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Some crawler-based search engines make it
easy to confirm that your web page is in their index. With others, it can
be more difficult. Below are the best ways to find your web pages in the
major crawler-based search engines.
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The Search Engine Alliances page explains
where some search engines get or give their listings to others. Also,
Search Engine Watch members have access pages that explain in depth the
different data sources that each major search engine users and how they
display information.
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AltaVista
AltaVista has commands that can be used
to easily narrow your search to a single URL or to pages within a
particular web site. These commands can also be combined with query terms
by those who wish to refine their search results.
URL Search
To find a single page listed in
AltaVista's crawler-based index, you can use the "url:" command. Simply
preface the URL you wish to locate with this command, such as:
url:http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.html
If the URL is in the index, it will be
displayed. You can also use this command to find pages within a particular
section of a web site. For example, this:
url:http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/
would list all the pages from within the
/webmasters/ area of Search Engine Watch. This can be a useful way to find
all the pages from your web site, if it resides within someone else's
domain.
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Site Search
To locate all the URLs listed from a
particular web site, use the "host:" command, such as:
host:searchenginewatch.com
Use only the actual domain name. Omit the
http:// prefix. Also, be aware that using the www prefix can make a
difference. For instance, the query below:
host:www.searchenginewatch.com
would bring back only the pages AltaVista
has found from Search Engine Watch with the www prefix. However, Search
Engine Watch can also be reached without the www prefix. In fact, this is
the more common way that people come to Search Engine Watch. Consequently,
AltaVista has actually indexed many more pages from the site without the
www prefix. To see these pages, the first example shown would have to be
used.
Excite
You won't find Excite's URL or site
search commands documented in its help files, but they work nonetheless.
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URL Search
To find a single page listed in Excite's
crawler-based index, you can use the "url:" command.
url:www.searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.html
The command works the same as with
AltaVista, which means you can also use it to find pages within a
particular section of a web site. Be sure to omit the http:// prefix.
Using a www prefix will make a difference. If you don't find your page
when using it, also try searching without it.
Site Search
To locate all the URLs listed from a
particular web site, use the "site:" command, such as:
site:searchenginewatch.com
The site command works exactly the same
as AltaVista's host command with one exception: it can only be used to
locate web pages. You cannot combine it with search terms in order to
narrow your results. This of the Power Searching For Anyone page explains
this more.
AllTheWeb.com/FAST Search
At FAST Search, commands can be used to
find a single URL or multiple web pages from a particular site, as
explained below:
URL Search
To find a single page listed in FAST's
crawler-based index, you can use the "url.all:" command:
url.all:searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.html
This command will also work to bring up a
single URL that is listed in the FAST-powered results used by Lycos.
Site Search
To locate all the URLs listed from a
particular web site, use the "url.host:" command, such as
url.host:searchenginewatch.com
Use only the actual domain name. Omit the
http:// prefix. Also, be aware that using the www prefix can make a
difference, as described with AltaVista.
Google
At Google, commands can be used to find a
single URL or multiple web pages from a particular site, as explained
below:
URL Search
To find a single page listed in Google's
crawler-based index, you can use the "allinurl:" command, such as:
allinurl:searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.html
The allinurl command works the same as
with AltaVista, which means you can also use it to find pages within a
particular section of a web site. Be sure to omit the http:// prefix.
Please note that if you are trying to
find web pages with both words in the URL and in the document itself,
you'll need to use the special "inurl" command.
Site Search
To locate all the URLs listed from a
particular web site, use the "site:" command in combination with a word or
words that you know appear on all the pages. For example:
site:searchenginewatch.com searchenginewatch
would bring up all (or nearly all) of the
pages Google lists from Search Engine Watch, because all the pages should
have the word "searchenginewatch" on them as part of the footer text.
You must use the site command in
combination with a search term. It will not work, otherwise.
Inktomi
Inktomi powers some of the results used
by a variety of different search engines. Below is how to locate a single
or multiple URLs within Inktomi powered-listings.
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URL Search
To find a particular URL listed in
Inktomi's crawler-based index, you can use the "originurl:" command.
Simply preface the URL you wish to locate with this command, such as:
originurl:http://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.html
If the URL is in the index, it will be
displayed. This command has been tested to work on the following Inktomi-powered
services:
The originurl command will bring up an
individual URL listed in the Inktomi-powered results of these services. It
does not work at iWon, LookSmart or MSN Search.
Keep in mind that not all Inktomi
partners tap into the entire Inktomi database. That's one reason why you
may find a URL at one service but not at another.
Site Search
To locate all the URLs listed from a
particular web site, use the "domain:" command, such as:
domain:searchenginewatch.com
Use only the actual domain name. Omit the
http:// prefix. As explained above for AltaVista, using the www
prefix can also make a difference.
Unfortunately, the domain command works
inconsistently at different Inktomi-powered services. Here's a rundown:
HotBot:
Use the command. If your have any listings in the Open
Directory, these will be shown first. You'll know these are Open Directory
listings because they will have a "More like this" link underneath them.
By pass these and find a listing for your site that instead has a "See
results from this site only" link. Select that link, and you'll see all
the pages listed in Inktomi from your web site.
iWon & LookSmart:
Using the command will list all pages from a web site.
At the following services, the command
fails to operate because "clustering" prevents you from seeing more than a
few pages from your site.
- AOL Search
- GoTo
- MSN Search
Directory Search
Inktomi has a special command that lets
you find pages within a specific areaof a web site. This is the "originurlpath:"
command, and you use it in combination with the domain command, such as:
domain:searchenginewatch.com originurlpath:webmasters
This would find pages from within the
/webmasters/ area of Search Engine Watch. In other words, everything
within this area would be listed:
http://searchenginewatch.com/reports/ekgs/
Directories: Yahoo, LookSmart
& The Open Directory
Directories are search engines that are
powered by human beings, rather than by crawling the web. Because humans
are involved, directories tend to list only a few pages per web site. This
means that you probably won't be needing to make use of special site or
URL commands to locate your listings. In fact, of the three major
directories, only Yahoo has any specific command like this. At Yahoo, you
can use the "u:" command to locate specific URLs, like this:
u:searchenginewatch.com
That would bring up any pages from
Yahoo's human-compiled listings that contain "searchenginewatch.com"
within the URL.
At the web's two other major directories,
LookSmart and the Open Directory, you'll find that searching for your
domain or a portion of your domain should bring up many or all of your
listings.
For example, by entering "searchenginewatch.com"
or "searchenginewatch," I would be able to find most of my human-compiled
listings in both places.
LookSmart also provides a detailed guide
to locating your URL within its service and the listings it provides to
partners:
How to Find Your
Listing in the LookSmart Network
http://submit.looksmart.com/info.jhtml?page=find
Outsourcers
All the search engines and directories
mentioned above produce their own listings. However, there remain some
major search engines that simply outsource to produce the results they
provide. For example, MSN Search uses information from both LookSmart and
Inktomi. Trying to check your listings at such a place is difficult,
because two or more data sets are involved. Below is a guide to what
happens as such places
AOL Search
Use tips described above for
the Open Directory to find your Open Directory listings and for Inktomi to
find your Inktomi listings.
HotBot
Using the Inktomi site search command
described above will brings up both your Open Directory and Inktomi
listings. There is no command to bring up all your pages included in
HotBot's Direct Hit powered "Top Ten" listings.
Lycos
Use tips described above for FAST to find
your FAST listings. There is no way to find all your listings from the
Open Directory or Direct Hit information the service uses.
MSN Search
Use tips described above for Inktomi to
find your Inktomi listings. There is no way to find all your listings from
LookSmart.
Netscape
Use tips described above for
the Open Directory to find your Open Directory listings and for Google to
find your Google listings.
Other Resources
There are services that can check search
engines for your URL automatically, including checking on how they appear
in relation to particular keyword phrases. These are listed on the
www.searchenginewatch.com
Also, this page gives you just a taste of
some of the powerful searches that can be done with search engines.
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