Getting the Most Out of Google

Author: Eric Brantner
SEO Copywriter

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past several years, you know the mega powerhouse Google has become. If you are SEO savvy, you probably spend countless hours trying to get your site higher on the Google SERPs. However, you might not be aware of all the tools Google has available that you can use to further your SEO efforts. What follows is a list of tips to help you get the most out of your Google experience.

• AdWords- We start our list with the most basic of Google tools. If you have even a basic interest in SEO, you’ve surely heard of the Google AdWords tool. This free application can help you with all of your keyword research needs. Simply enter relevant terms into the tool and the AdWords system will generate a list of other suggested keywords for you to target. Additionally, this device will allow you to analyze the search volume and competition for each of these terms. Lastly, you can also enter in your website url, and the AdWords program will perform a thorough analysis of your website to determine additional keywords for you to target.
• Allintitle- Using the allintitle search string will produce results with only the words you choose in the title tags. In other words, if you type allintitle:Houston flower shop, the SERP will display only websites that have Houston flower shop in their title. Why is this important? Because title tags are an important part of SEO. Therefore, if the number of sites with Houston flower shop in their title tags is very low, you have a better chance of ranking well for that term.
• Blog Search- The Google Blog Search tool is a neat way for internet users to search millions of blogs for information. This reduces the need for finding blogs on your own through word of mouth and traditional search methods. Simply type in the phrase you’re interested in, and the results will display all blogs relating to the subject. This can help you keep up to date with industry information, and it can generate ideas for your own content.
• Link- If you have a basic understanding of search engine optimization, you know how important inbound links are to your website. To keep up with your website’s inbound links, simply type link:www.yourdomain.com without any spaces. Google will then produce a sample of the links pointed to your domain. Doing this can help you understand what type of content generates links and what doesn’t.
• Allinurl- Like the allintitle search, using allinurl will display all websites with the chosen terms in them. For example, entering allinurl:Houston flower shop into the search engine will produce all websites with Houston flower shop in their url. Just as title tags are an important aspect of SEO, so are urls. A keyword rich url improves your chances of ranking well for your keywords. For this reason, if the results of your allinurl search pull up only a few websites, you know you have a decent chance of getting good rankings for your keywords.
• Allinanchor- As I mentioned above, links are the backbone of any SEO strategy. However, it’s not always enough to have links pointing to your site. The best links are those with keyword rich anchor text. Using relevant keywords in the anchor text pointing to your page will help that page rank better for the term. Similar to all of the other search queries above, allinanchor can help you determine the level of competition for the keywords you wish to target by showing how many links contain those words in their anchor text.