An IP address is your computer’s or any other network device’s identification string. Each network device has a unique IP address that separates that particular computer from other computers connecting to the world wide web. IP Geolocation is a process to determine where a particular computer is present using its IP address. Out of all available IP Geolocation services, Google Maps IP address API is one of the most convenient tools. Google Maps is very popular for its accurate and real-time mapping features, and the API is easy to use.
Does disclosing your IP geolocation reveal all your details? No, it only shares whether your computer is active right now. It has nothing to do with your personal information, such as your name, age, or other preferences.
Let’s check how you can detect the location using Google Maps and IP addresses.
Methods to Identify Google Maps IP Address Location
The right IP geolocation method will provide you with information about the country, state, zip code, and location of the device with that particular IP address. Try one of the following ways to learn about the IP address’s geological locations.
Using Google Overviews & Reports
If you are eager to know who is accessing your website, then Google Search Console is a handy tool. Any website owner can use this tool to check the performance graph of the website. Additionally, the insights help the website owner to reach more users and improve the overall performance in Google searches.
Make sure that you have connected your website to Google Search Console. After verification, you are ready to access information about who accesses your website. Google Search Console provides you information, such as device IDs, the location from where a request came, things they were looking for, and so on.
However, Google Search Console doesn’t unveil the users’ IP addresses and locations. Still, you can use the tool to find the country where your website received a request.
Here’s how you can navigate to the location using Google Maps IP addresses API:
- Explore the report named Search Performance.
- Head towards the Countries tab.
- Keep the following entities checked:
- Total Clicks
- Average CTR
- Total Impressions
- Average Position
Here, you can know from which countries your website is getting more views. Compare your website’s performance across different countries for an improved result. Additionally, you can go to the devices tab under the Search Performance Report.
Now, you can access information, such as device ID and types. You can compare the site’s performance across devices like desktops, mobile phones, tablets, etc.
Utilise Logs View
Users’ IP addresses are accessible if you can get into your website’s log. This tool will only reveal the IP address of your website viewer or user. Yet, it won’t expose the geolocation of that particular IP address. Still, you can use a Google Maps IP address geolocation tool to learn about the location of that definite IP.
You can look for a specific IP address whose location you are searching for. You can check if that IP address matches any IP entries under the Logs. Otherwise, you need to provide a regular expression that should match an IP address. The regular expression of any IP address has four sets of dedicated numerics, separated by periods.
Each set can have up to 3 numbers. Generally, a regular expression of an IP address looks like ‘^[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}\.[0-9]{1,3}’. The ^ sign signifies the program to determine a match only at the initials of a line. A website owner has to use a ‘grep’ command to send the request for the IP address.
WHOIS Information Dialog box
The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, has been maintaining the security of domains on the internet. Additionally, this organisation takes care of WHOIS, a database. Whenever anyone registers a new domain, he or she has to submit its WHOIS information to ICANN.
The WHOIS database includes the following information about the person who registers the corresponding domain:
- Name
- Phone number
- Address
- Email address
WHOIS is a publicly accessible database, and anyone can check who runs which website. You can simply launch a WHOIS search bar and type the website URL to find out who registered the website address.
It’s another easy way to investigate Google Maps IP addresses and find out their approximate locations or countries. Instead of the website URL, you can enter the IP address followed by the ‘$ whois’ command. It will return information, such as the country, the address of the location, and the phone number if it’s present inside the WHOIS database.
Google Map Geolocation API: How it Works?
Generally, users utilize the Google Map Geolocation API without an IP address. This API can tell you the latitude and longitude based on the network device’s proximity to Wi-Fi and cell phone nodes. This API doesn’t provide location by using a device’s IP address.
When you use a dedicated IP geolocation tool, you can request any device’s location by sending a command along with the device’s IP address. The request will calculate the location’s proximity to any cell phone tower or Wi-Fi node. Then, Google will return a pair of latitude and longitude coordinates, expecting this result to be approximate. However, you might not get any results if the request fails to find a nearby cell tower.
Wrapping Up…
How can a Google Maps IP Address determination help you? If you run a website, it’s extremely helpful to know where your viewers live. You can provide tailored content on your website with the help of the right location of users. Additionally, you can improve your site’s performance for other countries and viewers.
You can use a third-party IP geolocation tool to know more about the country and its precise IP location. This will reveal the country, city, zip code, the presence of a VPN, connection type, currencies, etc.