Google: Don't Redirect By IP Location

Jul 11, 2017 - 8:07 am 8 by

Google Broken

Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that is not always the best cast to redirect users (or bots) by the location of the IP address of that user or bot. He said it can often not only "break indexing" but also "frustrate users."

As you know, most of the time, GoogleBot crawls from the US. GoogleBot wants to see what US users see and if you redirect US users differently than your German or French users, that can cause issues. Google has ways of handling geolocation management from ccTLDs, Google Search Console settings, hreflang for language handling and more.

Redirecting by IP location is something Google says try not to do.

Here is John's tweet:

Here is more context:

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Blog Administration

Programming Note: Offline Monday For Yom Kippur 5787

Sep 20, 2026 - 10:00 am
Google

Google Web Guide Classic Search Button Doesn't Take You To Classic Search

Sep 20, 2026 - 9:30 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Search Console Crawl Stats Missing A Day Of Data: September 15th

Sep 20, 2026 - 7:55 am
Google

Google Discover Tests Dive Deeper Feature

Sep 18, 2026 - 4:22 pm
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: September 18, 2026

Sep 18, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Unusual Google Search Ranking Volatility, Ad Tech Monopoly Remedies, AI Contribution Publisher Payouts & More

Sep 18, 2026 - 8:01 am
Previous Story: Google: We Rank /page & /page.html Separately If Content Is Different