Gary Illyes and Lizzi Harvey published a new Google Search developer help document on an overview of of Google search operators. This document differs from the existing one in that it is more focused on what SEOs should be aware of in regards to these search operator limitations.

Here is the announcement tweets on this new document:

Now, at the top of this new document, it mentions “Because search operators are bound by indexing and retrieval limits, the URL Inspection tool in Search Console is more reliable for debugging purposes.”

What is an example of “indexing and retrieval limits”? Well, an example came up on Twitter where Gary explained “unfortunately all search operators are heavily affected by our systems’ retrieval limits.” Gary added that this is less visible on large sites than smaller sites.

Here is the example operator:

Google does want to add more details to this page, so they said use the submit feedback button to suggest edits or how you as SEOs use these operators.

Here is a screenshot of the page today so we have it:

Forum discussion at Twitter.