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

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: February 13, 2026

Feb 13, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Volatility, Bing AI Performance Reports, New AI Mode Retail Ads, UCP Checkout & ChatGPT Ads Go Live

Feb 13, 2026 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Where Are Those New Google Search Console Features?

Feb 13, 2026 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Product Eligibility View Across Campaigns

Feb 13, 2026 - 7:41 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Still Recommends You Focus On Visible Anchor Text For Links

Feb 13, 2026 - 7:31 am
Google Ads

Google Ads Recommended Experiments

Feb 13, 2026 - 7:21 am
 
Previous Story: Google AdWords Revises Automated Bidding Workflow