Can you hire Google to work for you?

Yes, you can. Better yet, it’s free! Obviously, we can all use Google to find the information we need online but few of us really take advantage of all that Google has to offer.

Google provides literally hundreds of online services free of charge. We could never cover them all in one short chapter. But there are a few basic things that can help you squeeze a lot more out of Google than you’ve probably been doing so far.

First, there are a number of codes you can use in Google to refine your search. You can tell Google which types of websites you want to search for (.com, .net, .edu, .gov, etc.) and you can also specify the types of files you’re looking for (pdf, doc, xls, ppt, etc.). How can you leverage these options to your advantage?

The next time you’re looking for a particular PDF ebook or report, search for a couple relevant keywords along with:

filetype:pdf

Doing so will restrict the search to PDF files that include the keywords you included. That can dramatically accelerate your search and may deliver a number of other related PDF files as well. Every time I do this, I end up finding PDF files I never knew about, but that end up benefiting the cause.

The next time you need to make a presentation about a particular topic, search for relevant keywords along with:

filetype:ppt

You’ll find Powerpoint presentations that have been posted online, ready for you to open and learn from. Many of the design elements I use in my Powerpoint presentations were inspired by other presentations I found on Google.

If you want to identify and interact with websites with the .edu extension, do a search for your relevant keywords along with:

site:.edu

Yes, you do need the dot when referring to website extensions.

This code will restrict the search findings to .edu websites, once again accelerating your research process. Also, a lot of people believe that links from .edu websites are more valuable from a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective so this code can help you find possible linking opportunities quickly. We’ll talk about this more in Chapter 30.

One of my favorite free online tools is Google Alerts. Just search for “google alerts” on Google to find it. Using this platform, you can enter keywords (as well as the codes discussed above), and have Google send you emails any time websites matching your search query show up on the internet. Here are four of my favorites alerts:

conference “call for speakers” -scientific -academic
conference speaker submit proposal -scientific -academic

convention “call for speakers” -scientific -academic
convention speaker submit proposal -scientific -academic

Let’s take a closer look. I’m looking for websites that issue an opportunity for speakers to submit presentation proposals. They generally do so by either posting a “call for speakers” or they include the words “speaker,” “submit” and “proposal.”

By putting quotation marks around “call for speakers,” I am restricting the search to websites that include those three words together, exactly as I have them inside the quotation marks. If I didn’t use those quotation marks, the alert would deliver websites with the words “call,” “for” and “speakers” in any order, reducing the relevance for my search intentions.

I have also added “scientific” and “academic” with a negative sign in from of them. This format tells Google that I am not interested in results that contain these words. There are tons of conferences and conventions that cater to the scientific community. My topic isn’t relevant to that audience so I eliminate those results from my alerts.

Every single day, Google emails me with search results that are relevant and important to me. I hear about conferences as soon as they’re announced. Often, my speaker submission is among the first they receive.

Think about how you can use the same system to fuel your own business. Test different search queries and refine them over time. Before long, Google will be feeding you new leads on a daily basis.

Author Bio: Patrick is the author of \”Marketing Shortcuts for the Self-Employed\” (2011, Wiley) and a regular speaker for Bloomberg TV. Watch his video about using Google codes and alerts on YouTube.

Category: Business
Keywords: patrick,schwerdtfeger,google,codes,alerts