site: search operator
A site: query is a search operator that allows you to request search results from the particular domain, URL, or URL prefix specified in the operator. For example:
site: examples | |
|---|---|
site:example.com | Show results only from the example.com domain (www.example.com and recipes.example.com). |
site:https://www.example.com/ramen tsukemen | Shows results for pages that contain URLs that start with https://www.example.com/ramen and are relevant to the term tsukemen. |
The site: search operator is available on all Google Search properties.
Uses for site owners
A site: query can help in a few ways with debugging a site. A few examples:
site: examples | |
|---|---|
site:example.com | Returns a list of indexed and serving URLs. |
site:https://example.com/recipes/tsukemen.html | May help you understand whether a specific URL is indexed and served. |
site:example.com viagra casino | Helps with identifying and monitoring spam problems on your site. |
site:https://example.com/ lemon | Shows which URLs on the site can show up for the term "lemon". |
site:https://example.com/recipes/tsukemen.html lemon | Shows whether the specific URL is indexed for the term "lemon". |
Limitations
The site: operator was designed primarily for search users and so it has some restrictions that site owners might find limiting. Specifically:
- The
site:operator doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed under the prefix specified in the query. Keep this in mind if you want to use thesite:operator for tasks like identifying how many URLs are indexed and serving under a prefix. - A
site:operator without a query (for examplesite:example.com) doesn't rank the results. It will generally show the shortest URL for the prefix at the top, but otherwise the results are relatively random.