UULE Generator

What is UULE

UULE is a parameter in Google search URLs that carries an encoded location. Add &uule= and a value to a google.com/search URL and Google returns results as if you were searching from that place. SEOs use it to check local rankings, map packs and “near me” results for cities they are not in. Developers use it in rank trackers and SERP scrapers.

There are two formats. v1 starts with w+ and holds a place name such as Austin,Texas,United States. v2 starts with a+ and holds GPS coordinates. This tool encodes both and decodes either one. Everything runs in your browser.

How to use the generator

1. Pick a mode. City name (v1) takes a city, region and country. GPS coordinates (v2) takes a latitude and longitude, with an optional radius and timestamp. Decode reads a UULE back.
2. Type a search query. The UULE and a ready Google search URL update as you type.
3. Copy the UULE, copy the URL, or press Open in Google.
4. Use the OpenStreetMap link to check that the place or point is the one you meant. In Decode mode, Load into generator copies the decoded location into the matching form so you can edit it.

UULE v1: a location name

A v1 value is a small protocol buffer (protobuf) message, base64-encoded, with w+ in front. Here are the bytes for Austin:

Base64 of those bytes is CAIQICIaQXVzdGlu…, and the full value is w+CAIQICIaQXVzdGluLFRleGFzLFVuaXRlZCBTdGF0ZXM=. The first two fields never change, so every name shorter than 64 bytes gives a value starting with w+CAIQICI. Some guides call the next character a “secret key”. It is really the name’s length: for names under 64 bytes it is the base64 letter for that number (a = 26, k = 36). At 64 bytes and up the prefix itself changes, and names over 127 bytes need a two-byte length. This tool handles both cases, so you don’t need a lookup table.

Finding Google’s canonical location name

The name is the city, region and country joined with commas and no spaces. When spelling matters, copy it from Google’s geo targets list: the Google Ads API developer site publishes it as a CSV. Its columns are Criteria ID, Name, Canonical Name, Parent ID, Country Code, Target Type and Status. The Canonical Name column holds the exact string to encode.

UULE v2: GPS coordinates

A v2 value is not a binary protobuf. It is a few lines of plain text, base64-encoded, with a+ in front. The format below comes from SerpApi’s open-source (MIT-licensed) UULE converter. Each line ends with a newline, including the last one, and nothing is indented. This is the example from SerpApi’s article on GPS-targeted local results, decoded:

The text is encoded with the URL-safe base64 alphabet (- and _ instead of + and /), and the trailing = padding is removed. That gives a+cm9sZToxCnByb2R1Y2VyOjEy…. With the same timestamp, this tool reproduces SerpApi’s value exactly.

The meanings of role and producer come from SerpApi’s notes, not from Google. Google has not published this format. The timestamp defaults to now. Coordinates are rounded to 7 decimal places, about a centimetre. SerpApi’s converter truncates instead of rounding, so the two can differ by 0.0000001° at most.

v1 vs v2

Building a v2 UULE in code

The text is all ASCII, so a few lines of JavaScript are enough. This function returns SerpApi’s example value exactly when called as uuleV2(47.048429, 9.498674, 1681216241206112):

function uuleV2(lat, lng, timestamp = Date.now() * 1000, radius = -1) {
  const text =
    `role:1\nproducer:12\nprovenance:0\ntimestamp:${timestamp}\n` +
    `latlng{\nlatitude_e7:${Math.round(lat * 1e7)}\nlongitude_e7:${Math.round(lng * 1e7)}\n}\n` +
    `radius:${radius}\n`;
  return 'a+' + btoa(text).replace(/\+/g, '-').replace(/\//g, '_').replace(/=+$/, '');
}

Validate the input before encoding. Latitude must be between -90 and 90 and longitude between -180 and 180, both as finite numbers, and the radius must be a whole number. The form above does these checks for you.

Building a local search URL

The generated URL has two parameters: q for the query and uule for the location. The UULE is percent-encoded (w+ becomes w%2B), because a bare + in a query string can be read as a space. For a full local check, also set gl (the two-letter country code) and hl (the interface language):

https://www.google.com/search?q=pizza&gl=us&hl=en&uule=w%2BCAIQICIaQXVzdGluLFRleGFzLFVuaXRlZCBTdGF0ZXM%3D

The Google Search URL Generator builds URLs with gl, hl, uule, time filters and result types. It can also take a URL apart. To test a local query with operators like site: or intitle:, build it in the Search Query Generator and paste it into the query box here.

How to check that it worked

1. Open the search URL in a private window, so your Google account and search history don’t mix in.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the results page. Google has typically shown the location it used there. If it shows your real location, it may have ignored the UULE.
3. Look at the map pack and local results. They should match the target place.
4. Generate a UULE for a second city and compare the two pages side by side.

Google does not document uule and can change how it is handled at any time. Even when it works, some results can still depend on your IP address, account, language settings or device. Treat a UULE check as a strong signal, not a guarantee. To cross-check an encoding, decode it here or compare it with a second implementation, such as Valentin Pletzer’s UULE guide or SerpApi’s converter.

Decoding a UULE

Paste a UULE or a whole Google URL into Decode mode. The tool finds the uule parameter and undoes percent-encoding (including double-encoded %252B). It accepts both base64 alphabets, with or without padding. For v1 it shows the location name, its byte length, the header bytes and every protobuf field. For v2 it shows the decoded text, the coordinates, radius and timestamp as a UTC date, and any extra lines it doesn’t recognise. Values it can’t read get a specific error message, not a blank result.

Examples

Common uses

• Spot-checking local rankings for a keyword in another city, without a VPN or a trip.
• Auditing multi-location businesses: one v1 UULE per branch city, or one v2 UULE per branch address, to compare map packs across locations.
• Rank-tracking scripts and SERP APIs: SerpApi, for example, accepts a uule parameter. It can’t be combined with SerpApi’s own location parameter in the same request.
• Reading someone else’s URL: decode the UULE in a link from a report or tool to see which place or point it really targets.

Troubleshooting

• “Unrecognised UULE format”: the value has to start with w+ or a+ (or w%2B / a%2B in a URL). Check that you copied the whole value.
• Results look like your own city: try a private window, add gl for the target country, and check the location name against the geo targets CSV.
• Latitude out of range: latitude comes first and must be between -90 and 90. If the numbers look swapped, the tool says so.
• A comma in a coordinate: use a dot for decimals (47.05, not 47,05). To paste both numbers at once, put a space after the comma: 47.048429, 9.498674.
• Timestamp warning: v2 timestamps are in microseconds (16 digits). A 10-digit value is seconds and a 13-digit value is milliseconds. Leave the field empty to use the current time.
• The v2 value changes every time: that’s the timestamp. Enter a fixed one to get a value that repeats.

Limits

• A v1 UULE names a place, not a point. Two addresses in the same city get the same value.
• Ads and some universal results can still reflect your real location, IP address or ad settings.
• The v1 encoding matches published test vectors, and the v2 encoding matches SerpApi’s converter and blog example. Neither format is officially documented by Google.