The ability to do precise Google searches and getting relevant results is a superpower that is easy to acquire but most people don't have it.

The goal of this post is:

• to provide simple and tangible examples to help you gain this superpower
• to show you how you can leverage Google for prospecting.

Google Search Operators

Google search operators (also known as “advanced operators”) are commands that extend the capabilities of regular text searches. With Google search operators you can do anything from market analysis, prospecting people on LinkedIn, retrieving fundraising news, finding emails, etc. Understanding the basics of Google search operators will drastically improve the quality of your search results.

How do Google search operators work?

Even though there are lots of search operators for you to use, they usually follow a similar syntax like this one:

Some of the most common search operators are:

• site: Limit results to those from a specific website
• intitle: Web pages with a certain keyword in the title
• inurl: Web pages with a certain keyword in the URL
• filetype: web pages with a certain file type, such as pdf or png
• [number]..[number]: restricts the search to a certain range of numbers

Examples for sales, growth, and marketing use cases:

Find: Google spreadsheets that include “startups” and “2020” in the title

• site:docs.google.com/spreadsheets intitle:startups 2020

Use case: This search will provide you with several links to lists of Google spreadsheets with data about startups and the year 2020. For example, if you offer services for startups that are hiring remotely you’ve just found a list with 900+ potential leads.

Find: List of LinkedIn profiles that mention “Founder” and the words “We’re hiring”