What the search operator builder does
Google lets you narrow results with special keywords added to a query. Instead of typing them by hand, this tool builds them from fields: domain, file type, exact phrase, excluded words, terms that should appear in the title or URL, and a date range. It checks that quotes, spaces and minus signs end up where they belong.
SEO specialists use it to see which PDF files of a site are indexed, to look for guest post opportunities, to spot subdomains or to find brand mentions. Content teams review competitor titles, and developers quickly check whether staging pages slipped into the index.
How to use
- Optionally choose a ready-made recipe. It fills the other fields while keeping the domain and keyword you already typed.
- Enter the keyword. With “Exact phrase” ticked, it is wrapped in quotes so the word order is kept.
- Enter the domain and, if needed, a file type. When you paste a URL,
https://is dropped; if a path remains, the scope is limited to that folder. - Separate excluded words with commas. The advanced section adds alternative terms,
intitle:,inurl:,intext:and dates. - The query updates as you type. Copy it, download it as
.txt, or use the “Search on Google” link to open it in a new tab.
Site and file-type queries
site:example.com limits results to that domain and its subdomains. site:example.com/blog limits them to that path prefix only, and the tool states this scope in the result area. The domain is lower-cased; internationalised domains such as örnek.com.tr are kept as typed rather than converted to punycode. Input with a port, query, fragment or user info is rejected.
filetype:pdf lists documents with that extension. A leading dot is removed and the value is lower-cased; only letters and digits up to 10 characters are accepted. To exclude another host, the advanced field produces -site:; the subdomain recipe uses it to remove the www version.
Exact phrases and exclusions
A quoted phrase asks for pages that contain the words in that order. In exact mode, a quote inside your input produces an error instead of a broken query. In free mode you can type your own quotes; an odd number of quotes is still reported. Curly quotes are converted to straight ones and the change is shown as a warning.
Each excluded term gets a leading -; multi-word terms are quoted. Alternatives are grouped as (a OR b). Operators are written in a fixed order: site, excluded sites, file type, title/URL/text, phrase, alternatives, exclusions, dates. The link is built with URLSearchParams, so Turkish or other non-ASCII text is UTF-8 encoded, never transliterated.
| Operator | Status (checked 28 September 2026) |
|---|---|
site:, filetype:, quotes, - | Documented in Google Search Help |
before:, after: | Documented; date matching is approximate |
intitle:, inurl:, intext:, OR | Not listed on the help page; behaviour may change |
cache:, link: | Legacy; not offered by the tool |
Example and interpretation
Enter example.com as the domain and Türkçe SEO as the keyword with exact phrase ticked, and the result is site:example.com "Türkçe SEO". Add pdf as the file type and it becomes site:example.com filetype:pdf "Türkçe SEO", a quick look at which PDFs on that site Google shows for the phrase. The Turkish example is kept on purpose: the characters stay intact in both the query and the link.
| Recipe | Query pattern |
|---|---|
| Indexed PDFs | site:domain filetype:pdf |
| Guest post opportunities | "topic" ("write for us" OR "guest post" OR contribute OR "submit an article") |
| Subdomains | site:domain -site:www.domain |
| Pages with the phrase in the title | site:domain intitle:topic |
| Brand mentions | -site:domain "brand" |
| Content from the last year | site:domain "topic" after:YYYY-MM-DD |
Why results are incomplete
The result count shown for a site: query is an estimate, not a full measurement of index coverage. Google may show different results by location, language and time, and it may omit similar pages. For the real indexing status of your own site, use the page indexing report in Search Console. Undocumented operators can be ignored in some queries, and date operators rely on the date Google associates with a page rather than its visible publication date.
Limits and privacy
- All fields together may hold up to 2,000 characters and the generated link up to 8 KiB. Nothing is truncated; you get an error instead.
- If the query has more than about 32 words you get a warning, because Google may ignore the rest.
- The tool sends no request to Google and never reads or stores results. A search happens only when you click the link, from your own browser.
- Inputs are not sent to a server or written to browser storage. If you include them in a share link, anyone with the link can read the query.
- No ranking analysis, search volume or index counting is performed.
Frequently asked questions
Does the tool search Google for me?
No. It only produces the query text and the link. The search opens in a new tab when you click “Search on Google”, and the tool never reads the results.
Can the site: result count replace a page count?
No. The number is a rough estimate. Use Search Console reports for a reliable list of indexed pages.
Why do some operators show a warning?
intitle:, inurl:, intext: and OR are not listed on Google’s Search Help page. They work in most queries, but their behaviour can change without notice.
Are non-ASCII characters safe in the link?
Yes. The query is not transliterated; it is UTF-8 encoded in the link, so Google receives exactly the text you typed.
Why are cache: and link: missing?
These legacy operators no longer work reliably, so the tool leaves them out to avoid false expectations.