Google ranks local results, such as the businesses on its map, partly by their distance from the searcher. That is why one search can show different businesses in different parts of a city. To see the ranking a resident sees, Google has to place your search in that city. Google estimates where you are from four sources: your device, your home or work address, past searches and your IP. Google's terms and robots.txt bar automated searches on google.com, so a city check is done by hand.
Why local results change from place to place
Google names three main factors for local results: relevance, distance and popularity (Google's section on the third is headed Prominence). Distance is how far each business is from the customer who searches. When a customer does not share a location, Google uses what it knows about where they are.
A local ranking therefore belongs to the place of the search. A business can rank high near its own door and lower across town. Google also says there is no way to request or pay for a better local ranking.
How Google decides where a searcher is
The Google help page on location lists four sources, "used together to estimate where you are". The bottom of the results page then says which source Google used.
| source | what Google uses | the line at the bottom of the results |
|---|---|---|
| your device | its precise location, when google.com has permission | From your device |
| your home or work address | the saved address, when you are likely there | Based on your places (Home) or (Work) |
| your past activity | areas from your earlier searches | Based on your past activity |
| your IP address | the general area of your connection | From your internet address |
Three details decide whether a check shows the right place:
- The IP gives an area, not an address. Google treats it as a general area, larger than 3 sq km and with at least 1,000 users. That is close enough for a city, and too coarse for one street. Outside cities, Google says the area is typically much larger than 3 sq km.
- Precise location comes first when it is allowed. If google.com has location permission, Google uses "your precise location" for the search. A device can then place the search away from the area of its connection.
- An old place can stay. Google may reuse the device location from your last visit. It keeps that location "in a cookie set to expire after 6 hours". Past searches can carry a place too: after a search for coffee shops in Chelsea, Google may show nail salons in Chelsea next.
For ads, Google may use a wider set of signals, such as the "browser timezone" and the "page language". It may use them in addition to the location it gets from "your IP address, VPN, proxy service, or other network information".
How to check another city by hand
The simplest fix comes from Google itself: add the place to the search, as in "coffee shops in Chelsea". That shows results for the place you name. It is still a different search from the one a resident types without a place. Google's Business Profile data counts each typed phrase as its own search term.
To see the search a resident types, the search itself has to come from that city. These steps follow the four sources above:
- Start clean. Open a fresh browser profile and stay signed out of Google. In a profile you already use, sign out and turn off Search customization. With it off, Google does not use your earlier searches to estimate your location.
- Block location for google.com in the site settings of the browser. The device location then cannot take over.
- Connect through an address in the target city.
- Check the line under the results. Search, then read the line at the bottom of the results page. It should say "From your internet address". Any other line means Google placed the search by another source.
What Google allows
The Google Terms of Service, effective 30 July 2026, list conduct that abuses Google's services. One item is "using automated means to access content from any of our services in violation of the machine-readable instructions on our web pages". The terms give robots.txt files as the example. Google may also suspend access when conduct causes harm, and one example it names is scraping content that does not belong to you.
Google's help page on unusual traffic is more direct. Its list of automated traffic names searches sent from "Search scrapers". A separate item names the "Use of software that sends searches to Google to find how a website or web page ranks on Google".
The robots.txt of google.com starts with a group for every crawler it does not name, and its first rule is "Disallow: /search". A script that sends searches to google.com on a schedule therefore goes against the terms. A proxy changes the address of the requests, not this rule.
The same group opens one search view: "Allow: /search?*tbm=map", the map results. The Google Maps terms still forbid users to "mass download or create bulk feeds of the content". They also forbid using Maps to build a "business listings database" for a service that substitutes for Google Maps. Our page on Google Maps covers those rules and the Places API.
We sent one plain search for "plumber" to google.com from our server on 3 October 2026. The answer held no results, only a line asking visitors who have trouble to click a link or send feedback. From a server and without a browser, our request got no results to read.
Google's own numbers for your profile
For your own business, Google reports the searches directly. The performance report of a Business Profile lists "the search terms people used to find your business". The list updates "at the start of each month" and may take "up to 5 days" to show. It covers verified profiles only, and it counts organic results and Google Ads together.
The Business Profile Performance API returns the same figures as data. For a range of months, it lists "the search keywords used to find a business in search or maps". Each keyword carries one figure for the whole range. That figure is its unique users in each month, added up, or only a threshold when the real number is below it. Daily figures split impressions four ways: Maps or Search, on desktop or mobile.
| Google data | what it reports | finest place | rank position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Profile performance report | search terms by month, views and actions | none | none |
| Business Profile Performance API | search terms with unique users summed over a range of months, daily impressions | none | none |
| Search Console API | clicks, impressions and average position for your website | country | average only |
The API needs approval. Google asks for a profile "verified and active for 60+ days" and an application through its contact form. A project still waiting shows a quota of 0 queries per minute, and an approved one shows 300.
For your website, the Search Console API reports clicks, impressions and "average position in search results". Its finest place is the country, by three-letter code. None of these sources says where in a city a business ranks. That gap is what local rank trackers sell.
Where a proxy with city targeting fits
A proxy changes one of the four sources: the IP address. That makes it useful for one job, the check by hand described above. Our Residential Premium plan targets a country, a state, a city or a network (AS number). A sticky session keeps one address for up to 24 hours, so a check runs from one address throughout. Premium costs $1.49 per GB from the first gigabyte.
Our US page and our UK page list the cities you can target. By Google's own figures, most searches for a Google local rank tracker come from those two countries. Before a check, our free IP lookup shows the location, network (ASN) and proxy status of an address.
A proxy does not fit three jobs:
- Scheduled rank tracking on google.com. The terms and the robots file bar automated searches, from any address.
- Street-level checks. An IP address gives Google an area of more than 3 sq km. A street-by-street view needs a precise location, which Google takes from a device.
- Reviews and activity. Google's Maps policy says "Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed." It also bars content posted by any "method to mimic genuine engagement". An address in another city does not make an experience genuine.
If Google answers a search with its unusual traffic message, our guide to that message explains it.
For other work where a proxy is allowed, start with what a residential proxy is. Then compare rotating and static residential proxies. Our free proxy list and proxy checker cost nothing. Residential traffic without city targeting starts at $0.44/GB, and every plan is on our pricing page.
The limits of this page
We read Google's pages as text and sent two plain requests from our server, a web search and the same search in the map view, without a browser. We did not run the steps above in a browser, and we did not see how Google placed a proxy address. The Google help page names no URL parameter among its location sources, and we tested none. The same page says Google is updating the settings of its Search services, so the steps may change. We did not measure the rank of any business in any city. This page is due for a check by 3 January 2027.
Sources
Every Google page below was read on 3 October 2026, from our server in St. Louis.
- Google Search Help, Understand and manage your location when you search on Google.
- Google Search Help, Resolve Google Search's "Unusual traffic from your computer network" message.
- Google, How Google uses location information.
- Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google.
- Google Business Profile Help, Understand your Business Profile performance and insights.
- Google, Terms of Service, effective 30 July 2026.
- Google, the robots.txt file of google.com.
- Google, Google Maps Additional Terms of Service, last modified 27 January 2026.
- Google, Maps User Generated Content Policy, Prohibited and restricted content and Fake engagement.
- Google for Developers, Business Profile Performance API: the monthly search keywords method and the daily metrics.
- Google for Developers, Business Profile APIs prerequisites.
- Google for Developers, Search Console API, Search Analytics query.
- Google Ads Keyword Planner, monthly searches per country, measured on 16 September 2026.
- Our two requests to google.com from our server in St. Louis, 3 October 2026.
