Looking for a link? You can find what you're looking for via a variety of ways on the Web, whether you're searching for back links, a URL within a large site, or something specific within a link itself. Here are eight different ways you can find a link online. Note: All of these link search commands have been tested in Google, Yahoo, and Bing.
1. Find a link within a website
site:URL "widget" If you're looking for something within a large website or a website that doesn't offer a site search option, you can use a search engine to actually peek within the website itself and find what you're looking for. For example, site:websearch.about.com "free movies" will return all results from the web address websearch.about.com for the term "free movies".
2. Find inbound links
Determine what sites are linking to a specific website address by using link:URL. It does make a difference if you include the "www" or not in the number of links returned. For example: link:http://www.widget.com OR link:http://widget.com.3. Exclude domains while searching for backlinks
If you'd like to see what websites are linking to a specific URL without including the originating website address, you'll want to use this command: www.widget.com -site:www.widget.com. This shows you all the pages actually linking to widget.com, minus the pages within its own domain.4. Search for a word within a link
Search for pages that have whatever word you specify anywhere in the host name, path name, or filename. Different search engines offer different ways to accomplish this:- Yahoo: inurl:puppy
- Google: allinurl: puppy OR inurl: puppy
- Bing: inurl: puppy
5. Limit your search to a specific top level domain
Limit your search to only those top level domains that you specify you want results from. For example:- site:.edu baseball
- site:.org celebrity charity auction
- site:.gov "tax forms"
6. Search for similar links
It's very easy to find websites that are similar to ones you're already familiar with. Simply type related:www.widget.com and your search results will return sites related to the one you're already looking at (this works in Google only).7. Get instant information about a link
If you looking for fast information about a particular website, the easiest way to do it is info:whitehouse.gov. This simple search brings back a short synopsis about what the website is all about (Google only).8. Find a file
You can easily search for a specific type of file; for example, if you are looking for biology information and would like to limit your search to only PowerPoint results:- Google: biology filetype:ppt
- Bing:
- filetype:ppt
- Yahoo:
- originurlextension:ppt
