Local & International Google SERP Checker

how to use

1. Select the region & language you would like to use (e.g. Canada - English)
2. Enter the location you want and hit "geocode".
3. Type a query and hit return or press "search".

good to know

The easiest way to see where Google believes you are is to search for [where am i] (without brackets). You should see a Google Maps Onebox showing your location on the map. Also: If you scroll to the end of the desktop search result page, Google tells you which location it uses.

important background

End of October 2017 Google decided to make search results more local and relevant by using your location data and disabling ccTLDs. This means that you can not use e.g google.com.br (Brazil) in the U.S. to see brazilian search results. As a sideeffect you can use any Google-ccTLD (e.g. google.com and google.de) and will see the same results

There are multiple ways to get around this. The most realistic way is probably to use a VPN to change your IP-adress and therefor your perceived location (drawback: this will cost you money most probably). You also may use the Chrome DevTools "Sensors" geolocation option (drawbacks: this doesn't change the language and is quite tedious if you want to check a lot of places). You also could use my Chrome Plugin gs location changer (drawbacks: Chrome-only and permissions to google.com-data of your browser).

Thanks to a tweet from @Aleyda Solis about the Chrome Sensor option, which sparked a lot of replies, I found out about the possibility to use the GET-parameters UULE (location), hl (host language) and gl (geo location). @maxxeight is already providing a tool I used as a blueprint for this app. The biggest difference as far as I can tell are that this tool enables you to setup a location with much bigger precision and provides a larger list of country/region options. I'd like to stress that without his preexisting work this tool would not be possible.

feedback welcome

If you like this tool, experience any problems, have ideas for upgrades or just want to say hi, feel free to contact me on Mastodon @VorticonCmdr.