Google search and Adwords results differ based upon your locality. It is really nice to be able to look at search and Adwords results the way the SERP's will appear in that locality.

The quickest and easiest way I have found to do that is to add the region and a zip code from that region to the search results. I'll show you an example of how this works for me.

Let's do a search for orange county lasik using Google. Notice below that the PPC results include Houston, Tx based upon Google's geo-targeting of my ip address.

To get a better idea of the ads that will be served in California I add regional information and a zip code to the search results. Here are Google Metropolitan Region Codes. I got the zip code from John Wayne airport using Mapquest.

The first search looked like this in the address bar.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=orange+county+lasik&btnG=Google+Search
The address bar after my change.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=orange+county+lasik&btnG=Search&gr=US-CA&gpc=92707

The string to add in this case is &gr=US-CA&gpc=92707.
The &gr= is followed by the region code for California in the USA.
The &gpc= has the zip code appended to it.

The result is much better and is a clean quick way to see search and PPC results that are not impacted by your locality and look the way they should in the locality of your choice.

Related Links
Adwords Keyword Tool
Adsense Preview Tool

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