How to Change Location for Google Search Results

1. Select “Inspect Element”

Firstly, enter your query and let the Google search result page load.

While viewing the search result, right click on the SERP and choose the “Inspect Element” option.

2. Select the Sensors Tab

After you’ve selected the “Inspect Element” option, the Chrome Developer Tools will appear. We’d be utilizing this in order to set different geographic locations.

Now, select the “Sensors Tab”.

In case the “Sensors Tab” is not visible, you’d have to enable it yourself.

To do that, click on the icon with three vertically aligned dots on it. From the menu that appears, select “More Tools” and then “Sensors”:

3. Click on Custom in the Geolocation Dropdown

Moving on, in the “Sensors Tab”, click on the “Geolocation” dropdown, and set it to “Custom”.

4. Open Google Maps

For the next step, you’d need to open a new tab in Google Chrome and load the Google Maps page.

Wondering why?

Well, because now you’d need to find out the degrees of longitude and latitude of the location that you want to set.

5. Check the Latitude and Longitude of Your Desired Location

To do this, search for the state and city of the location for which you’d like to get local search results.

Once you’ve performed the search in Google Maps, you’d be able to see the longitude and latitude of your desired location in the URL above.

6. Enter the Information on Google Search Results Page

Now that you have the complete location info, go back to the Google search results page.

Here, scroll down to go to the Geolocation section that you previously enabled.

In this section, you’d need to enter the longitude and latitude of the location that you just identified from Google Maps.

While you’re doing this, don’t forget to make sure that the “Emulate geolocation coordinates” option is selected.

7. Reload the Page and Update Location

Your work here is almost done!

Now, all that you need to do is refresh the Google search result page.

After the page has been successfully reloaded, scroll down to the bottom of the search result page and click on the “Update Location” option.

Following this, “Use Precise Location” option might appear. Don’t select that.

Your location would be updated and set to the geographic location for which you want to see local search results on Google.

Now, you can enter in search queries and get search results for the desired geographic location on Google.

You’d also be able to see Google Autocomplete suggestions based on the above steps.

Learned how to change location for Google search results? Then let’s move on to the importance and benefits of changing your geolocation.

8. Bonus # 1: Importance of Changing Your Geographic Location

Search engines like Google keep track of your geolocation for several reasons, such as to provide targeted ads, personalized maps, etc.

This powerful aspect of Google immensely effects your search results.

In other words, the search results you get on Google after entering a query could be different if you change location for Google search results.

Here are a few scenarios to help you understand more about personalized search results:

Following this, “Use Precise Location” option might appear. Don’t select that.

Your location would be updated and set to the geographic location for which you want to see local search results on Google.

Now, you can enter in search queries and get search results for the desired geographic location on Google.

You’d also be able to see Google Autocomplete suggestions based on the above steps.

Learned how to change location for Google search results? Then let’s move on to the importance and benefits of changing your geolocation.

Scenario #1:

Google’s feature of providing the users with location-based search results ensures that when a person in Miami, Florida performs a search query for “Pizza Restaurant”, he only sees the options of pizza places in Miami.

Now, the problem one might face here is being unable to view great pizza places in a place other than their current location.

For instance, if you’re planning to go on a trip to Orlando, you might want to reserve a table in a first-class restaurant, with delicious food and great ambiance. And for that, you’d need to search for restaurants in Orlando.

However, since the search results provided by Google highly depend on your current location, you might not get the perfect answer to your query.

And that’s when you’d need to change location for Google search results!

Scenario #2:

If you’re sitting in Los Angeles but want to look for a doctor in San Diego, you won’t get the right results until or unless you change your geolocation on Google.

Scenario #3:

Let’s say you receive a call from a friend who’s run out of fuel and is lost somewhere in Manhattan, poor guy can’t locate a petrol pump nearby.

Now, to help him out, you’d have to look up for petrol pumps in Manhattan while you’re yourself in New York.

And if you feel like you can’t get the right results, you’re wrong!

Because you can easily change your geolocation to get Google search results for a different city.

Now that we’ve already discussed the reasons why search engines track your location and how you can change location on Google, let’s move on to some other major benefits of changing your geolocation on Google.

With the updated Google’s algorithm, that doesn’t allow you to change your geolocation, you can’t view localized searches for locations other than your own.

And since you can’t easily change your location, it becomes difficult to report on Google’s autocomplete values and search results in different geographic locations.

Which is one of the major reasons why you might feel the need to change location for Google search results.

Other than this, if you own a business that operates in different locations, you’d need to change your location to view localized search results.

Doing so would provide you with pivotal insights into what ranks well locally, as well as the search terms that are used by Google’s autocomplete function.

All in all, most of the SERP elements depend on your location. Thus, according to SEO marketing specialists, optimizing them is the key when you’re trying to focus on a specific target audience or niche.

9. Bonus #2: Other Work-Arounds for International Search

According to SEO experts, the first thing to do in order to master online marketing is to have a look at your potential customers’ search results.

In other words, to master online marketing you have to learn international search.

And, as we’ve discussed above, the best way of viewing search results for different locations is by changing location for Google search results.

However, that isn’t the only solution to the problem at hand. There are various other methods through which you can get de-personalized search results on Google.

Here are some easy work-arounds for you to unGoogle yourself:

So, if you don’t want to change location for Google search results, you can always employ any one of the methods mentioned above.

Nevertheless, apart from changing your geolocation, using the incognito browsing mode on Google Chrome is one of the most effortless ways of conducting international search.

And since your audience views different search results for your product based on their location, you can’t possibly achieve high global rankings without determining your customers’ search results.

So, to track your SEO success worldwide, it is crucial for you to view search results on Google for different locations.

But if you still don’t have time to do all this, you can always hire an affordable SEO expert to change your online marketing game.

10. Bonus #3: VPN & the World of Internet Privacy

It’s evidently described in Google’s privacy policy how it treats your information, including location information, when you use Google’s services.

However, you might be wondering how Google finds out your current location.

Well, to answer that, most of the time Google determines your location on the basis of the products that you use, and your chosen settings.

Other than that, Google finds out your location from your IP address, your past activity on various Google sites, and the location of your device.

But if Google is using your past activity to get information about your location, don’t you think your internet privacy’s at stake?

Internet privacy or online privacy refers to the security level of your personal data that is published online.

This data is secured with the help of numerous techniques and technologies that protect your online communications and your private data.

Why should you be concerned about your internet privacy?

Because if your internet privacy is compromised and revealed, your identity could be stolen and fraudulently used.

In addition to this, your online accounts could be hacked, your sensitive data stolen, and you could be redirected to a different IP address.

Which is why, you should consider employing different ways in which you can secure your online data to keep it safe from being hacked or misused.

And changing your location for Google search results is one way of stopping Google from tracking you.

Other than that, you can also get a VPN or a Virtual Private Network service to maintain your data security.

A good VPN service could be used to change your location, as well as your IP address.

What a VPN actually does is that it changes your IP address by tunneling your online data through its own servers. Hence your location appears different than your actual current location.

Other than allowing you to spoof your geolocation, VPN also makes your online activity impossible to access by encrypting your signal.

That was all about how you can change your geolocation on Google to make it impossible for Google to track you, and to get search results for locations other than your own.

So, next time you’re in Manhattan and want to view search results for Miami, just change location for Google search results and you’re good to go!

So, if you don’t want to change location for Google search results, you can always employ any one of the methods mentioned above.

Nevertheless, apart from changing your geolocation, using the incognito browsing mode on Google Chrome is one of the most effortless ways of conducting international search.

And since your audience views different search results for your product based on their location, you can’t possibly achieve high global rankings without determining your customers’ search results.

So, to track your SEO success worldwide, it is crucial for you to view search results on Google for different locations.

But if you still don’t have time to do all this, you can always hire an affordable SEO expert to change your online marketing game.