YouTube is one of the world’s largest video-sharing platforms, and it has over two billion active users a month, making it an essential source of information and entertainment for the majority of people. However, finding specific videos on YouTube can be a daunting task, especially if you’re not using the right search operators. While YouTube’s standard search feature allows users to input keywords and phrases, using advanced search operators will help you narrow down your search and find precisely what you’re looking for much faster.

Therefore, in this article, we’ll explore how to search YouTube like a pro using advanced search operators.

1. Use Quotation Marks

Using quotation marks while searching will narrow down the search results for exact phrases. For example, if you’re looking for a video titled “How to bake a chocolate cake,” type “How to bake a chocolate cake” in the YouTube search bar, and the results will show the videos that contain the exact phrase.

2. Exclude Words

You can also use the minus (-) sign to exclude a word while searching for a video on YouTube. For example, if you want to search for videos about dogs but want to exclude videos about dog breeds, type “dogs -breeds” in the search bar. This will exclude any videos that mention the word “breeds” and only show videos related to dogs.

3. Include Words

Using the plus (+) sign before a word will include videos with that specific word in the search results. For example, if you want to search for videos about “healthy eating” and you want to include videos that mention the word “vegan,” you can type “healthy eating +vegan” in the search bar.

4. Search for Channels

If you’re looking for videos specifically from a particular channel, you can use the “channel:” operator in your YouTube search. For instance, type “channel:[channel name]” in the search bar and press enter. This will bring up all the videos from the specified channel.

5. Search for Specific Dates

If you’re looking to find videos from a specific date range, you can use the “today,” “week,” “month,” or “year” operators. For example, if you’re searching for videos related to the presidential debate that took place in September 2020, type “presidential debate September 2020” and search.

6. Search for Multiple Keywords

By default, YouTube’s search engine looks for videos with all your input keywords. However, using the “OR” operator in between keywords will show results for any of the keywords entered. For instance, if you’re searching for videos of either puppies or kittens, you can type “puppies OR kittens” in the search bar.