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Apr 1 2008
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My Top 10 Google Search Shortcut Tips

Google shortcutsUsing specialized Google searches for SEO and competitive research is a pretty simple, but powerful tool. Many times you can improve your ranking for important search phrases by better understanding the construction of pages that rank well ahead of you. Studying and understanding how a well ranked page is optimized and having access to a list of sites that link to these pages will tell you a great deal about what you may need to do to get similar results.

Google has enabled a long list of search shortcuts that will allow you to do all kinds of things besides simply search for a plumber in your town. By adding what Google calls an operator followed by a colon : you can get some pretty interesting research done very quickly.

The following are my 10 favorite web site and SEO shortcuts because they give you a quick look at some of the most competitive search ranking factors.

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Filed Under: Google, Search Engines
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  • http://www.betterforbusiness.com Terra Andersen

    Great list John! Thanks for sharing!

  • http://www.wannabemogul.com Jacob

    Thanks for posting these.

    I never knew about allintext/allintitle. Those will be handy in tracking down articles that actually talk about the company/product I am seeking and exclude brief name mentions.

    I’ll have to use allintitle next time I am trying to find that one specific article in a pile of Google results.

  • http://eubankinspections.com James

    and happyaprilfoolsday to you, too, John!

  • http://www.redmarketer.wordpress.com Robert John Ed

    John,

    Truly a wonderful list John. Remarkably effective way to analyze your site as well.

    Take care.

  • John Jantsch

    James – thanks for noticing my not so subtle joke – I remember reading the original George Plimpton story, yes I’m that old, and thinking it was the greatest literary heist I had ever read.

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  • http://www.marketingtwins.com MarketingTwins-Randy

    Very good and practical. I didn’t even know you could do these shortcuts until you shared them back in January at our coaching training….cool! I can see using several of them to cut down search time on Google.

    I enjoying knowing new things and then getting to sound like the expert to other people! :)

  • http://www.JoshuaSaunders.com joshua

    Hi, Thanks for the post. it’s very useful.

  • http://ethandemme.com/blog ethan

    bugger you got me, I actually went to google and tried for an acronym of my name. In my defense I read this via feed so I read it a day late :-)

  • http://marketinggraham.blogspot.com/ Graham

    Thank you for that list John.

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  • http://marketingloop.com Hendry Lee

    It’s worth mentioning though that link: operator doesn’t work as well as Yahoo’s.

  • John Jantsch

    Hendry – I think it would be more accurate to say they work differently.

  • http://www.andertoons.com Andertoons

    Ooh! That inurl one is great! Never heard of it before! Thanks!

  • http://www.dmxready.com/ cohnsey

    Great article. I think seo professionals often forget how useful those Google shortcuts can be. we always try to find the next great tool when it may be right in front of our noses through Google.

  • http://tronmarketing.wordpress.com/ Tony Russell

    Thank you for a handful of gems. This are great tips. Please let me know if you have any more.

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  • http://www.hyperlistbuilder.com Jonathon

    John,
    THanks for sharing those. I very often neglect to check everything that Google offers us. These tools are good for checking up on your competition as well!
    Thanks again.
    -Jon

  • http://www.jmorganmarketing.com Jacob Morgan

    These are great for competitive analysis, especially for SEO. You can use the “intitle” “inanchor” search commands together to get a really good idea of how many sites are really gunning for a particular term. Usually when you type in a search query you can some large amount (e.g. 19,000,000) using the intitle or inanchor helps weed out some of the accidental competitors to get a much better idea of the competitive landscape.

    Great post John

  • http://ww.seoresults.co.za SEO Snyman

    These are valuable tools for whittling down the clutter to the nitty gritty. The old fashioned way to do SEO without the fancy programs!

  • http://www.easyseo.co.za Easy SEO

    Thanks John.

    Thanks for the tips. When I get a new toy I read the entire book to know everything. We use Google everyday yet we dont learn how to use it properly, or maybe we just think that is it.

    Will share your post.

    Enjoy.

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  • tim

    thank you for the great info sometimes i find it difficult to find all the options google has there are so many andnot always in the same place. but this gives me more things to take advantage of

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  • http://www.telkchem.com Tom Novinson

    John-
    I just stumbled on your site while searching for ways to boost and link our tiny new site (telkchem.com) to something. Great advice. Look forward to reading your blog in the future.
    Tom

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  • http://www.affiliate-marketing101.com/ Kevin from Niche Affiliate Marketing Help and

    Do yourself a favor: go to Amazon.com and spend a measly 10 bucks on John Jantsch’s Duct Tape Marketing Guide. I found his advice on making my website a productive one especially relevant for my situation.

  • http://www.thecorporatealternative.com Skip

    Great information – it sure helps separate what I am really looking for from all of the pretenders. Thank you thank you.

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  • http://www.no1-tutorial.co.cc jj

    This is very use ful article.thank you very much