easily make your own comic on web. And you don't need to be artist. There is a strip generator on web. You can use made characters and just dragging those characters in your strip or make your own characters. You can add bubbles with text inside it (speech balloons), different objects and shapes.

stripgenerator.com is very funny and easy to use. I believe that stripgenerator is one of the best comic generators on web. My rate is excellent. Try and see!

Let's see a comic I maked in 15 minutes:

What can be done with strip generator

• use existing drawings of humans, beings, objects, shapes and bubbles



• easy drag end drop of existing objects to strip



• add speech balloons and enter your text



• change size and rotating existing objects



• add and remove frames



• generate a custom character



• embedding comics in other web pages



• searh strip gallery...

Guide to make your own strip (comic book) online

• go on stripgenerator.com



• click on "Create strip"



• drag & drop objects in frames and make your own comic



• you can use character generator to create your custom made characters
  
  
  



• you can embed strip with copy & paste code in embed text box

On stripgenerator page you can publish your strip blog, leave messages on their forum, search last strip blogs...

No tooltip bug in Firefox 3.5

After upgrading firefox to 3.5.2 version I noticed that there is no tooltips. Tooltips are missing and instead of missing tooltip there was small white rectangle cursor box. I found solution for this problem with a help of google.

It is no tooltip bug (or blank tooltip bug) in Firefox 3.5. Solution is to uninstall and reinstall the latest version of Google toolbar for Firefox. To be sure that problem is in Google Toolbar try to start Firefox in safe mode. If Firefox in safe mode properly display tootips then source of problem is in one of the add-ons (probably Google Toolbar for Firefox)

To uninstall Google toolbar for Firefox click Tools-->Add-ons, choose on Google toolbar and click Uninstall

This article refer to no tooltip bug or blank tooltip bug in Firefox 3.5.