Google: We Did Not Remove The Link Command/Operator

Feb 12, 2016 - 7:52 am 10 by

Chalkboard9 Google 1900px

Last night, Bill Hartzer spotted that the link operator, i.e. [link:www.seroundtable.com] no longer returns results. Well, he is right, for some domains but for others, it does seem to work.

Google Link No Results

But for sites like [link:searchengineland.com] it does work:

Google Link Yes Results

In short, it works for yahoo.com, msn.com, twitter.com, facebook.com, homedepot.com and many others. It does not work for google.com, youtube.com, hotmail.com and many others.

Google did remove the link operator details from their search operators help page a couple weeks ago.

But Google's Gary Illyes said on Twitter this morning that the link operator has not been removed:

I did email press at Google yesterday but have not heard back on the long answer, when I do, I'll share those details at Search Engine Land.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: July 18, 2025

Jul 18, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google June Core Update Done, Local Ranking Update, AI Mode Updates & AI Calling Businesses

Jul 18, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Maps

New Google Business Profile Check Edit Status

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google: Login Service Pages Are Hard To Rank In Search

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google AI Overviews For Movie Queries

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Rolling Out Smart Bidding Exploration To Some Advertisers

Jul 18, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google AdWords Revises Automated Bidding Workflow