11 Best Killer Research Strings To Find Stuff On Google
July 23rd, 2008 by Monika MundellIn 30 short pages my ebook shows you exactly how to set up a low-maintenance income online using free traffic from Google. You'll learn:
- How to discover keyword sets where the traffic potential is high but the competition is limited.
- How to set up quick, easy, search-engine friendly websites with no programming knowledge whatsoever.
- How to build those websites around high-paying keywords that will give you your first passive online income.
The ebook is free, but there is a catch - you have to actually download it, read it, and implement what it teaches. I'm not giving you this book for intellectual stimulation; I'm giving it to you so you can make money. Hundreds of my readers have used these principles to either create or increase their online income. You can do the same.
Just fill out the easy form below you'll be redirected to the download page. As a bonus I'll follow up with an email mini-course that outlines some of my biggest successes, failures, and key insights I've gained over the years as a full-time internet marketer. I'll send you the first installment right away. And don't worry - all you'll ever get from me is value-packed content. I'll never share, rent, or sell your personal information. Enjoy...and thanks for visiting!
Over the course of years I have been working online I’ve learned and increasing amount of search tactics to find information on Google. As a freelance writer who has many niche marketing clients it is imperative I find information super fast.
The more time I waste, the less money I earn because my rates are tailored to the time I need to get the job done. Tailoring my searches to my respective needs means that the results are more accurate right away, allowing me to concentrate on the writing, rather than spend time researching Google for hours.
Also, I wanted you to know that while I mention Google here, some of these search terms will also work on other search engines. I simply love Google and couldn’t imagine life without it. It is the tool I used most in my business besides my brain and my fingers.
1.) The hyphen search string
A hyphen search string will omit any word that is being placed after the actual hyphen in your search.
For example, if you were to search for Internet -marketing, the results would omit anything to do with marketing but return information related to the word Internet.
2.) The wildcard search *
To use a wildcard search insert the * symbol instead of a word. This is great for long tail searches as well as comparison searches. Examples, the search pay * will return varied results while you can do comparison search to find more detailed information like this search: [pay * per word]vs[pay * per hour]
3.) The date range search
To search for information within a specific date range, do this:
Internet marketing daterange:2008 january-2008 july
This type of research is especially important if you need relevant and updated information.
4.) The exact search
The phrase or exact search allows us to find relevant information by putting quotes “” around our search term. This will cut out all irrelevant and time wasting results. Example: “marketing blogs”
5.) Blog keyword search
If you are a niche marketer, or an assistant to a niche marketer you will find this particular tip very handy while searching for blogs to comment on.
writing inurl:blog
You can also use the search term inurl: to restrict the search to page URLs e.g. inurl:writing
6.) The filetype search
I love this search as I can find PDF’s, PPTs, spreadsheets (xls) and more with this particular search:
business filetype:pdf
7.) The safe search
The safe search excludes all adult content from the results: safesearch:online
8.) The link search
This search finds linked pages on any website. While Google does return results, you will find more up to date stuff on Yahoo for this particular search.
9.) The site search
If you want to find information on only the one website you are best off to use the following search term to find the most accurate results: site:courtneytuttle.com
While you could also do a search with the www in front of the URL, the results are often limited.
10.) The find stuff using either or results
if you need information on two words that might not even be related, you can use the OR in between. Example: marketing OR writing
11.) The definition search
The definition search is great for writers or bloggers. Whenever you don’t quite understand the meaning of a particular word or phrase you can use this search to find its definition.
define:writing
Bonus tip
Did you know that you can also use Google like a simple calculator. this is so handy when you add up all your income at the end of the month. Simple us the same symbols like you do on a simple calculator:
- + = add
- - = subtract
- / = divide
- * = multiply etc.
You too can become a search warrior
Knowing your way around the search strings will make your online life a lot easier. If you struggled up to this stage, these “shortcuts” will give you a huge advantage over your competition since you will be faster and able to find more accurate information from now on.
I know that there are many more of these search strings and if you feel like sharing, feel free to let us know which ones need to be on this list. Maybe it will become the 50 best killer research strings instead.
Update: If you found this post helpful, you're going to love our new ebook: The Keyword Crash Course...it's 100% free. Enter your email here to receive the series:
This book contains the methods used by hundreds of my students and readers to create an excellent low-maintenance income online...and it will for your too - if you'll just download it and put it to work.
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July 25th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
link:untwistedvortex.com doesn’t return but a fraction, but I found ?untwistedvortex.com returns a WHOLE LOT.
July 25th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Great list, very helpful.
Thanks,
JR
July 25th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
[…] 11 Best Killer Research Strings To Find Stuff On Google […]
July 25th, 2008 at 8:28 pm
RT, thanks for the tip on the ?. When I used link: for my site, I got nothing, but 23 for ?. Very helpful tip.
Medic
July 25th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Interesting! That’s what exactly I need, I usually confused what steps I have to do when searching something in Google.. It really saves my time
July 26th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Interesting… I will see that…
July 26th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Valuable information, thanks!
July 26th, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Useful list, thanks. #8 seems to be incorrect though:
Find backlinks in Google (although, as you say, results are being cut off):
link:sitename.com (without “http://”)
Find backlinks in Yahoo!:
link:http://sitename.com (with “http://”)
July 26th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
There’s a lot of stuff I did not know that will help me out right away. Some questions though - Why use the hypen string? Wouldn’t it be easier to just not type the words you want omitted from the search? Why type “Internet -marketing” when you could just type “Internet”? Or do I misunderstand the value of that string?
September 10th, 2008 at 5:41 am
The hyphen string can be very usefull! For example, I am fixing up my house and want information on my options for new windows (like how to be more energy-efficient). If I look up “windows” on google, most of the hits that come up will be related to the software operating systems. If, however, I look up “windows -microsoft”, I will get much more relevant information!
July 26th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Nice list of search strings Monica, thanks!
@Job,
that made me wonder too, then I thought a little more.
If you want to search for the word ‘internet’ but do not want your searches to include ‘internet marketing’, that’s when you use the hyphen and nothing to do with marketing should appear.
Hope I’m correct about that…
July 30th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
@ Zania: Yes you are. In normal circumstances you don’t need this and @ Job is correct by asking this question. Thanks for stepping in while I was away.
July 26th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Very handy list, i had no idea about the file type search. And site search? Always right in front of me and never realized it!
July 26th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Excellent post. This is very useful information. I`m constantly doing searches on Google, as I am a freelance writer, and anything to make that more efficient is great.
July 27th, 2008 at 8:12 am
site search understood. I found all the inlinks.
what is link search. please explain a little more.
Google returned nothing. yahoo returned around 6
July 28th, 2008 at 5:38 am
WOW! Did this article help me this weekend! This may be of use to your readers too. There is a plug-in being used called keyworkluv. Most who use it, use it with dofollow. I wanted to find blogs that use it, but with the keyword health. To promote my article of course.
I used the search –> keywordluv inurl:health
Instantly had over 20 sites that I could use!
Lamach50
July 30th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
@ Great Health Articles: Now Lamach50, aren’t you a smart cookie. But seriously, thank you so much for sharing this. I didn’t think of this myself and now I guess I know how the software strings work in the Fast Blog Finder software. At least that’s what I’m thinking what they might have used.
Great tip!
July 28th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Great post, very informative. I didn’t know a lot of those search tips, thanks.
July 28th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
I’m curious — is it a good indicator that you’re in the sandbox if your site shows up with a google site: search, but your link: search returns nothing even though when you search by your url you get link results?
July 30th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
@ Tactical Gear: If your Google site: search doesn’t return any results, it means your blog or site isn’t even indexed. To index it you have to use the crafty ways from Vics blog. They work (I’ve done it myself).
You are most likely in the sandbox if you are listed on say page 5 of Google one day and then the next you are nowhere near in the top 100 pages. But this is only a guestimate anyway since you could never tell for sure anyway.
Hope this helps
July 29th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Sometimes I use Google search as a metric unit conversion tool. For example search string “100 m in ft” will output “100 meters = 328.08399 feet”, if you type “100 lbs in kg” you’ll get “100 pounds = 45.359237 kilograms”. It’s a handy feature.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:56 pm
@ Silvermario: Yes, the metric conversion tool is awesome. Gone are the days when I search for my calculator.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:27 am
Hi,
Calculations…..
Great Article. In your article mostly i like Bonus tip.
July 30th, 2008 at 12:44 am
Just what I need to boost my research. Thanks for sharing.
July 30th, 2008 at 10:00 am
So obvious, but so few of us know all of this stuff! Thanks for the list. I’ve used some of these without knowing the little code for it - having the code makes the search so much more productive!
July 30th, 2008 at 10:41 am
when i first started researching MMO methodologies, i have to admit i used a few of these strings to…well….get a ‘preview’ link to some of the clickbank ‘products’.
hint: using url and filetype
after reading enough i learned that there were better sources for information…regardless, these search modifications can be used in a myriad of very powerful and useful ways
July 30th, 2008 at 10:59 pm
@ MMOFBI: LOL, looks like we have got ourselves a sneaky marketer.
July 30th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Hey, my first post here, so be gentle. Found my way via DerekSemmler’s blog
Amazing that we have all used Google for ever and a day, yet most of us (well, at least, me!) have never seen or used those advanced search terms. The date range is particularly useful.
July 30th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
@ PS3: Welcome to Court’s Internet Marketing School where gentle is our middle name and we welcome new readers with a special smile. Thanks for your comment, it’s great to have you here.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:19 am
Thanks Monika, always nice to get a personal reply, much appreciated.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:19 pm
@ PS3: I agree with you. I usually reply to every comment for that reason although this post is a little different though. Not much to communicate on with each other.
July 31st, 2008 at 12:05 am
Nice post!
-http://chacha-money.blogspot.com/
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:46 am
[…] With Google you can use many different research strings to find exactly what you are looking for.Here is 11 best killer research strings to find stuff on Google. […]
August 2nd, 2008 at 9:32 am
Thanks for this list, google are realy great SE todays
August 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 pm
[…] 11 Best Killer Research Strings To Find Stuff On Google […]
August 2nd, 2008 at 11:14 pm
[…] Courtney Tuttle - 11 Killer Research Strings to Find Stuff On Google […]
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
[…] 11 Best Killer Research Strings To Find Stuff On Google - Courtney Tuttle […]
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:59 pm
This post was undoubtly an effort of nothing. Good work in the past, now skip the howling-at-the-many.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:37 pm
@ delapaco: Aren’t you charming.
Not sure whether you call collaborating a couple of hours of information into an effort of nothing, but thanks for your input anyway.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:42 pm
I’m glad somebody understood his comment. I didn’t.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Great article Monika.
PS: Where’s Courtney been?
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
@ Don Mak: Mmmhhh, I’m sure you will find out very soon.
August 3rd, 2008 at 9:48 pm
DM
August 4th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
This list was truly dope on a rope…many thanks!
August 5th, 2008 at 7:36 am
Great article! i never imagined there was so much more one cold do with Google search! Thanks!
August 6th, 2008 at 6:48 am
I always uses the exact, link and blog searchs most of the time for the seraching purposes…
Hmm…, maybe I will try the wildcard and hyphen search string methods more frequently.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
I don’t usually comment on nofollow blogs or articles.
I think with this article I can become a super searcher.
August 16th, 2008 at 1:55 am
very nice
August 17th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Really interesting stuff …. thanks for the tips. I knew about a couple of them but not all.
August 21st, 2008 at 6:58 am
[…] 11 Best Killer Research Strings To Find Stuff On Google - Learn amazing search parameters, and you’re on your way to Google search glory! […]
August 27th, 2008 at 1:36 am
Is there a way to do research where you filter results from google to minimum page rank? I can see page rank in my toolbar but it is too time consuming to click on each website and view it.
October 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am
nice info about google search, i will be very useful
http://www.blogstuff.co.cc
November 4th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Welcome to the new celebrity site
December 10th, 2008 at 10:25 am
its now new sites ruzunoglu.com
June 15th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Don’t know you can do so many with Google query before reading this
Google is the best! 