Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have lately been widely used due to its abundant practice in methods that have to be spread over a large range. In any wireless application, the position precision of node is an important core component. Node localization intends to calculate the geographical coordinates of unknown nodes by the assistance of known nodes. In a multidimensional space, node localization is well-thought-out as an optimization problem that can be solved by relying on any metaheuristic’s algorithms for optimal outputs. This paper presents a new localization model using Salp Swarm optimization Algorithm with Doppler Effect (LOSSADE) that exploit the strengths of both methods. The Doppler effect iteratively considers distance between the nodes to determine the position of the nodes. The location of the salp leader and the prey will get updated using the Doppler shift. The performance validation of the presented approach simulated by MATLAB in the network environment with random node deployment. A detailed experimental analysis takes place and the results are investigated under a varying number of anchor nodes, and transmission range in the given search area. The obtained simulation results are compared over the traditional algorithm along with other the state-of-the-art methods shows that the proposed LOSSADE model depicts better localization performance in terms of robustness, accuracy in locating target node position and computation time.