Wish to filter outcomes earlier than, or after a set date, or perhaps a desired date vary? There’s a Google search operator that will help you do exactly that.
The “earlier than:YYYY-MM-DD” and “after:YYYY-MM-DD” search operator instructions yield outcomes for earlier than, after, and throughout the dates specified.
The advantages of earlier than: and after: search operators for search engine optimization
Filtering queries by date offers SEOs a extra dynamic image of how their rankings (and people of their opponents) have risen or fallen over time.
Filtering by date can even assist make clear the influence that seasonality or breaking information could have in your content material’s efficiency. The addition of the earlier than: and after: instructions make it extra handy to entry this data.
Competitor analysis
Seen a change in your competitor rankings and traits in your monitoring instrument? Mix the web site: operator [competitor URL] and earlier than or after (or evaluate each outcomes units), to research modifications in outcomes returned earlier than after which after the date of adjusting pattern.
One other competitor intelligence gathering profit, should you suspect your competitor is “updating” content material by including the yr (e.g., 2024, 2025) to title tags on the finish of every yr, you should use the earlier than: operator to see if the content material existed, combining with “phrase” (citation marks to suggest precise key phrase or phrase) in earlier years, in the identical format.
The right way to use the earlier than: and after: search operators
From Google:
To get search outcomes earlier than a given date, add “earlier than:YYYY-MM-DD” to your search question. For instance, looking “one of the best donuts in Boston earlier than:2008-01-01” will yield content material from 2007 and earlier.
To get outcomes after a given date, add “after:YYYY-MM-DD” on the finish of your search. For instance, looking “high 10 horror films after:2018-12-31” will offer you outcomes that have been printed in 2019 and onward.
You possibly can mix each instructions to look inside a date vary. For instance, looking “one-hit wonders after:1999-12-31 earlier than:2001-01-01” will yield outcomes from the yr 2000.
Customers can even use dashes as an alternative of slashes in addition to single digits for months and days, or filter by simply the yr, making “earlier than:2001” equal to “earlier than:2001-01-01.”
Search by date has existed for greater than a decade. The search-by-date filter was launched in 2009. From its debut till only recently, the function was solely accessible from the Instruments tab of the search interface.
Wish to mix these command with different search operators to spice up your search expertise? Try the Search Engine Land information to superior search operators right here.
