SeoblogR

Google advanced search operators explained

Pawel Szulencki — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:13:13 +0000

Google supports different advanced search operators in order to make your search experience more satisfying, faster and easier to perform. Those operators have special meaning to Google search engine and are interpreted as commands in search algorithm. You can use those operators to find desired file types, links, and in general any kind of information. To use them, you simply need to add certain search operator before searched query in standard search box. These are the following search operators used by Google search engine:

link: - The [link:] operator is used to list all pages linking to giver URL address. For example [link:www.google.fi] will find all pages indexed by Google linking to that given URL.
NOTE: there can be NO space left between the operator and URL address.
site: - The[site:] operator will command Google to restrict the search process to desired domain name. For example a search for [site:google.fi] will list all sites indexed by Google. A search for [sauna site:.fi] will find pages containing word [sauna] within .fi top level domain.
NOTE: there can be NO space left between the operator and domain name.
cache: - The [cache:] operator will show a cached version of any given URL held in Google database. For example a search for [cache:http://www.seoblogr.com/seo/how-to-avoid-duplicate-content-pena lty/] will show a cached version of that page.
NOTE: there can be NO space left between the operator and domain name.
related: - The [related:] operator will show websites similar to given website address. For example [related:http://www.dmoz.com] will show you websites that are determined as similar to DMOZ.
NOTE: there can be NO space left between the operator and domain name.
define: - The [define:] operator will give a full definition of given terms based on various online resources. For example [define:seo] will show you a definition of SEO in different sources.
info: - The [info:] search operator will show you some information about given url address that Google have. For instance [info:www.google.com] will present information about Google home page.
NOTE: there can be NO space left between the operator and domain name.
stocks: - The [stocks:] operator is used to present stock exchange rates for desired company. The term following [stocks:] search operator has to be in stock ticker symbol format. For instance [stocks:goog] will show you current Google stock exchange position.
NOTE: does NOT work with at least some language versions of Google search engine and only with English international version.
inurl: - The [inurl:] operator will restrict all results to those url that contain given term in it. For instance [inurl:sauna] will present you the results containing the word [sauna] as part of full URL address of that web page.
NOTE: there can be NO space left between the operator and the following word.
allinurl: - The [allinurl:] search operator is similar to [inurl:] and it finds websites with given terms in the url. The difference is that in [allinurl:] operator you can put many key words, for example a search for [allinurl:finnish sauna] will show all pages that contain both words as part of their URL address.
intitle: - The [intitle:] operator will show you pages that contain given word in the title of that page. For example [intitle:sauna] will show you pages that have word [sauna] as part of its title tag.
NOTE: there can be NO space left between the operator and domain name.
allintitle: - [allintitle:] operator works similar to [intitle:] operator, but it shows pages that contain all key words in their title. For example a search for [allintitle:finnish sauna] will show only those pages that have in their title words [finnish] and [sauna].

Using those Google search operators will help you find information in a faster and more efficient way, so understanding their functionality should also help you understand Google search engine a little bit better.

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Google advanced search operators explained

2009 in search industry

Pawel Szulencki — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 04:48:35 +0000

The year 2008 is over now and the new year is upon us. The year 2009 is going to bring many new and exciting features to search engine industry. Everyone is thinking if, finally, year 2009 is going to be the mobile devices year, if the mobile device advertising and search engine optimization alike will kick in to the mainstream. I hope so.

Here is what may happen this year:

marketers start to seriously optimize their websites for mobile devices
mobile advertising market becomes more crowded with advertisers and prices for most popular keywords go up
mobile ads become more relevant
social media kicks into mobile devices
software mashes and plugins become popular for mobile devices

But dont also forget about good old search engine optimization:

search results become highly dependable on personalization
keyword performance rankings become useless
SearchWiki becomes a valuable part of search engine rankings algorithms
social media websites find a good way for monetizing their services
video optimization becomes part of standard seo processes

Do i miss anything? What would you add to this list? Have your say and join the discussion.

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

2009 in search industry

Mobile device industry changes in 2009

Pawel Szulencki — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 09:10:28 +0000

Mobile device users will be happy to hear that this year they will be served with more relevant ads, they will get more attention from website creators and marketers and general spending made for mobile innovation will increase.

So what will mobile users get from all of that?

Better control, more flexibility, more options to choose from. Search engines especially for mobile Internet will be more sophisticated and will have much more functions. GPS will get a new application. By logging in to the Google account and searching for “best Italian restaurant in my area” will result in presenting the best Italian restaurants based on user review and restaurant ratings on various social media websites in user closest location. The location will be set based on GPS system, which is very precise these days. User will be given an option to view a map showing exact route to the restaurant by car, on foot or with use of public transportation. Restaurant reviews, ratings, pictures, current menu and prices and special promotions will be a click away from mobile device users.

Doesn’t it sound just great?

Yes, it does, dear user. We just have wait and see ourselves for that to become true and i hope it will be this year. Afterall, its supposed to be the year of mobile devices.

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Mobile device industry changes in 2009

Happy New Year

Pawel Szulencki — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:56:00 +0000

I would like to wish all of you great New Years Eve and super year 2009. Have fun, don’t drink too much coffee..or tea and start the new year with style and in fun environment. I hope the next year will bring more happiness, adventures, will be exciting and i hope that the year 2009 will be the year You fulfill your dreams and accomplish something great.

Onnellista Uutta Vuotta

Stastny Novy rok

S Novim Godom

Feliz Ano

Bonne Annee

Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku

Happy New Year

…or any other wish in any other language out there…

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Pawel Szulencki — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 13:05:47 +0000

I would like to wish all of you Merry Christmas. I wish you all have a great time spend with family, far away from computer and any electronic devices. Just spend this time with closest to you, for this time forget about Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Digg and everything related to the online world. Enjoy internet-free time with your family and friends…and remember to leave Santa some peanuts

Image by kthypryn.

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Merry Christmas

Best of 2008 Web Design

Pawel Szulencki — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:33:08 +0000

My blog post concerning creating custom 404 error page have been mentioned as one of the best posts about website design in the past year by “The WebMarketCentral Blog” by Tom Pick. I have been mentioned next to such articles as The 4 Essential Elements of Web Design by Spinfield, Why Web Design Matters by SEO Book, 10 Great Web Sites by BtoB magazine, 10 killer websites worth watching by iMedia Connection, Is your website ready for a handheld world? by iMedia Connection and 16 Web Based Handy Web Designer Tools by Online Marketing Blog.

Its extremely nice to be mentioned next to all those respected people and websites above. You can read all about “Best of 2008 web design” at http://webmarketcentral.blogspot.com/2008/12/best-of-2008-so-far-websi te-design-part.html

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Best of 2008 Web Design

Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media

Pawel Szulencki — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 10:17:20 +0000

Recently i have prepared a social media do’s and don’ts list for one of my clients, www.bonusbonusbonus.pl and we decided to share it with other webmasters to use it and follow it.

The do’s of social media:

Do publish original, interesting and unique content. Add something valuable to the community.
Do be friendly and helpful. Help other members, guide them and help them. It will pay off. It will make them feel related to your business and feel part of your community. They will stand for your community and defend your website.
Do participate in conversation. Start, engage interesting conversations. Leave something for other members to discover, watch their conversation and keep up the right track of it.
Do be positive and polite. Stay calm at all times in your opinions, don’t shout at someone just because they don’t understand your meaning.
Be honest and genuine in what you do.
Do make friends (a lot of them). But don’t make friends just to have them. Engage with them, invite to your group, create a community atmosphere, a place where community members will like to come back for news, information and help from other members. Let members help each other, it’s a sign that they create a bond between each other.
Do become a powerful user. When gained enough followers (community members) you have the power of many. You can ask your members for favors, ask their opinions about the website or simply see their point of view about your industry. That can help you build even stronger community based on stronger website (company visibility).
Do try (at least) to be open minded, be open for new ideas, see what your community wants, what direction does it go to and follow it (if reasonable) or try to steer the community towards some direction.
Do feel relaxed, don’t take it so seriously. Have fun, help, engage and do what you really like to do. Show your community that you truly like what you do and they will sense it.
Do research – is there need for your community, are there enough like-minded people seeking the same information as you provide?
Do adopt – adopt to environment, adopt to community – it takes time, but should not be passed over.
Do learn from your community, get knowledge from other people.
Do tell the truth and only truth.

The don’ts of social media:

Don’t openly promote your business. Don’t jump in saying: we are here to promote our services, come and join us. It will NOT work. People hate invasion, they hate ads and they have advertising and self-promotion. Why would they listen to your offer? Make it clear that you are there for them, to help them and create a real community.
Don’t jump in thinking you are the greatest and the best company in the world. You aren’t and no company is and ever will be. Take time to create community without self-promotion.
Don’t submit boring content, don’t submit content that no one is going to read. Think from your community perspective, don’t force them to read boring news and expect to thank you for that.
Don’t be greedy. Building a strong community takes time, be reasonable with your efforts in social media. Don’t think you will get millions of users just because you are out there. It’s really not enough. Since everyone is out there, your no different.
Don’t exaggerate your products or services. Never overpromise. Its far better to overdeliver than overpromise.
Don’t leech. Always give something to the community. Don’t just take without giving anything back. Communities are about sharing, so don’t be leech’s.

Follow those tips and you will benefit from social media.

Other Interesting Entries

Twitter updated

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media

Are web directories important to SEO?

Pawel Szulencki — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:40:36 +0000

Web directories used to be the only way of finding information on the Internet. At that time being listed in directory could mean being popular or being unknown to anyone. But search engines changed that situation.

Nowadays almost everyone starts their day by going to their favorite search engine and finding some interesting news stories, new websites etc. Now its being on top listings in search engines is important, not being listed in web directories.

So why do we still recommend web directory submission?

Occupying top rankings in search engines may be hard to achieve to almost impossible for some websites while being listed in web directories is accessible and easy to perform for most webmasters. Moreover Internet users still search through web directories to find information (maybe not so commonly as in the old days), but it is still huge number of users. That number is big enough not to forget about it.

Google may have lowered the importance of web directories in its algorithms, but its doesn’t mean they don’t count those links at all. Algorithms change every day, so its no surprise that this happened. Some day social media links may be lowered in importance in the future as well, who knows.

We should concentrate on the main thing: the users. If they search though web directories and our website is not listed there, we are loosing possible traffic to our website. We cant afford that. Thats why its still advisable to submit your website to top web directories.

Submitting to all available directories is pointless. You should focus on the web directories that people in your industry actually use, because thats where your visitors will come from. There are millions of web directories on the Internet (seriously), but how many of them are actually visited by your target audience? Just some of them.

Thats your target - localize those top directories and submit your link to them. Dont worry so much on what Google says about the importance of such web directory links. Focus on reaching your clients. Thats your goal.

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Are web directories important to SEO?

SEO…it all depends

Pawel Szulencki — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 10:22:14 +0000

In search engine optimization no two websites are the same. Every website has a separate situation and needs separate treatment. Thats why seo has no on-for-all solution.

There are of course certain common processes and directions to follow, but there are also many situations where there needs to be implemented a custom solution for a website.

A solution that have been proved to work for one website may not necessarily work for your website and you should always remember that when doing seo. You should stay up to date and implement the latest trends in seo, but always adjust those tactics to suit your website and your clients needs.

The goals, possibilities and expectations of each website are different. The financial possibilities, popularity, market suruation and many more things have to be measured for each website separately as each website position on the market and its possibilities are different.

Thats why its so important to always use your own judgment and adjust the tactics and strategies to best suits your websites needs.

Remember: in seo it all depends on situation. Seo IS a custom solution.

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

SEO…it all depends

Yahoo! top searches for 2008

Pawel Szulencki — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 20:01:09 +0000

Yahoo! published a list of most popular user searches of the year 2008. It represents most searcher terms in Yahoo! search engine and its partners. Here it is:

Britney Spears

WWE

Barack Obama

Miley Cyrus

RuneScape

Jessica Alba

Naruto

Lindsay Lohan

Angelina Jolie

American Idol

You can also see more detailed additional lists categorized at Yahoo! Buzz website.

It is much different than Google’s zeitgeist list for 2008. Why do you think its like that?

Other Interesting Entries

This is a post by Pawel Szulencki from SeoblogR.

Yahoo! top searches for 2008