diff --git a/lib/geocoder/lookups/google.rb b/lib/geocoder/lookups/google.rb
index 6ed7fa62ea24dddf7e4d9ea797ba608b4a9ee408..5f5e8fe69fb6f12d7bd627c69c0433086d906131 100644
--- a/lib/geocoder/lookups/google.rb
+++ b/lib/geocoder/lookups/google.rb
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ module Geocoder::Lookup
         params[:region] = region
       end
       unless (components = query.options[:components]).nil?
-        params[:components] = components.join("|")
+        params[:components] = components.is_a?(Array) ? components.join("|") : components
       end
       params
     end
diff --git a/test/services_test.rb b/test/services_test.rb
index 6f2a86dd0f33fb56ecebd1ee99e8b73d1a56976f..2f537b6f105778cf5c3c25d51933982e0d1a189f 100644
--- a/test/services_test.rb
+++ b/test/services_test.rb
@@ -65,7 +65,17 @@ class ServicesTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_match /region=gb/, url
   end
 
-  def test_google_query_url_contains_properly_formatted_components
+  def test_google_query_url_contains_components_when_given_as_string
+    lookup = Geocoder::Lookup::Google.new
+    url = lookup.send(:query_url, Geocoder::Query.new(
+      "Some Intersection",
+      :components => "locality:ES"
+    ))
+    formatted = "components=" + CGI.escape("locality:ES")
+    assert url.include?(formatted), "Expected #{formatted} to be included in #{url}"
+  end
+
+  def test_google_query_url_contains_components_when_given_as_array
     lookup = Geocoder::Lookup::Google.new
     url = lookup.send(:query_url, Geocoder::Query.new(
       "Some Intersection",