What is Geo-Targeting?

Posted on | February 4, 2008 | Comments Off

Geo-targeting is the practice of providing different content and/or advertising to web site users based upon their geographic locations. This lets visitors to a web page see information and ads which are more likely to be of interest to them. There are multiple methods for carrying out geo-targeting, and different ways it can be utilized.

Geo-targeted may be used to more effectively market products, or provide localized information to a web site’s visitors. For example, the Google AdWords pay-per-click system enables geo-targeting of ads by language or nation. This would be useful for an American business selling a heavy product which can only realistically be shipped to the U.S. or Canada. An example of geo-targeting content would be for a financial news web site to automatically provide a user with stock quotes on companies in the specific city he or she is located in. This is often used to provide local news and weather data on portal web sites. However, default content or ads should always be offered when a user’s location cannot be detected or recognized. It also shouldn’t force users to accept one type of content because of their locations; for example, in multi-language sites, people should be given the option to select a different language than that of the country they are thought to be located in.

Some methods for accomplishing geo-targeting include using address information from a registration form, asking users to select their region from a menu upon entering the site, or having separate versions of a web site for people from different regions (example: ca.yahoo.com). According to wikipedia.org, web sites can also detect a user’s IP address and use it to determine his or her approximate location. Cookies may be used, after the geo-targeting data has been obtained. No method of doing this always works; some IP addresses do not reveal a user’s location, people can access subdomains not intended for them, and forms may be filled out falsely or incorrectly. Targeting based upon language selection is likely to be more accurate (although less location-specific), especially in countries where most people speak one language.

Overall, geo-targeting enables marketers to advertise more efficiently, and gives internet users content which is more locally-relevant to them. The main drawbacks of geo-targeting are that it is more complex to set up a site which uses it, and it is not always successful in correctly determining visitors’ geographic locations.

Category: Strategy Lab
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