You’re probably aware that Google returns search results that are relevant to your location. For example, if you are looking for a nail salon near your Eastwood home or Memorial Park apartment, the search engine will show you relevant results in the same area.
However, Google isn’t the only platform that customizes site content for visitors based on their location. Other websites, such as Amazon, eBay, and many eCommerce websites, will serve you more appropriate pages for your location.
If you enjoy it, there’s no reason why your website shouldn’t serve up material based on the location of your visitors. Geotargeting plugins for WordPress can help with this. Geotargeting determines your visitor’s location and then displays content tailored to that place. There are many agencies like UPQODE Houston web design providing web development and design solutions in the city.
What Makes Houston a Perfect Location for GeoTargeting?
The smartphone ownership in the city has increased by more than thrice, from 350,000 in 2007 to over 1.3 million now. A smartphone is owned by one out of every three Houston mobile phone subscribers.
With an estimated population of 2,325,502 in July 2018, Houston is the fourth most populated city after New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and is the largest in the southern United States and Texas. During the second part of the 2020s, Houston is predicted to surpass New York in its population.
Greater Houston is the country’s most ethnically diversified urban center. Residents speak about 145 languages, and 90 countries have a diplomatic presence in the city. Due to this level of diversity in the target audience, it becomes necessary for webmasters to use geotargeting to filter the ideal audience.
Why Consider Using WordPress for GeoTargeting?
Geotargeting, also known as geolocation targeting, is a marketing approach that allows companies to provide personalized customer experiences depending on a user’s geographic location.
Geotargeting can help you make your content, goods, and website more suitable for your intended audience. According to studies, it increases user attention, increases engagement, increases conversions, and increases revenue. According to a survey, 61% of smartphone owners prefer to buy from websites that tailor information to their specific region.
Plugins for Geo-Targeting
Have you noticed that the geotargeting functionality is now available in the upgraded WordPress versions? The dashboard shows upcoming events that are relevant to your current location. However, there is no built-in ability in the CMS to optimize content based on geography.
Fortunately, there are numerous free and paid plugins available to assist you. These WordPress geotargeting plugins will help you make your website more appealing to a global audience. Most plugins require a free/paid API to receive IP geolocation information from the plugin’s server or a 3rd-party server. Most plugins require you to obtain a free/paid API.
Effective Ways to Use Geotargeting
Different ads or affiliate links: You might benefit from displaying different adverts and affiliate offers based on a user’s location for two reasons:
- Some advertisements may not pay for traffic from specific countries. This is particularly typical with affiliate deals when commission is only paid for signups from select countries.
- Even if your primary offer accepts international traffic, it may not convert as effectively as another offer in certain places.
Show or hide content as per a user’s geographic location:
Aside from adverts, there are various reasons why geotargeting your WordPress site’s content can be beneficial.
For instance, suppose you run a membership site that only accepts users from specific nations. You might show your standard signup form to visitors from those countries, but a different message to visitors from countries you don’t service, using geotargeting.
If you have an email list, you can use geotargeting to display different opt-in forms to increase conversions and quickly separate your subscribers into multiple lists based on their location.
Users should be redirected to the appropriate translation for their language: Suppose you’re creating a multilingual site with a WordPress translation plugin. In that case, you may make it more user-friendly for foreign visitors by using geo redirect to send them to their native language.
Most large websites handle multilingual traffic in this way; for example, Google and Facebook automatically switch international users to their native language. You may apply the same functionality to your WordPress site with a geo redirect plugin by setting up automatic redirection.
Block countries that you don’t want to serve: There may be situations when you wish to go the other way and block access to your site entirely from certain locations. You may want to do this if you’re getting a lot of spam from a specific area.
Despite its tiny population, Vietnam, for example, has many botnets functioning, which is why several major websites in the United States ban all Vietnamese traffic. So, if you’re getting a lot of spam from a place you don’t serve, it could be a better idea to restrict traffic from that site.
You can still show a personalized message describing the issue if you use geo-targeting instead of limiting traffic at the server level.
Your WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads store can be geo-targeted:
This isn’t going to work for all WordPress sites. However, if WordPress powers your eCommerce store, various methods use geolocation to sell more things and provide a more user-friendly experience.
Final Thoughts
Geotargeting for WordPress makes it reasonably simple to tailor information for visitors based on their geographic location. It keeps your visitors more engaged with your website by providing them with the most relevant material.
You may also use the function to increase the security and effectiveness of your WordPress website. It may even assist in the development of a dedicated following over time.
