Getting Crafty - Advanced Search Operators to Find the Best Backlinks
I keep seeing virtually the same articles posted on SEO sites that describe using advanced Google search operators to find backlinks, but none get down to actually showing useful examples. Finding backlinks by advanced search operator is something I've been using for the past 5+ years and I can say that it undoubtedly works, especially when consistently acquired over time.
My team and I have built up a list of over 300 of these queries that come in very handy in our quest for links. Below I'll share just a few of these searches that are very specific to link building from popular CMS/blogging platforms and that provide good to moderately good results. Maybe these few will help you find even more crafty variations of your own. You can also read a similar post on building backlinks in social media websites we wote months back:
Elgg Social Networking Websites
Here are a few advanced search operators that can be used to find Elgg-powered websites. Most Elgg social networking websites offer an "About Me" type section that allows contextual links within the paragraph(s). This first method helps finding Elgg-powered sites in Google using the "inurl:" operator and a specific text phrase chunk found on most Elgg password pages:
- Copy everything in bold and search within Google: inurl:forgotten_password.php "We will send the address of a unique verification page to you via email click"
Direct Google search and Google Image search for "Powered by Elgg" or Elgg badges found on websites. This is a more tedious way to search for Elgg-powered websites but still a worthy method:
- http://www.google.com/search?gbv=2&hl=en&safe=off&q=%22powered+by+elgg%22+-site... --or--
- http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&safe=off&sa=1&q=powered+by+elgg&btnG=...
Drupal Powered Websites (most allow comments links and/or dofollow)
Targeting Drupal sites with the keyword phrase "home mortgages" with comments turned on and that allow HTML <a> links to be added and are almost always followed:
Want to get more specific and search for the keyword in the title. Try the "intitle:" search operator on for size:
Want to get freaky with it and go the broad route and not including Drupal websites or any specific CMS platform? Just search for sites allowing the <a> HTML tag, which usually means a followed link and brings up endless possibilites:
Laconica - The Open Source Microblogging Tool - You know, like Twitter!
Here is a broader search for non-Laconica websites that is similar to the above query and that have "register" in the URL and also ask for the URL of your website while registering:
b2evolution-Powered Websites
Many b2evolution-powered websites dofollow comment URLs. This snippet below will search for specific snippets of text in the comments section of b2evolution websites:
JobberBase-Powered Websites
If you have a legitimate job posting and want to get the benefit of a good anchor text within the job posting page that's followed, try posting to some JobberBase websites:
If you want a more basic read, you can visit this older pages on finding backlinks with search operators. I'd like to share more within this post, but don't want to give away the farm, so to speak. If you have any crafty methods of scouring for backlinks, please feel free to leave them in the comments below. Depending on the popularity of this post, I might post another 10, 15, or 30 other search operators that we've been building over the years. If you want the real deal in link building for your website, then inquire about our link building services.
Comments
awesome!
Brian, these are awesome!!
I will definitely be linking to this and building out from some of your ideas!
I can only add a couple searches to the pot, in the form of urls:
http://searchengineland.com/getting-links-fro...
http://www.garrettfrench.com/eric-ward-in-sea...
Now... if only there were some way to rank these high-potential link opportunities based on relevance and value... ;D
G
Thanks Garrett, I'm sure there's a way ;-)
It would be interesting to rank these types of queries according to relevance/value. All along it's been a manual process thus far, but at least it tends to get slightly easier if we can drop specific keyword phrases within the search operator, like on one or two of the ones I added above.
These few above are also the tip of the iceburg. I have so many of these that I need to gather them together all in one place.
very good post
This is a very good post. I like the idea of using such specific google queries to find pages for backlinks. I can't believe you actually have 300 types of those queries... I would be very interested to access them :-)
nice
although blog comment spam is ill advised, if i can find some sites with genuinely interesting content on which to comment on then ill give these a go :D
finding backlinks via search operators
@Philippe -- I'd like to share more, so I'll wait to see just how popular this post gets, or at least gauge the interest. The 300+ we have compiled have come from several years of work. There are some very nice gems within that list. I don't think I'd share all of them, but perhaps 40 or 50 ;-)
@Mahesh -- You're welcome!
@mark rushworth -- I totally agree. We prefer to use a combination of keyword phrases within any of our advanced search queries to find relevant posts that we'd like to contribute to or websites to join, such as Elgg-powered websites mentioned above. I often find that after just a short time we can see direct traffic from the sites we post to because the comment is on-topic and people click through to our client's website(s).
This is a lot of information
What you have suggested here are just the peak powerful moves to strengthen your SEO campaign. THis is just a good read.
Some Query I found myself
@Brian.
I understand you don't want to give away all your queries! You actually did a lot here already. I guess we should all be a little creative now, and follow the same logic.
I worked on some queries myself since I read your post, and I came up with I think some good ones:
"powered by phpbb" "keyword"
"keyword" blog site:.edu
"keyword" forum site:.edu
"keyword" blog site:.gov
"keyword" forum site:.gov
I realized that possibilities are endless with search operators. I found a specific query as well which trigger exclusively wordpress blogs using KeywordLuv (dofollow blogs).
I also found this page which show the most popular CMS/Blogging platform on the web. It's a great asset to create new search operators using "powered by ...".
I'm not entirely sure which ones have dofollow links comments though. I assumed only Wordpress was nofollow until I found out that comment links from nucleus platform were also Nofollow. Based on the list, do you know which platform dofollow or Nofollow links comment?
Good Queries!
@Philippe -- Nice! Thanks for the additions. We've used a good number of those before but I'm sure that visitors will find those useful as well. I really like getting into the more specific CMS/forum/bloging platforms and seeing which ones allow followed links. I think there is value there, especially if targeting keywords within the query versus a more broad approach.
We dissected CMSmatrix.org websites and I would recommend sifting through that huge list and finding ones that allow followed links. We spent many, many hours doing this but I think it's paid off.
Thanks again!
Will definitely have a look
Thanks for the url CMSmatrix.org Brian. I will definitely spent some time on this and make a proper list of CMS which follow.
great share
You have revealed one of my favorite link finding techniques. But you have some great twists on it thanks for sharing this valuable information.
Hard to find doffolow CMS
@Brian
I went through CMS matrix.org, but could not find cms or blogging software which dofollow comments :-(
Even the one you actually gave us on your post. I realised that most of the people are still adding nofollow on their comments (the vast majority).
crafty indeed...
Thanks for sharing - I had a little poke around using some of your ideas and there's lots of potential out there.
Cheers
This really help
Wow... i thank you so much for the tips... it gives me more spirit to build back links
This is a good share...would
This is a good share...would like to see your list of 300 though ;)
good tools
These are great steps to find do follow backlinks. thanxs for the info and hope we dont spam much to keep them clean
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I just want to add that
I just want to add that there is amazing software called comment kahuna. Try this and you can almost automate making backlinks.
Thanks for the post
Its a huge list of over 300 of queries. I think your doe a great job. I am looking for some more post.
More
"powered by Mephisto" comment
"powered by subtext"
"Powered by s9y" comment
These are some good ones. I believe they are all dofollow by default. They would be particularly good for Rails, ASP and PHP developers respectively as most/a lot of the sites on those platforms are about those languages.
Good queries
Thanks David,
Those are pretty nice ones. I have a couple of clients in the Rails development industry. I'll try a few of those out ;-)
Thanks
had a realyl good look into to this and i think its going to work well for what i need it for optimisation for small business and local areas many thanks.
thanks
these seem to be just the power moves of strong area optimisation and not really into depth for good national phases.
good tools
i came across few sites last couple of week the sites are only few months old but have over 90k links - is there a software that automatically post anchor text links?
Thanks a lot. Now need not buy backlinks.
Brain, Thanks a lot. I was thinking to buy backlinks but i found that many spams were their. Using this method i can find quality pages and get quality backlinks. This will boost my SERP and pagerank. Once again many many thanks.
I have bookmarked the blog. This information worth more than $1000. I never got this information in paid ebooks also.
Regards
BABA
Reply To Thread
Hello,
I've been trying for months to get Google backlinks by posting to high PR blogs that are relevant to my site. So far I've had no success at all. I'll give your links a try.
Thanks very much for sharing this information.
Best regards, Stu Engelman
Can you please suggest some
Can you please suggest some queries related to real estate and real estate software sites? As i have to do back linking for these sites and i have used some queries but still cant find relevant links for back linking. Your advices will be beneficial for me.
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