If you need to display different content on your website for different visitors from different locations, you might be familiar with Geo Redirection. But if you’ve done some research on the topic, you might have been intimidated by the complexity of geolocation IP databases, and how to implement IP lookups on your website's servers. This technology can be quite complex, and without a proper implementation on the back end, mistakes can be made, so it’s easy to see how adoption would be difficult.
With a service like Geo Targetly, you can implement geo redirection with just a simple code snippet on your website. In this article, we’ll go over a few example use cases for geo redirection that you might be able to use for your site.
What is Geo Redirection?
Geo Redirection works by using your website visitors IP address to detect their location discreetly, and redirect them to specific content on your website based on that location. This detection works in real time and is exceptionally accurate, down to the city level.
With a service like Geo Targetly, you don’t need to hassle with an IP geolocation database. Geo Targetly handles the content redirection and lookups for you. All you need to do is identify the locations that you want to serve specific content to, and set up those redirects in the Geo Targetly admin interface.
Global brand redirection from .com to country level domains
If you have a website that serves different parts of the world, it might be necessary for your business or brand to redirect your visitors to the country-specific domain that best matches their location in the world. For example, your Canadian users are going to be used to visiting websites with the .ca country level domain. If you want to make them feel at home using your website, and you do enough business in Canada for them to be a sizeable part of your business, redirecting these visitors to the .ca domain might be essential for your brand trust and conversions on your website
Using country-specific domains might be essential for building trust or meeting other business requirements with your customers. With Geo redirection, you can accurately redirect your visitors to the correct country level domain instead of trying to have all users fall under the umbrella of the .com domain.
E-commerce store inter-redirection to country-specific store
If you sell online, you know how important it is to have the correct country specific domain. Being able to close sales might rely on conforming to what users from certain parts of the world expect when they visit a website.
Pricing information and your visitor’s trust rely heavily on using the correct terminology for your online store. Trying to run an eCommerce store from just one country might work for smaller operations, but as your business grows you might find it challenging to operate worldwide without a strategy around using country-specific stores, shipping, pricing, and other factors that will be critical for increasing conversions, closing sales, and providing your products or services to more than just your country of origin.
Check out page redirection to a country-specific page
If your website has different checkout processes or currency requirements, it could be essential for you to redirect your visitors to the checkout page that best suits them based on their location.
If you end up displaying the wrong currency, products, or shipping information to your customers, you are very likely going to miss out on a sale, erode trust, or maybe even have to process a refund. Make sure you’re giving your customers the experience that they expect on your website by dynamically redirecting them to the page that matches their location, and will show them accurate checkout information.
Service business auto redirection to city/state landing pages
For local businesses near multiple cities, it’s common to provide services to more than just the city or state they reside in. If this sounds like your business, then you know how critical it can be to provide up to date and accurate service information about your business.
The last thing you want is to take an order and realise that you cannot accommodate the request based on oversight from your website experience.
Contact us page redirection to a location-based page
Having a contact page that accurately reflects the best way to contact your business for a visitor in a specific location is essential to the user experience. Phone numbers are a great example of a piece of information that will vary based on where you are in the world. Yes, you could list all country codes for phone numbers, but it would make much more sense to give users the option to see those, while instead showing the specific phone number prominently for their exact location. Showing the correct address is another example where listing all options available might seem like a simple solution, but could easily confuse your website visitors.
By using a service like Geo Targetly, you can quickly show your users the contact information that is most relevant to them, making their experience on your website that much easier.
Redirection to regional specific product pages
If you have products on your website that are specifically reserved or tailored to people in certain parts of the world, geo redirection is a great way to make sure that those users are correctly redirected to those location-specific product pages
Examples can range from t-shirts customised based on location, to specific offerings for a particular region. Whatever your use case, you might benefit from being able to redirect visitors based on their location dynamically.
Conclusion
Displaying different content on your website for different visitors from different locations is easy. Geo redirection gives you the power to implement this functionality without having to understand the tech behind geolocation databases, or how to apply IP lookups behind the scenes on your website. In this article, we’ve gone over a few example use cases for Geo Redirection that you might be able to use for your site.
Geo redirection is easier with a service like Geo Targetly, so if something we’ve gone over in this article looks like a match for your business or website, think about giving it a try! To start creating geo redirects for your website, claim your free trial now!