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Consumer
Change

If you carry out a Google search now, it will use a variety of data (including your current IP address, registered address on your Google account, etc.) to give you search results that it believes may be useful. Most of the time, the results will be useful. However, sometimes you might want to fool Google into thinking youâre located somewhere else.
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You may need to trick Google into believing youâre in a completely different location for many reasons. If youâre an SEO professional or digital marketer, you may wish to know how your website performs in local searches. If you plan to travel to a certain area, you may need localised results for that area, rather than wherever youâre located now.
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This guide will introduce you to some tricks you can use to fool Google. We'll call this an advanced guide, youâll be surprised at how easy it is to use many of these tricks. Some should take no more than a couple of seconds to get up and running, meaning that you can switch between your fake locations at will.
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How Google Determines Where Youâre Located
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Google is all about ensuring people get the most relevant search results. After all, the whole reason people use Google is to search for things relevant to them. If Google started dishing out poor search results, their business would crumble quickly.
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This is why Google is always working hard to try to determine where you currently are (or where youâre likely to be). It uses tons of pieces of data for this, including:
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- Any addresses that you may have linked to your Google account.
- Any activity that youâve carried out across the suite of Google products.
- Your IP address.
- The location of the device youâre using. This can mean looking at the Wi-Fi connection, cell phone tower triangulation, and GPS data.
- Your work and home location on Google Maps. Google may also consider places youâve visited.
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Interestingly, Googleâs search results are highly tailored to the searcher. There are so many data points used to determine your location, your search results could be completely different from the search results of somebody seated next to you.
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On Google, only the first page or so of the search results will be highly tailored to the searcher. The deeper you get into the search results, the less localised they become. However, as all internet marketing experts know, most people wonât look beyond the first page. This is why, if youâre trying to get a website ranked in the local searches, you need to keep tabs on where it appears in each specific location.
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This means that it is time to start fooling Google. As we said â it is much easier than you may think!
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Add a Search Parameter to the URL
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This is a rather basic trick, and it may not be suitable for every situation. However, if you want to quickly manipulate the search results to give you âlocalised resultsâ for a different area, then all you need to do is add a couple of extra URL Parameters to the end of the Google search URL.
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So, what do you need to add? Well, just â&near={cityname}
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Hereâs how it works
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- Carry out a Google search like normal. Let the results page appear.

     2. Look at the URL bar at the top of the screen. Itâll be rather long, but thatâs fine. Scroll to the end of the text (donât delete any!)
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      3. Add â&near=citynameâ without the quotation marks. Replace the city name with the city youâre searching for. For example, if you wanted to make the search localised to Orlando, then you would add â&near=Orlandoâ to the end.

- Open the new URL in your web browser.
By switching up the search parameters on Google, youâll have a wealth of control over the results Google dishes out. Weâve written a guide to advanced search operators for SEO. If you want to find out more advanced ways to switch up Google search results, then have a read of that page.Â
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Changing Your Regional Settings on Google
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This method will allow you to shake up the search results at a country level. For example, if youâre in the US, then you can switch up the regional settings on Google to give you results that would be more local to Sweden (or any other country, for that matter).
Hereâs how to do it:
- Head to Google.com

      2. At the bottom of the page, look for âSettingsâ, and click it.

      3. Select âSearch Settingsâ from the pop-up.

      4. A new page will now appear. Select âOther Settingsâ

      5. Select âLanguage and Region

     6. Change the settings as you see fit.


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Google does switch up how their settings work occasionally, so the steps here may not be 100% accurate by the time you read this. However, youâll always be able to access the âSettingâ pages from Google.com, so it probably wonât take you long to hunt down the new method for switching up your regional settings.
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Managing Work and Home Locations on Google Maps
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Not many people know this, but Google tries to determine where you live and work. It does this by looking at your GPS data, where you are at certain times per day and for how long, and then plotting this on a map. If you went to your Google account right now, it would probably give you a rough idea of where you live, even if you have never told Google.
Of course, Google knows that it can be wrong, so the home and work locations can be manually edited, which should change your Google search results a bit. Hereâs how to do it (note: it is easier if you do this from your computer, rather than your phone):
- Head to http://account.google.com
- Sign into your Google account

      2. Select âPersonal Infoâ

      3. Select âAddressesâ

      4. Edit the âHomeâ and âWorkâ address that you want your Google account to use for searches.

      5. Hit âSaveâ

It is all well and good doing this once, but changing your addresses on Google takes a few minutes each time. It isnât practical to frequently change your address on Google for multiple locations. So, only do this if you want to check out one location (and youâll switch right back), but if you need to check multiple cities/countries, then one of the other methods will likely be more viable.
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Using Google Chrome Developer Tools
If youâre using Google Chrome, and you almost certainly should be using Google Chrome when switching up your location for Google, you can use Chromeâs in-built DevTools.
You can do a lot with Google Chromeâs DevTools. However, weâre going to use it to switch up your location settings in your browser. In fact, weâll use these tools to fool Google into believing we are anywhere in the world.
Hereâs how you do it:
- Open Google Chrome (on your computer)
- Select the three-dot âsettingsâ menu in the top right-hand corner.

      3. Select âMore Toolsâ

      4. Select âDeveloper Toolsâ

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      5. At the top of the new frame that appears, youâll see multiple tabs. Click the three dots in this frame (to the right). This will open a new menu. From here select âMore Toolsâ and then âSensorsâ

      6. Down to the bottom of the page, youâll now see the âLocationâ tab.

      7. From here, you can select a pre-programmed city (many major cities from around the world) or input the latitude and longitude of the area you want. You can easily find the latitude and longitude online.

This will now give you Google search results as if youâre located in one of those areasâŠbut only if youâre using Google Chrome.
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Using Google Ads Preview and Diagnosis Tool
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If youâve got a Google AdWords account, you can use the Ads Preview and Diagnosis Tool. This tool is designed for people who want to check whether their ads are displaying properly on Google, but you can also use it to get more localised search results.
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Hereâs how you do it
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- Head to https://ads.google.com/aw/diagnostic/AdPreview.
- Sign into your Google account.
- On the menu that appears, you can now adjust the search term, location, language, etc.

      4. Click âShareâ

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This will now display the search results as per the parameters you set.
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Using Valentin.app
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Valentin.app is a free tool that will let you see localised search results. It is pretty self-explanatory to use, but weâll give you a quick overview:
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- Go to https://valentin.app/

      2. In âKeywordâ type the keyword youâre searching for.

      3. Select the âLanguageâ in the box below.

      4. Type the address (or city) in the box below that and press âGeocodeâ. This will input the geographic code for that area.

      5. Select âSearchâ

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Using a VPN to Change Your Location
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Finally, you can use a VPN (e.g. NordVPN) to mask your true location, and make it appear as if youâre located in a completely different city or country. It works, but it may not always be the best option. Even the most extensive VPNs will only cover major towns/cities, which means that you may not be able to get real search results for a smaller town/location in the middle of nowhere.
Basically, the results can be somewhat hit-or-miss here. We, personally, do not use VPNs to change our location for Google search purposes. Not unless we need to check the search results in a major town or city and, even then, Google has thrown up some rather odd results.
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Final Thoughts
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Weâve given you a comprehensive list of methods to help you change your location in the eyes of Google, which should make your SEO and internet marketing jobs a little easier. Try out a few of these methods, and we believe that youâll find at least one method that works for you and your workflow.
We know that there may be other methods that some of you use. So, feel free to share your experiences with us in the comments, and donât be afraid to share a few additional methods you have used too. Weâre always happy to learn more!
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Reference Sources
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- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/see-google-search-results-different-location/294829/
- https://valentin.app/Â
- https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/148778?hl=en#:~:text=The%20Ad%20Preview%20and%20Diagnosis,ad%20for%20a%20particular%20keyword.Â
- https://www.searchenginejournal.com/chrome-devtools-seo-troubleshooting/387494/
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