Google search parameters: the complete guide

Most people are using Google wrong.

They treat the search bar like a magic box: type a keyword, hit Enter, and accept whatever the algorithm decides to show based on their IP and history.

For developers, SEOs, and data scrapers, that isn’t good enough.

To get clean, location-specific data, you need to stop using the search bar and start manipulating the URL parameters.

Google’s URL is effectively a public API. By appending specific codes to your search string, you can force Google to simulate a user in Tokyo, filter for results from the last hour, or toggle the new AI Overviews on and off.

If you’re building a scraper or monitoring your brand’s global presence, these parameters are your toolkit.

Table of contents

• The anatomy of a Google URL
• The “Big three” for localization
• The magic of uule
• Controlling the AI
• Filtering and time parameters
• Advanced search operators
• Why precision matters for scraping

The anatomy of a Google URL

A standard Google search URL looks like a mess of gibberish, but it follows a standard query string format:

https://www.google.com/search? + parameter=value + & + parameter=value

The most basic example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=coffee

• ? starts the query string.
• q stands for query — your keyword.

Everything else you add refines that query.

The big three for localization

If you’re scraping Google Search results, the biggest challenge is geolocation.

Search for “pizza” from a server in Germany and you get German results. To see what a user in New York sees, you can’t rely on proxies alone. You have to tell Google exactly where you are.

1. gl (geo location)

Sets the country of the search results.

• Usage. &gl=us (United States), &gl=uk (United Kingdom), &gl=jp (Japan).
• Why use it. Forces Google to return results from that country’s index.

2. hl (host language)

Sets the interface language of Google.

• Usage. &hl=en (English), &hl=es (Spanish), &hl=fr (French).
• Why use it. Critical for parsing. If you don’t set it, Google may return the UI in the language of your proxy IP, breaking your CSS selectors.

3. lr (language restriction)

Restricts the actual search results to a specific language.

• Usage. &lr=lang_en
• Difference from hl. hl changes the buttons and menus; lr changes the blue links.

Cheat sheet for localization:

Parameter	Function	Example
q	The search term	q=best+vpn
gl	Country of origin	gl=us
hl	UI Language	hl=en
lr	Result Language	lr=lang_fr

The magic of uule

The gl parameter is fine for countries. But what if you need city-level precision? Say you want to track rankings for “plumber near me” specifically in Austin, Texas.

That’s where uule comes in.

It’s a base64-encoded string that represents a canonical location from Google’s own Geotargeting API. It lets you spoof your GPS coordinates without moving.

How it works:

1. Find the canonical name for your target city (e.g., “Austin, Texas, United States”).
2. Calculate a special length character.
3. Encode the name into base64.

The result looks like this: &uule=w+CAIQICIaQXVzdGluLFRleGFzLFVuaXRlZCBTdGF0ZXM

Append it to your URL and Google believes you’re physically in Austin.

Why this matters for SEO: local rankings vary wildly by zip code. A business ranking #1 in North Austin might be #10 in South Austin. Without uule, your rank tracking data is an average, not reality.

Note: tools like cloro handle uule generation automatically, so you don’t have to do the base64 math yourself.

Controlling the AI

In 2026, Google is as much an answer engine as a search engine. It now injects AI Overviews (formerly SGE) at the top of many results. Sometimes you want to see them, sometimes you want to kill them.

The parameter for that is udm.

1. Force the “web” view (udm=14)

For the old Google (10 blue links, no AI, no maps, no fluff), use this parameter.

• Usage. &udm=14
• Use case. Extracting pure organic rankings without SERP feature noise.

2. Force “AI mode” (udm=50)

Less documented but useful. Forces Google into a conversational, AI-heavy interface, often triggering the Google AI Mode layout.

• Usage. &udm=50
• Use case. Monitoring Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and seeing how Google’s Gemini model synthesizes your brand information.

Filtering and time parameters

Sometimes you don’t want the best result. You want the newest one.

The tbs (to be searched) parameter is a container for advanced filters.

Time-based search (qdr)

Restrict results to a specific timeframe with tbs=qdr:X.

• Past hour. &tbs=qdr:h
• Past 24 hours. &tbs=qdr:d
• Past week. &tbs=qdr:w
• Past month. &tbs=qdr:m
• Past year. &tbs=qdr:y

If you’re monitoring a PR crisis or a product launch, you don’t care about articles from 2023. You need to see what’s being indexed right now.

Verbatim mode (li:1)

Google likes to “help” you by correcting your spelling or including synonyms. Sometimes you don’t want that.

• Usage. &tbs=li:1
• Effect. Forces verbatim search. Google searches for exactly what you typed, no fuzzy matching.

Advanced search operators

Parameters live in the URL. Operators live in the search box (the q parameter). Combine them with URL parameters and you get X-ray vision.

site:

Restricts results to a specific domain.

• Query. site:cloro.dev
• Use case. Check how many pages of your site are indexed.

filetype:

Restricts results to a specific file extension.

• Query. filetype:pdf "annual report"
• Use case. Finding whitepapers, datasets (csv), or presentations (ppt) that aren’t indexed as normal web pages.

before: and after:

A cleaner alternative to the tbs parameter for date ranges.

• Query. AI search after:2024-01-01 before:2024-12-31

intitle: and inurl:

Ensures your keyword appears in a specific part of the page.

• Query. intitle:"guest post"
• Use case. Finding link-building opportunities.

Why precision matters for scraping

When you’re searching Google by hand, you can correct mistakes as you go. When you’re building an automated system to monitor ChatGPT mentions or Google rankings, mistakes get expensive fast.

The cost of bad parameters:

1. Polluted data. If you don’t set gl=us, your “US rankings” report will be contaminated by the location of your proxy server (which might be in France).
2. Broken parsers. If you don’t set hl=en, Google might serve the page in Arabic because your rotating proxy is in Dubai, and your scraper looking for the English “People Also Ask” text will fail.
3. Missing AI features. Without udm, you might miss the AI Overview box that’s stealing 40% of your traffic.

The fix: don’t rely on defaults. Explicitly define every parameter in your request. Or use a tool that abstracts the complexity.

cloro is built on top of this infrastructure. When you ask cloro to track your brand in London, we handle the uule, gl, hl, and udm parameters automatically, so the data you get matches what a real user in that location would see.

Stop guessing the URL. Start engineering it.