Advice and answers from the Advanced Web Ranking Team
>
>
Google Removes ccTLds - Here’s How AWR Adapted for Consistent Reporting
Learn whether Google’s country-code top-level domains removal impacts search results and how AWR handled this update.
Google recently announced that it will begin redirecting its country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) like google.fr or google.co.uk to google.com. This change comes as part of a broader update that reflects how Google Search has evolved over time. Back in 2017, the company began offering the same localized search experience regardless of whether users accessed google.com or a country-specific domain. With that approach now widely adopted, the ccTLDs are no longer needed and will be removed to simplify the search experience over the next few months.
Does Removing ccTLDs Affect Search Results?
For most users, the change will be seamless, with little to no noticeable difference. However, when redirected from a ccTLD to google.com, users may need to log in again or reconfigure some search settings. This update only changes the URL displayed in the browser’s address bar and does not affect how Google Search works. Google will continue to deliver localized results based on user location and maintain compliance with applicable national regulations.
How did AWR handle the situation?
The change Google is implementing is more of a technical decommissioning of the country-level TLDs, which have actually been redundant for some time now. Behind the scenes, Google has already been serving localized results based on the user's IP address, regardless of whether the search was made from google.com or a country-specific domain.
AWR relies only on real data gathering by sending actual keyword queries to the search engines configured in each project. This means that searches are performed using the IP address of the country (or custom location) chosen during the search engine setup.
Because of this, Google’s update does not impact how AWR collects or tracks search data. Your current search engine setup will continue to function as expected, with no need to add extra engines or make any changes.
The only adjustment we’ve made is to the display names of Google search engines within AWR UI reports. Instead of showing country-level top-level domains (like .co.uk or .com.ng), we’ve switched to using their corresponding ISO two-letter country codes.
For instance, Google.co.uk is now displayed as Google UK, and Google.com appears as Google US. Mobile variants follow the same logic, so Google.com Mobile is now Google US Mobile. This update ensures better clarity and consistency without affecting the localization of search results.
Here’s how Google search engine names appeared in AWR before the ccTLD removal:
How they’re displayed now:
Do you have any further questions or need more information about this product update? Don't hesitate to get in touch with our dedicated support team.
stay in the loop