How to Check if Your Listed and Ranking:

Checking Your URL:
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.

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://amazon.com/affiliate/index.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:// amazon.com/affiliate/index.html

would list all the pages from within the /affiliate/ area of Amazon. This can be a useful way to find all the pages from your web site, if it resides within someone else's domain.

Site Search
To locate all the URLs listed from a particular web site, use the "host:" command, such as:

host:amazon.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.amazon.com

would bring back only the pages AltaVista has found from Amazon with the www prefix. However, Amazon can also be reached without the www prefix. In fact, this is the more common way that people come to Amazon. 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.

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: amazon.com/affiliate/index.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:amazon.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:amazon.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. This is explained more in the URL Search section of the Power Searching For Anyone page.

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:improvedsearchresults.com improvedsearchresults

would bring up all (or nearly all) of the pages Google lists from Amazon.com, because all the pages should have the word "Amazon" 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.

Advanced Operators
Google supports several advanced operators, which are query words that have special meaning to Google. Typically these operators modify the search in some way, or even tell Google to do a totally different type of search. For instance, "link:" is a special operator, and the query [link:www.google.com] doesn't do a normal search but instead finds all web pages that have links to www.google.com. Several of the more common operators use punctuation instead of words, or do not require a colon. Among these operators are OR, "" (the quote operator), - (the minus operator), and + (the plus operator). More information on these types of operators is available on the Basics of Search page.

Many of these special operators are accessible from the Advanced Search page, but some are not. Below is a list of all the special operators Google supports.

Alternate Query Types
cache:
The query [cache:] will show the version of the web page that Google has in its cache. For instance, [cache:www.google.com] will show Google's cache of the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "cache:" and the web page url. If you include other words in the query, Google will highlight those words within the cached document. For instance, [cache:www.google.com web] will show the cached content with the word "web" highlighted. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Cached" link on Google's main results page.

link:
The query [link:] will list webpages that have links to the specified webpage. For instance, [link:www.google.com] will list webpages that have links pointing to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "link:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Links.

related:
The query [related:] will list web pages that are "similar" to a specified web page. For instance, [related:www.google.com] will list web pages that are similar to the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "related:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible by clicking on the "Similar Pages" link on Google's main results page, and from the Advanced Search page, under Page Specific Search > Similar.

info:
The query [info:] will present some information that Google has about that web page. For instance, [info:www.google.com] will show information about the Google homepage. Note there can be no space between the "info:" and the web page url. This functionality is also accessible by typing the web page url directly into a Google search box.

stocks:
If you begin a query with the [stocks:] operator, Google will treat the rest of the query terms as stock ticker symbols, and will link to a page showing stock information for those symbols. For instance, [stock: intc yhoo] will show information about Intel and Yahoo. (Note you must type the ticker symbols, not the company name.) This functionality is also available if you search just on the stock symbols (e.g. [ intc yhoo ]) and then click on the "Show stock quotes" link on the results page.

Query Modifiers
site:
If you include [site:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to those websites in the given domain. For instance, [help site:www.google.com] will find pages about help within www.google.com. [help site:com] will find pages about help within .com urls. Note there can be no space between the "site:" and the domain. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Domains.

allintitle:
If you start a query with [allintitle:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the title. For instance, [allintitle: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the title. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.

intitle:
If you include [intitle:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the title. For instance, [intitle:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their title, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (title or no). Note there can be no space between the "intitle:" and the following word. Putting [intitle:] in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting [allintitle:] at the front of your query: [intitle:google intitle:search] is the same as [allintitle: google search].

allinurl:
If you start a query with [allinurl:], Google will restrict the results to those with all of the query words in the url. For instance, [allinurl: google search] will return only documents that have both "google" and "search" in the url. Note that [allinurl:] works on words, not url components. In particular, it ignores punctuation. Thus, [allinurl: foo/bar] will restrict the results to page with the words "foo" and "bar" in the url, but won't require that they be separated by a slash within that url, that they be adjacent, or that they be in that particular word order. There is currently no way to enforce these constraints. This functionality is also available through Advanced Search page, under Advanced Web Search > Occurrences.

inurl:
If you include [inurl:] in your query, Google will restrict the results to documents containing that word in the url. For instance, [inurl:google search] will return documents that mention the word "google" in their url, and mention the word "search" anywhere in the document (url or no). Note there can be no space between the "inurl:" and the following word. Putting "inurl:" in front of every word in your query is equivalent to putting "allinurl:" at the front of your query: [inurl:google inurl:search] is the same as [allinurl: google search].

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.

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:// amazon.com/affiliate/index.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:
• AOL Search
• GoTo
• HotBot

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:amazon.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:amazon.com originurlpath:affiliates

This would find pages from within the /affiliate/ area of Amazon.com. In other words, everything within this area would be listed:

http://amazon.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:amazon.com

That would bring up any pages from Yahoo's human-compiled listings that contain "amazon.com" within the URL, if it is done from the Yahoo Directory page, as opposed to the regular Yahoo home page (which brings back Google results). 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 "amazon.com" or "amazon," 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.