Search operators are special commands that can narrow the focus of your search queries. They can be used to search for keywords found specifically within a URL or a title tag, as opposed to only within the text of a page. They can also be used to search for keywords found only on domains with a specific extension, such as .com’s or .net’s. Advanced search operators can also be used to look for a specific kind of site that displays a specific keyword phrase and contains additional text that you might find useful, such as blogs that target “weight loss” with “post a comment” publically displayed.

Advanced search operators can be used along with footprints to further target your search efforts. By using a combination of search operators, keywords and footprints you can essentially find any number of potential link sources you might need. For example, you can use a combination of search operators, keywords and footprints to find websites, blogs or social bookmarks targeted to “weight loss” that contain any number of words useful for link building such as “register.php”, “comment”, “add url” and “submit”.

To use advanced search operators you can either enter them directly into Google’s search field or you can use software such as Scrapebox to combine search operators with many different keywords. Both of these tools have fields for you to enter in any number of search operators, keywords and footprints. Once entered, all you need to do is run the software and they will go out and crawl all of the major search engines for any and all sites that match your queries. This is the fastest and most efficient way to develop your own database of potential link sources.

Here is a list of the most common search operators and footprints.