Google Search Parameters (2024 Guide)

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the importance of understanding Google search parameters and how they can be used to customize and optimize search results for various purposes, such as improving ad campaign performance, SEO, and data collection for social media projects. It provides an overview of several key Google search parameters and their corresponding attributes in the SerpApi documentation.

🙋 Q&A

[01] What are Google Search parameters?

• Google Search parameters are special codes that can be added to the web address (URL) when searching on Google to control and customize the search results.
• They allow users to specify parameters such as language, location, file type, keywords in URLs and bodies, and more to get more precise and tailored search results.

[02] What is the 'q' parameter?

• The 'q' parameter represents the search query submitted to Google.
• It can be used with special commands for filtering specific file types, keywords in URLs and bodies, etc. to get more exact matches.

[03] What is the 'hl' parameter?

• The 'hl' parameter stands for 'host language' and determines the language used for the search.
• It can be set to a two-letter language code (e.g., 'hl=en' for English) or a two-letter language code followed by a hyphen and two letters or three digits for dialects (e.g., 'hl=en-gb' for British English, 'hl=es-419' for Latin American Spanish).

[04] What is the 'gl' parameter?

• The 'gl' parameter represents geolocation and can be used to personalize search results based on the region.
• It is a two-letter country code (e.g., 'gl=us' for the United States).

[05] What is the 'lr' parameter?

• The 'lr' parameter stands for 'language restriction' and is used to limit search results to webpages in specific languages.
• It is a two-letter language code preceded by 'lang_' (e.g., 'lr=lang_en|lang_fr' for English and French).

[06] What is the 'cr' parameter?

• The 'cr' parameter represents 'country restriction' and refines search results based on preferred region.
• It is a two-letter uppercase country code preceded by 'country' (e.g., 'cr=countryUS|countryFR' for the United States and France).

[07] What is the 'tbs' parameter?

• The 'tbs' parameter stands for 'to be searched' and can be used to filter results by a specific date or date range (e.g., 'tbs=qdr:h' for results from the last hour).

[08] What are some other notable parameters?

• The 'source' parameter indicates the source of the search, such as the Google homepage or a referral from another website.
• The 'ei' parameter is a unique identifier assigned to each search, likely used for internal tracking by Google.
• The 'ved' parameter is used for internal tracking of links and elements.
• The 'ibp' parameter can be used to render elements differently than their usual format, such as displaying a full page view of a Google Business listing.
• The 'kgmid' parameter is responsible for serving elements saved by Google, including knowledge graph data.
• The 'si' parameter is used to serve knowledge graph tabs alongside other tasks.
• The 'uule' parameter is used to specify a location for a search, either in an encoded form of the canonical name of a place or an encoded form of GPS coordinates.
• The 'tbm' parameter stands for 'to be matched' and specifies the type of content the user is searching for, allowing Google to tailor the search results accordingly.