Checking your listing in Search Engine

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://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.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://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/


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

host:searchenginewatch.com

Use only the actual domain name. Omit the http:// prefix. Also, be aware that using the www prefix can make a difference.

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:searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.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:searchenginewatch.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:searchenginewatch.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.

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:searchenginewatch.com searchenginewatch
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://searchenginewatch.com/webmasters/meta.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:searchenginewatch.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.
Checking your listing in 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 need 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:searchenginewatch.com

That would bring up any pages from Yahoo's human-compiled listings that contain "searchenginewatch.com" within the URL

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 "searchenginewatch.com" or "searchenginewatch," 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:

http://submit.looksmart.com/info.jhtml?page=find