See Google Search Results for Other Locations (2026)

You’re on vacation with friends. Afternoon rolls around, and the group votes on dinner. Takeout.

What’s the first thing you do? If you’re anything like me, you pull out your phone and search “pizza near me.”

Within seconds, Google serves up a list of spots a few blocks away. If you had run that same search back home, you would have gotten a completely different list.

That makes sense for pizza. But location also shapes results for searches that don’t seem local at all. Search “best running shoes” in New York, then in London or Berlin, and you’ll see different retailers, different brands, and sometimes different languages. Google tailors results to where you are so they’re as relevant as possible.

For searchers, that’s a convenience. If you’re a founder or marketer trying to reach a global, multilingual audience, it creates a blind spot. The results you see at your desk aren’t what your customers in Paris, São Paulo or Tokyo see. And if you can’t see their results, you can’t tell whether you’re showing up in them.

The good news is that you don’t need a plane ticket to find out. This guide walks through different methods for how to see Google search results for other locations in 2026.

How Google Search Results Differ by Location

So how does Google know to show you a pizza place in Lisbon instead of the one around the corner from home? Signals.

Google doesn’t rank the web once and show everyone the same list. It weighs location as it decides what to show you. Those signals come from two directions: you, and the websites competing for your click.

Signals from the searcher:

• IP address, which maps to a rough geographic area
• GPS or Wi-Fi data, if you’re on mobile with location services turned on
• Language and region settings in your Google account or browser
• Search history and past clicks, for some queries

Signals from the website:

Sites send their own location signals, and these stack on top of the searcher’s.

• ccTLDs (country code top-level domains). A domain like example.co.uk strongly tells Google the site is meant for the UK.
• Hreflang tags. A site using subfolders like example.com/en-gb/ and example.com/en-us/ can add hreflang annotations. They tell Google “this version is for English speakers in the UK, and that one is for the US.” Google uses this to decide which URL to show a UK searcher, even when the two pages are nearly identical.

It’s important to know that hreflang functions more like a hint instead of a command. Google can still show the wrong version if the tags are missing, broken or contradicted by other signals. (If you’re using Bablic, hreflang and x-default tags are added automatically for every language you publish on a subfolder or subdomain.)

Even with the right tags in place, Search Console shows your clicks, impressions and average position by country, but it can’t show you what a searcher in Manchester actually sees. The most direct way to confirm your signals are working is to look at the results from that location yourself.

Here’s how to do it.

Google’s Own Tools: URL Parameters, the uule Code and Ads Preview

There are five main ways to see Google results for another location:

• URL parameters (gl, hl and the uule code)
• Google Ads’ Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool
• Google’s Results region setting
• Spoofed GPS coordinates in Chrome DevTools
• A VPN

Let’s start with the ones built into Google itself.

Country-level checks: gl and hl

The fastest free option is to add a couple of parameters to a Google search URL.

• gl= sets the country you’re searching from, using a two-letter country code (gl=de for Germany, gl=br for Brazil).
• hl= sets the language of Google’s interface (hl=de, hl=pt-BR).

For example: google.com/search?q=best+running+shoes&gl=de&hl=de

Google has been redirecting its country domains (like google.de) to google.com, so gl is now the main way to request country-specific results. One caveat is that hl changes Google’s interface language, not necessarily the language of the results.

City-level checks: the uule code

For more precision, there’s uule. Think of it as a location tag stapled to your search. It’s an encoded string that tells Google to treat the query as if it came from a specific place, down to the city or postal code.

To use it, look up the location’s “Canonical Name” in Google’s geotargets list (for example, Austin,Texas,United States). Run it through a free uule generator, then add the result to your search URL as &uule=. Many paid “location changer” tools do exactly this behind the scenes.

Keep in mind that Google doesn’t officially document uule. The format was reverse-engineered, and it doesn’t fully override signals like your IP address or account settings. Google isn’t running the search from Austin. It’s pretending to. Still, it’s the closest you’ll get to a free, repeatable city-level test.

No-code option: Ad Preview and Diagnosis

If encoding strings isn’t your thing, Google Ads has a built-in alternative. In your Google Ads account, go to Tools > Troubleshooting > Ad preview and diagnosis. You don’t need to be running a campaign. Enter a search term and a location, and the tool shows you the results page as a searcher there would see it.

It’s built for advertisers, but it works for organic spot-checks too. It also won’t count as an ad impression, unlike searching for your own ads in a regular browser. The trade-off is that it’s one lookup at a time, so you can’t script it or run it on a schedule.

Browser, Device and VPN Location Overrides

If you’d rather not edit URLs, you can change your apparent location at the browser or network level instead. There are three practical options.

Google’s search settings (country level)

In Google’s search settings (google.com/preferences), set Results region to the country you want to check. You can do this by navigating to Other settings —> Language & region —> Results region. Your searches will then return results as if you were searching from that country. It’s quick and needs no tools, but it only goes as precise as the country, not the city.

It’s important not to confuse this with the “region” filter on Google’s Advanced Search page. That filter limits results to pages published in a country. It doesn’t show you what a searcher sees there.

Best for: quick country-level checks, like seeing whether your German site shows up for searchers in Germany.

Chrome DevTools geolocation (street level)

For pinpoint precision, Chrome lets you fake your coordinates:

1. Open DevTools (Cmd+Option+I on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows).
2. Click the three-dot menu, then go to More tools > Sensors.
3. Under Location, pick a preset city or enter custom latitude and longitude.
4. Allow location access for Google if prompted, then refresh your search.

This is the most precise free method. You can test a specific neighborhood, not just a city. The catch: the override only lasts while DevTools is open in that tab, and Google sometimes falls back to your IP-based location anyway. Check the location shown at the bottom of the results page to confirm it took.

Best for: checking results at the city or neighborhood level.

VPN (country level, sometimes city)

A VPN routes your traffic through a server in another country. That changes your IP address and, with it, the results Google shows you. It’s a reliable way to confirm that your .de or .jp site appears for local searchers, or that the right language version shows up in each market.

The limitation is precision. VPN servers are usually set up by country, sometimes by major city, but rarely at a finer level than that. If you need to know what a searcher in a specific suburb sees, a VPN won’t get you there. Also expect more CAPTCHAs, since Google flags traffic from shared VPN IP addresses.

Best for: checking results country by country, especially when you’re also reviewing how your localized site loads and behaves in that market.

Where These Methods Fall Short

Before you build a reporting process around any of these methods, it helps to know their limits.

Incognito mode isn’t a clean slate

Incognito stops Google from using your search history and signed-in account. It doesn’t hide your IP address or change the language settings in your browser and operating system. So incognito alone won’t show you what someone in another country sees. You should use it alongside a location override, not in place of one.

Every method is an approximation

None of these methods actually runs a search from the target location. URL parameters, DevTools and VPNs all ask Google to treat your search as if it came from somewhere else, and Google weighs that against everything else it knows about you. Results can be close, but they won’t always match what a local searcher sees exactly.

In practice, what matters is how close each method gets and whether you can repeat it. A check you can run the same way every month is more useful than a perfect one-off.

Paid tools need vetting too

If you’re considering a paid rank tracker or location-changer tool, don’t assume it’s more accurate than the free methods. Many are built on the same techniques, like uule strings, that you can use yourself.

Before you commit:

• Spot-check the output. Run the same query and location through the tool and through a manual uule search or Ad Preview. If the results differ a lot, find out why.
• Check that it’s maintained. Look for recent changelogs or release notes. Google changes how it reads location signals, and tools that aren’t kept up to date slowly drift out of sync.
• Compare pricing to your needs. Plans range from tens to hundreds of dollars a month. If you’re checking a handful of markets each quarter, the free methods may be all you need.

Which Method Fits Your Goal

The right method depends on two things: how precise you need to be, and whether this is a one-time check or something you’ll repeat.

Checking whether your UK page shows up for UK searchers? The Results region setting, gl=gb or a VPN will tell you in under a minute.

Comparing rankings between two cities? Use uule, Ad Preview or DevTools. They’re the free methods that work below the country level.

Tracking dozens of markets every week? Manual checks stop being practical at that scale. That’s the job paid rank trackers are built for.

From Geo-Checking to Localization Verification

If you run a multilingual or multi-region site, checking Google from another location goes beyond being curious.

You localized your site so a searcher in Madrid, Montreal or Tokyo lands on the right language and regional version. Geo-checking is how you confirm that’s really happening, instead of assuming it is because the translated pages exist.

Check that the right page shows up

If Google serves your English page to a searcher in Spain, or your French-France page to someone in Quebec, the issue is usually in your hreflang setup. With dozens of language variants, it’s easy for a missing return tag or a typo in a language code to slip through. Submitting a sitemap that lists all your language versions in Google Search Console gives Google a second, clear map of which page is for which market.

When your geo-check shows the wrong version, start there.

Check that the page is right once they land

Ranking in the right market is half the job. The other half is what the visitor sees when they click. While you’re checking from that location, open your own translated page and look for:

• Language: Is everything translated, including buttons, forms and checkout?
• Regional details: Are currency, dates, units and phone formats local?
• Terminology: Are your brand and product names handled consistently?
• Layout: Does longer translated text break any buttons or menus?

Where Bablic fits

Geo-checking tells you whether your localization is working. Bablic is how you build and maintain it. It translates your site, adds hreflang tags for every language you publish, and includes a visual editor so a fluent reviewer can fix translations directly on the live page instead of in a spreadsheet of strings.

Bablic won’t check Google’s results for you. That’s what the methods in this guide are for. Use them together: localize with Bablic, then confirm with a geo-check that each market is seeing the version you built for it.

FAQ

How do you get Google to show you results for a different location?

Add location parameters to your search URL: gl for country, or a uule code for a specific city. Google Ads’ Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool and Chrome DevTools’ geolocation override also work without paid tools. A VPN works too, though usually only at the country level.

How do I stop Google from using my location in search results?

You can’t stop it completely, because Google always uses your IP address to estimate your location. You can limit it by blocking location access for Google in your browser, turning off device location services and pausing Web & App Activity in your Google account. Incognito mode removes account-based personalization, but not IP-based location.

Why is Google showing me results from another country?

Usually it’s one of three things: a VPN or proxy routing your traffic through another country, a browser or Google region setting set to another country, or an IP address Google associates with a different region. That last one is common on corporate networks and some mobile carriers.

Which methods let you check results at the city level, not just the country level?

The uule parameter, Google Ads’ Ad Preview and Diagnosis tool and Chrome DevTools’ geolocation override all work at the city level or finer. Google’s Results region setting, the gl parameter and most VPNs only work at the country level. Some VPNs offer servers in major cities.

What is the uule code?

Uule is an encoded string you add to a Google search URL to tell Google which location to treat your search as coming from, down to a city or postal code. Many paid location-checker tools use it behind the scenes. Google doesn’t officially document it, and it simulates a location rather than running a real search from there.

How do I check whether my translated pages show up in other countries?

Search for a key term in that market’s language using a country-level method like gl or a VPN, then confirm the right language version of your page appears. If the wrong version shows up, check your hreflang tags first. Then open the page itself to confirm the translation, currency and regional details are correct.