For business owners, marketers and anyone with a working website, an IP geolocation API represents a world of opportunities for greater growth, traffic, and engagement. This type of tool allows you, simply, to access visitor location - whether by country, state, city, latitude or longitude - using an API, which allows for location-based website customisation that’s meaningful and likely to result in a conversion.
While it’s no longer a tool only used by the biggest, most dynamic companies, much of the functionality of this type of API still remains underutilised. In our post today, we attempt to rectify this by doing a tell-all on the amazing features an IP geolocation API boasts and what you need to know before you introduce one to your site.
Use IP geolocation data to centre your maps based on visitor geolocation
Just a few years ago, 80% of an individual’s personal income was spent on businesses within 10 miles of their home. While this number may have, in all likelihood, reduced since then, it’s still a fact of importance for retailers. If you run a physical retail outlet and wish to direct your customers right to your doorstep, an IP geolocation API will detect the location of each visitor and automatically direct them, via an in-built map function on your site, to your nearest store.
In this way, this tool is extremely useful for driving foot traffic to your store and converting online visitors to offline customers.
Customise your website content based on visitor geolocation
Did you know that IP geolocation APIs are also highly useful in terms of customising your website? These nifty tools allow you to leverage dynamic content that changes based on where your users are located. Imagine the increase in the conversion rate you can drive if you tailor your marketing and messaging to the specific city a website visitor is from? This kind of content strategy will allow you to connect more meaningfully with your audiences.
Autofill form elements with geolocation data
These APIs can also improve your website experience significantly by triggering the autofill function on certain elements of your online forms. Here, location data and Javascript can be leveraged to autoselect drop-down options and auto-populate location fields, reducing inconvenience and hassle for website visitors.
It allows you to access highly specific visitor location data
A more obvious feature of an IP geolocation API is the website visitor data it yields. At face value, this includes visitor country, state, city, latitude and longitude. Beyond the features we’ve already discussed, however, this information will also undoubtedly be useful for a variety of marketing purposes including targeted email campaigns, discounts, promos, and any other form of outreach that needs that extra punch. Ultimately, this data helps you see where a majority of your visitors are coming from, what products they’re specifically interested in, and other page-specific information that will allow you to improve your customer targeting.
FAQs: What do I need to know before introducing an IP geolocation API to my site?
Is user permission required to extract IP geolocation?
When it comes to IP geolocation APIs, one of the biggest advantages is that user permission is not required to extract the required IP address location.
Do I need to install a geolocation database?
Certain IP geolocation APIs don’t require the installation of any IP address databases, given that Javascript is used to obtain visitor location data. This is done via a request made from each visitor’s browser to the server hosting the API you’re using.
How accurate are IP geolocation APIs at detecting location?
Depending on how close you want to get to your visitor, this type of API reports a very high level of accuracy at detecting locations: 99% accurate at detecting countries, 90% accurate at the state level, and 80% at the city level.
Transform your website with a simple yet highly functional IP geolocation API
For anyone looking for a website that’s highly interactive, personalised, and relevant to individual users, an IP geolocation API can represent a turning point in terms of how websites are managed and run. If you’ve been looking for that one thing that changes how you engage with your website visitors, look no further - geolocation personalisation can improve your website experience and leverage a host of actionable user data.
