Common Parameters
If you do not want to read every engine page from scratch, start here. This page gives you the recurring parameter patterns that show up across multiple SERP engines.
Patterns
- Most text-based engines use
qas the primary query input; Google Lens usesurlinstead. - Google-family engines commonly use
gl,hl,location, andgoogle_domainfor localization. - Bing-family engines lean on
cc,mkt,first,count, andsafeSearch. - Some engines expose
no_cacheto bypass cached results. - Pagination is not standardized; common variants include
start,first,count,num,page, andb.
Frequently Reused Parameters
| Parameter | Frequency | Typical Meaning | Engines |
|---|---|---|---|
q | 15 | Primary keyword query used by most text-based SERP engines. | Google Search, Duckduckgo Search, Google Play Search, Bing Search, Yahoo Search, Google Map Search, Google News Search, Google Video Search, Google Trends Autocomplete, Google Autocomplete Search, Bing News Search, Bing Images Search, Google Patents Search, Google Images Search, Bing Videos Search |
hl | 9 | Interface language for Google-family engines. | Google Search, Google Play Search, Google Map Search, Google News Search, Google Video Search, Google Trends Autocomplete, Google Autocomplete Search, Google Images Search, Google Lens Search |
no_cache | 9 | Forces a fresh fetch instead of using a cached result when supported. | Google Search, Duckduckgo Search, Google Play Search, Yahoo Search, Google Map Search, Google Video Search, Google Autocomplete Search, Google Images Search, Google Lens Search |
gl | 7 | Country targeting for Google-family engines. | Google Search, Google Play Search, Google Map Search, Google News Search, Google Video Search, Google Autocomplete Search, Google Images Search |
device | 5 | Device hint used by some engines to influence result rendering. | Bing Search, Yahoo Search, Bing News Search, Bing Images Search, Google Images Search |
google_domain | 4 | Google domain override such as google.com or google.co.uk. | Google Search, Google Map Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search |
safe | 4 | Safe search level used by DuckDuckGo, Google Images, Google Video, and Google Lens. | Duckduckgo Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search, Google Lens Search |
cc | 4 | Country code used by several Bing engines. | Bing Search, Bing News Search, Bing Images Search, Bing Videos Search |
first | 4 | Bing-style pagination offset. | Bing Search, Bing News Search, Bing Images Search, Bing Videos Search |
tbs | 3 | Advanced Google search filter string. | Google Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search |
nfpr | 3 | See the backend description in the engine pages. | Google Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search |
uule | 3 | Google encoded location string for precise geo-targeting. | Google Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search |
start | 3 | Google-style pagination offset. | Google Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search |
filter | 3 | See the backend description in the engine pages. | Google Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search |
location | 3 | Geographic origin hint used to localize results. | Google Search, Google Video Search, Google Images Search |
mkt | 3 | Bing market setting for country and language targeting. | Bing Search, Bing News Search, Bing Images Search |
num | 3 | Google-style result count parameter. | Google Video Search, Google Patents Search, Google Images Search |
cr | 2 | See the backend description in the engine pages. | Google Search, Google Images Search |
lr | 2 | See the backend description in the engine pages. | Google Search, Google Video Search |
age | 2 | See the backend description in the engine pages. | Google Play Search, Bing Images Search |
safeSearch | 2 | Safe-search setting used by Bing Search and Bing News. | Bing Search, Bing News Search |
count | 2 | Bing-style page size or result count parameter. | Bing News Search, Bing Images Search |
kl | 1 | DuckDuckGo region code. | Duckduckgo Search |
b | 1 | Yahoo Search pagination offset. | Yahoo Search |
yahoo_domain | 1 | Yahoo domain override for Yahoo Search. | Yahoo Search |
ll | 1 | Google Maps latitude/longitude parameter. | Google Map Search |
page | 1 | Page number parameter used by Google Patents Search. | Google Patents Search |
url | 1 | Image URL input used by Google Lens instead of a text query. | Google Lens Search |
Usage Notes
- For cross-engine support, start with the recurring parameters here and then layer on engine-specific fields
- Similar-looking parameter names are not always interchangeable; confirm the exact meaning on the engine page
- Requiredness should be read from the
mustflag on each engine page