Learn how to use Google's Advanced Search Operators to find the best websites and bloggers to connect with and grow your presence online through link building and guest blog posting.

Struggling to find other mental health therapist bloggers out there to connect with?  Perhaps you’re looking to publish a guest blog post on another therapist’s website with the dual aim of building a professional connect and building a quality, relevant link back to your website.

Let’s walk through what are called “Google Advanced Search Operators” and don’t worry, while they sound complex, they are really simple.

First, we’re going to explain what and how Google Advanced Search Operators work conceptually:  what they do for you as a mental health therapist and why you should use them.

Then we’ll dive into some real examples and show you exactly how to use this tactic to find other mental health professionals covering topics similar to your own.

Google Advanced Search Operators:  What Are They?

Google advanced search operators (henceforth GASEs) are a set of symbolic indicators that tell Google (and other major search engines) how to filter your search queries.

In most cases, Google will crawl its enormous index of websites in order to serve you what it thinks are the highest quality, most relevant results to your search query (what you type into to Google to search).

This is Google’s bread and butter and it’s a mighty fine service so for the most part, GASEs are not needed for the layperson looking to simply do some research or buy something online.

However, using GASEs can help the highly sophisticated searcher (you!) better filter search results for highly specific queries.

Why Use Google Advanced Search Operators for Mental Health Search Engine Optimization

You know by now how important SEO to spread your message online, increase exposure to your brand and practice, and ultimately to increase the number of your clients… or better yet, increase the number of your ideal clients.  (PS.  For a primer on SEO, click the following link:  SEO 101 for Mental Health Therapists).

You know that you need a dual focus on your website content–what pages, articles, and contact information you have on your site–and the links and endorsements you get from other relevant, authoritative therapists within your niche.

Learning how to use GASEs will help you find the best bloggers to connect with in order to build quality connections to your website.

Want to learn the tactical, specific steps?  Keep reading.  (Also, we share SEO case studies, marketing tips, and private practice growth guides in our free private newsletter.  You can join at the end of this article).

The Definitive List of Advanced Search Operators

Let’s begin by going through how using certain punctuation within search results will effect your queries.  Each operator is covered below, showing punctuation and its associated effect, along with an example and “why should I use it”.

Exclusion:

Operator:  – sign

Associated Effect:  Removes keywords, websites, and content contained within search results.

Example:  Mental Health SEO Tips -denny -chapin

What Example Does:  Shows results for articles about “mental health SEO tips” and ensures that I, Denny Chapin, haven’t written them!

Phrase Specific Search:

Operator:  “”

Associated Effect:  Ensures the order in which words are placed remains consistent.

Example:  “Food for cats”

What Example Does:  This makes sure that Google doesn’t show me any other combinations of the keywords “food” “for” “cats”, e.g., “cats for food” or “cats food for” or “food cats for”.  Important if you are using general phrases and need to get specific / when word order matters.

Site Search:

Operator:  site:

Associated Effect:  Online includes results from a certain website.

Example:  site:therathink.com SEO tips

What Example Does:  Only shows articles containing “SEO Tips” from TheraThink.com

Link Search:

Operator: link:

Associated Effect:  Find websites that link to a certain website.

Example:  link:therathink.com/blog mental health

What Example Does:  Finds websites that link to the TheraThink blog that contain the keywords “mental” “health”.

Related Search:

Operator: related:

Associated Effect:  Find websites Google deems related to the URL you’ve entered.

Example:  related:therathink.com/blog mental health

What Example Does:  Finds websites related to the TheraThink blog that contain the keywords “mental” “health”.

You Can Combine Advanced Search Operators for Highly Sophisticated Queries!

Here are some ridiculous, specific examples (before we get into some that you can use for guest blogging within the mental health industry):

Find organic dog food recipes from websites like petco but not from petco itself:

“organic dog food recipes related:petco.com -site:petco.com”

Find a babysitter in your area but make sure it isn’t Betty Badsitter:

babysitters in 98104 -“betty badsitter”

Find a babysitter in your area who isn’t Betty Badsitter and who isn’t on urbansitters.com:

babysitters in 98104 -“betty badsitter” -site:urbansitters.com

Combinations galore!  As you can imagine, you can get very nitty gritty and detailed and when we’re looking to find websites to promote our content on, this is exactly what we’re going to do!

Mental Health Guest Blog Posting Case Study

For the sake of these examples, we’re going to assume that your name is Susan Smith, your website is susansmiththerapy.com, and you practice in San Francisco, specializing in Dual Diagnosis.  Please make sure to use your own name, your own website, your own location, and your specialties!

(If this is simply too complex, drop us a line and we’ll see if we can help!)

We’re also going to assume the following:

• You do not want to guest blog post on therapist websites within your area
• You do want to focus on your specialty: dual diagnosis
• You do not want to see results written by yourself
• You do not want to see results from your website

Okay!  Let’s begin with general queries and eventually get to the super-specific, longer, more complex queries (which utilize our new GASE knowledge!).

Find Therapists Writing About Your Specialty

dual diagonsis mental health

Find Other Therapists Writing About Your Specialty

dual diagnosis mental health -“susan smith”

Find Other Therapists Writing About Your Specialty Outside Your City

dual diagnosis mental health -“susan smith” -“san francisco”

…Outside Your City, Not On Your Website

dual diagnosis mental health -“susan smith” -site:susansmiththerapy.com -“san francisco”

…Making Sure The Article Isn’t on PsychologyToday or PsychCentral

dual diagnosis mental health -“susan smith” -site:susansmiththerapy.com -“san francisco” -site:pscyhologytoday.com -site:psychcentral.com

…Related To An Article You Wrote

dual diagnosis mental health -“susan smith” -site:susansmiththerapy.com -“san francisco” -site:pscyhologytoday.com -site:psychcentral.com related:susansmiththerapy.com/dual-diagnosis-evaluation-guide

And, as you can imagine, the list can go on and on and on!

Conclusion

You’ve learned how to use Google Advanced Search Operators to finely filter search results on a conceptual level, know the operators to effect searches and how to use them, and how to apply all this knowledge to find the best blogs to connect to.

So get out there and start typing some super long search queries!  Find some bloggers and reach out and offer to write for their audience!  And let us know in the comments below if you’re wondering how best to do so, we’d love to lend a hand (or write an article!).

If you found this information useful, you can join our newsletter below for future tips, strategies, and tactics to grow your presence online.

Until next time.