site: search operator

A site: query is a search operator that allows you to request search results from the particular domain, URL, or URL prefix specified in the operator. For example:

site: examples
site:example.com	Show results only from the example.com domain ( www.example.com and recipes.example.com ).
site:https://www.example.com/ramen tsukemen	Shows results for pages that contain URLs that start with https://www.example.com/ramen and are relevant to the term tsukemen.

The site: search operator is available on all Google Search properties.

Uses for site owners

A site: query can help in a few ways with debugging a site. A few examples:

site: examples
site:example.com	Returns a list of indexed and serving URLs.
site:https://example.com/recipes/tsukemen.html	May help you understand whether a specific URL is indexed and served.
site:example.com viagra casino	Helps with identifying and monitoring spam problems on your site.
site:https://example.com/ lemon	Shows which URLs on the site can show up for the term "lemon".
site:https://example.com/recipes/tsukemen.html lemon	Shows whether the specific URL is indexed for the term "lemon".

Limitations

The site: operator was designed primarily for search users and so it has some restrictions that site owners might find limiting. Specifically:

• The site: operator doesn't necessarily return all the URLs that are indexed under the prefix specified in the query. Keep this in mind if you want to use the site: operator for tasks like identifying how many URLs are indexed and serving under a prefix.
• A site: operator without a query (for example site:example.com ) doesn't rank the results. It will generally show the shortest URL for the prefix at the top, but otherwise the results are relatively random.