Real-Time Source Filtering
Real-Time Source Filtering adds filtering capabilities to our real-time data feature. You can now filter sources based on your specific needs, allowing you to only get data from and cite sources based on your criteria.
Want to only cite domains with a Domain Authority over 80? No problem. What about only gov and edu domains? Yep! Even sources that are only available on Google Scholar such as research papers? Don't worry, we got you
By default, Real-Time Source Filtering uses all of the top-ranking pages in the SERP, and the behavior is the same as before. However, with this new feature, you can now choose to filter sources based on specific criteria.
There are three filtering options available with Real-Time Source Filtering:
Default: This option uses all of the top-ranking pages in the SERP and behaves the same as before.
Scholarly: This option only uses sources available on Google Scholar.
Custom: This option allows you to put in your own search operators.
To use Custom Filtering, you can put in your own search operators. The only supported operators are site, filetype, and da.
The site operator can be used to specifically include or exclude individual sites or entire TLDs. For example, site:example.com will only include sources from example.com, while -site:example.com will not include sources from example.com.
The filetype operator is used for filtering by the file types. For example, filetype:pdf will only include PDFs, while -filetype:pdf will not include any PDFs. Here is a full list of filetypes that you should be able to get results for.
The da operator is used to filter by the site’s Domain Authority score. For example, da:80 only matches sites with a Domain Authority of 80 or higher, while da:20-60 matches sites with a Domain Authority of 20 through 60. If you want to show sites with a DA below 50 you could do da:0-50.
Not sure what Domain Authority a site has? You can use the new /da url command in KoalaChat to check:
There are some important things to keep in mind if you want to use more than one filter at once.
To use the same filter type you must use the word "OR" between the operators. You should not use "OR" between different search operators.
Also, the da filter can only be used once in your custom search operators.
This is okay:
site:gov filetype:pdf: Will only match PDFs on government websites
site:gov OR site:edu filetype:pdf: Will only match PDFs on government OR educational sites
filetype:PDF OR filetype:xls OR filetype:xlsx: Will only match PDFs or Excel documents
This is not okay:
site:gov site:edu: A site cannot be a .gov at the same time, so this will not match anything
filetype:pdf filetype:xls: A page cannot be a PDF and an Excel document at the same time
da:0-20 OR da:80: You can only use the da filter once
We do not support all of the functionality that Google Search supports but you could test your custom search operators with Google Search to make sure you are getting any results. Also keep in mind Google Search does not support our custom da filter so don't use that when testing on Google.
Also, do not try to do nested logic by using parenthesis such as (filetype:xls site:gov) OR (filetype:pdf site:edu) because this will not work.
The da filter matches domains after the search results have been returned. So if there are not enough results that match the da filter within the top ~30 search results, then it could result in no real-time data being used. As a result, you should not set filters that are too strict.
For example, I would probably not recommend filtering by da:0-20 since not many sites below 20 Domain Authority will be at the top of the SERPs for a lot of queries. You might try da:0-50 instead to make sure you still get some real-time data without including any high Domain Authority sites.
It should also be noted that the Domain Authority will be cached for up to 90 days.
Domain Authority is powered by Moz.
Want to only cite domains with a Domain Authority over 80? No problem. What about only gov and edu domains? Yep! Even sources that are only available on Google Scholar such as research papers? Don't worry, we got you
By default, Real-Time Source Filtering uses all of the top-ranking pages in the SERP, and the behavior is the same as before. However, with this new feature, you can now choose to filter sources based on specific criteria.
There are three filtering options available with Real-Time Source Filtering:
Default: This option uses all of the top-ranking pages in the SERP and behaves the same as before.
Scholarly: This option only uses sources available on Google Scholar.
Custom: This option allows you to put in your own search operators.
Using Custom Filtering
To use Custom Filtering, you can put in your own search operators. The only supported operators are site, filetype, and da.
The site operator can be used to specifically include or exclude individual sites or entire TLDs. For example, site:example.com will only include sources from example.com, while -site:example.com will not include sources from example.com.
The filetype operator is used for filtering by the file types. For example, filetype:pdf will only include PDFs, while -filetype:pdf will not include any PDFs. Here is a full list of filetypes that you should be able to get results for.
The da operator is used to filter by the site’s Domain Authority score. For example, da:80 only matches sites with a Domain Authority of 80 or higher, while da:20-60 matches sites with a Domain Authority of 20 through 60. If you want to show sites with a DA below 50 you could do da:0-50.
Not sure what Domain Authority a site has? You can use the new /da url command in KoalaChat to check:
Combining Filters
There are some important things to keep in mind if you want to use more than one filter at once.
To use the same filter type you must use the word "OR" between the operators. You should not use "OR" between different search operators.
Also, the da filter can only be used once in your custom search operators.
This is okay:
site:gov filetype:pdf: Will only match PDFs on government websites
site:gov OR site:edu filetype:pdf: Will only match PDFs on government OR educational sites
filetype:PDF OR filetype:xls OR filetype:xlsx: Will only match PDFs or Excel documents
This is not okay:
site:gov site:edu: A site cannot be a .gov at the same time, so this will not match anything
filetype:pdf filetype:xls: A page cannot be a PDF and an Excel document at the same time
da:0-20 OR da:80: You can only use the da filter once
We do not support all of the functionality that Google Search supports but you could test your custom search operators with Google Search to make sure you are getting any results. Also keep in mind Google Search does not support our custom da filter so don't use that when testing on Google.
Also, do not try to do nested logic by using parenthesis such as (filetype:xls site:gov) OR (filetype:pdf site:edu) because this will not work.
Notes About the “da” Filter
The da filter matches domains after the search results have been returned. So if there are not enough results that match the da filter within the top ~30 search results, then it could result in no real-time data being used. As a result, you should not set filters that are too strict.
For example, I would probably not recommend filtering by da:0-20 since not many sites below 20 Domain Authority will be at the top of the SERPs for a lot of queries. You might try da:0-50 instead to make sure you still get some real-time data without including any high Domain Authority sites.
It should also be noted that the Domain Authority will be cached for up to 90 days.
Domain Authority is powered by Moz.
Updated on: 17/07/2024
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