X-Ray Search Tool

How a Google X-ray search works

An X-ray search uses Google to look inside one website. Instead of searching LinkedIn with LinkedIn's own search bar, you ask Google to return only pages from linkedin.com/in that contain the words you need. Google has already read millions of public profiles, so a well-built string finds people that a free LinkedIn account would hide behind search limits, without logging in to anything.

Every string has the same four parts:

1. The site: site:linkedin.com/in for profiles, site:github.com for developers, or filetype:pdf for CVs.
2. The titles, in quotes and joined with OR, because the same job has several names: ("account executive" OR "sales executive").
3. The context: a location, a skill, an industry. Each word you add narrows the results.
4. The exclusions, with a minus sign: -recruiter -intern keeps the people who post jobs about the role out of the list of people who do it.

The X-ray search tool above writes these four parts in the right order, puts the quotes and brackets where Google expects them, and warns you when the string gets too long for Google to read.

Search operators: the cheat sheet

Six operators cover almost every search of this kind. Google supports more, but these are the ones that change results reliably.

Two habits save most failed searches. Write OR in capitals, otherwise Google reads it as a word. And quote every multi-word title: without quotes, sales manager also returns a manager who once worked in sales.

Ready-made strings you can adapt

Five strings that work as they are. Change the titles and the city, keep the structure.

• Sales: site:linkedin.com/in ("account executive" OR "sales executive" OR "business development manager") ("London" OR "Manchester") saas -recruiter -intern
• Engineering: site:linkedin.com/in ("backend engineer" OR "software engineer") ("Berlin" OR "Munich") golang -recruiter -student
• Data: site:linkedin.com/in ("data engineer" OR "analytics engineer") "New York" dbt -recruiter
• Developers on GitHub: site:github.com "Toronto" rust, then open the profiles that list a company.
• CVs: filetype:pdf (cv OR resume) ("product designer" OR "UX designer") "Amsterdam" figma

If a string returns too many results, add one keyword at a time. If it returns too few, remove the location first: people write their city in many ways, and the location is the part of a profile that is most often missing.

Choosing job title synonyms

The most common reason a search misses good people is the title list. Companies name the same job in different ways, and people describe themselves in their own words. A head of sales can be a "VP Sales", a "Sales Director" or a "Head of Revenue". Three habits help:

• Start from real profiles. Open three or four profiles of people you would hire and copy the exact titles they use. They are better synonyms than the ones you would guess.
• Cover seniority separately. "senior software engineer" and "software engineer" are different phrases for Google. If seniority matters, list both; if it does not, keep the shorter one, since it also matches the longer.
• Mind the language. In France, Germany or Spain many profiles mix English and local titles. A search for French sales leads needs "business developer" and "commercial" in the same OR group.

Keep the list short. Each title adds words to the query, and Google reads only the first 32: the tool counts them and warns you before you reach the limit.

Does X-ray search still work on LinkedIn?

Yes, with limits that have grown over time. LinkedIn lets each member decide whether their profile is visible outside LinkedIn, and only those public profiles can be indexed by Google. Logged-out visitors who open a result may also hit a sign-in page. The search still returns names, titles and profile URLs; what it no longer gives you is a complete or perfectly fresh view of the market. Use it to find and size a pool of candidates or prospects, then confirm the details on the profile itself.

X-ray search beyond LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the default, but the same method works anywhere Google indexes public profiles. The tool offers the three that matter most for sourcing.

• GitHub (site:github.com): developers list their languages, location and sometimes their employer on their profile. Add a language as a keyword (python, golang) and a city.
• CVs and resumes (filetype:pdf with cv, resume or curriculum vitae): people publish their CV on personal sites and portfolios. Useful for niche roles, and the PDF usually carries an email address.
• LinkedIn company pages (site:linkedin.com/company): to build a list of target companies by industry and location before you look for people inside them.

What Google cannot find for you

Google only sees what a profile shows to the public, and only as of the last time it crawled the page. Three consequences: private profiles never appear, a recent job change can take weeks to show, and some fields (contact details, full experience) are not indexed at all. You get names and profile URLs, not contact details.

Google also protects itself. Run many advanced searches in a row and it shows a CAPTCHA, then slows you down. That is a limit of the method, not of the tool: space your searches out. Our guide to LinkedIn X-ray search covers these limits in detail, with eight ready-made sourcing strings.

X-ray search vs Boolean search vs LinkedIn search

The three are often confused. Boolean search is the logic (AND, OR, NOT, quotes, brackets) and works in many tools, including LinkedIn Recruiter and Sales Navigator. An X-ray search is Boolean logic run in Google, with site: pointing at another website. LinkedIn's own search uses its live data and filters, but a free account sees a limited number of results. X-ray costs nothing and needs no account; LinkedIn's paid tools are fresher and more precise. Many recruiters use X-ray first to size a pool, then a paid tool to work it.

From profile URLs to people you can contact

The search ends with a list of profile URLs. To reach those people you still need their current title, company and an email address. The recruitment sourcing guides cover the next steps, from building the list to the first message.