Website Geotargeting 101: What Is It and 4 Ways to Use It
As marketers, we are always looking for ways to improve our methods and better reach our target audiences. No doubt, we all want to increase conversions and get the best return on our investment in our website and messaging. One way to encourage more users to click is by delivering personalized, relevant content through geotargeting.
What is Geotargeting and how does it work?
In short, geotargeting is a digital marketing strategy that utilizes a user’s geographic location data to serve them personalized content or ads. This can be applied to numerous different aspects of digital marketing, but today we’re talking specifically about geotargeting on websites.
When a user interacts with your website, information about their geographic location is collected based on their IP address, among other factors, and that location data is used to determine what content the user is shown. This means that two different people in two different locations can browse the same website page and see different content. You can target users based on country, state, city, and even zip code.
Why use Geotargeting?
Traditionally, every user who goes to a specific website URL sees the same content. Geotargeting allows you to, instead, show specific, more relevant content to your users based on their location. A user’s geographic location can differentiate their wants, needs, and concerns. By tailoring your website content to a user’s location, you have a better chance of serving them information that resonates with them. This personalized user experience can encourage more people to convert on your website.
Example: Google Search Results
A simple example of geotargeting that we all encounter in everyday life can be found on google.com.
Let’s say you are in Richmond, Virginia, and you do a Google search for “Mexican restaurants.” Google doesn’t show you Mexican restaurants located in all 50 states; instead, you’re shown Mexican restaurants near you in Richmond.
(Side note, shameless recommendation from Celestia – if you need a new favorite Mexican restaurant in Richmond, check out Kahlo’s Taqueria! You won’t be disappointed.)
Now, let’s try the same Google search from Hawaii!
The exact same search terms, searched from Hawaii, yield very different results than our Richmond search. That’s because Google uses your IP address, when available, to tailor search results that are best suited for you based on your location. Google does this to create a better, more personalized user experience.
The exact same search terms yield very different results than our Richmond search. That’s because Google uses your IP address, when available, to tailor search results that are best suited for you based on your location. Google does this to deliver hyper-targeted results that are more likely to be what you’re actually looking for. It would be frustrating if you had to sift through tons of irrelevant search results just to get to the relevant ones.
Similarly, there are ways to use geotargeting on your own company’s website that can help improve the user experience and tailor your website content to fit your user’s needs.
Four ways to use Geotargeting on your website
So how can you use geotargeting on your website? There are lots of ways, varying from simple to complex.
1
Geotargeted landing pages
Your target audiences in different locations may have different pain points, needs, and motivations. Tailoring the content on your landing pages to these different key locations can improve the user experience and make users more likely to convert– if they feel you are talking directly to them.
To give a broad example—Let’s say you sell home insurance, and part of your target audience lives in Florida and another segment lives in Michigan. Displaying images of snow-covered homes and featuring messaging about preventing frozen pipes on your home page might resonate with your Michigan audience, but it’s not likely to be relevant for users living in Florida. With a geotargeted landing page, you could display personalized, more relevant images and copy to users in different locations.
2
Showing local branch information
If your business has multiple locations/branches, a simple yet effective way to use geotargeting is to identify and display the user’s local branch in the header. You can then display information about that branch/location for easy access.
You may have experienced something similar to this while browsing target.com. Based on your location, they will display your local store in the header. This location data then tailors your browsing experience by showing products and sales available at that specific store. This doesn’t just work for ecommerce sites, bank websites are a great candidate for this method. By capturing your user’s location data, you can display their location bank branch, along with promotions relevant to that branch, and thus, your user.
3
Showing local events
Events are another great way to leverage geotargeting. If your company puts on lots of events in different states or cities, you might consider geotargeting these events on your key landing pages. Instead of showing ALL the events to all users, you are able to display the events that are closest to each user’s location– In theory, the events they are most likely to be interested in.
4
Showing local job openings
Displaying nearby job openings is another great use case for geotargeting. Based on the user’s location data, you can show them jobs at your company that are close to their location, rather than showing ALL jobs which might be less relevant.
An example of a site that does this indeed.com. By default, they show you jobs close to your location, making it easier to sift through the listings and find what you’re looking for.
Interested in Geotargeting?
These are just a few ways to leverage location data to closely target your audience on your company’s website. The sky is the limit! If you are interested in implementing geotargeting methods on your website, we’d love to brainstorm even more inventive and strategic ways to help you accomplish that.
Let's chat!
About the author:
Celestia Trumbo
Senior Account Manager
Celestia is the Senior Account Manager at Torx. She spends her days meeting with clients and managing projects to ensure everything runs smoothly and that our clients’ visions are brought to life. She loves soaking up as much technical information from our developers as she can, to equip her to best help our clients. She hopes that this technical know-how will also help her win at trivia one day!