{"id":37221,"date":"2018-04-23T11:15:13","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T16:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/?post_type=support&p=37221"},"modified":"2025-12-01T07:49:49","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T13:49:49","slug":"geotarget","status":"publish","type":"support","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/support\/geotarget\/","title":{"rendered":"Geographically Customized Content with GeoTarget"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GeoTarget is a user segmentation system that allows users the ability to show different content or perform different actions based on the geolocation of their visitors. The GeoTarget system is unique in that it also plays nicely with WP Engine’s server cache. Page content is cached as separate objects for separate regions allowing your site to show customized content, while still maintaining cacheability<\/a> and scalability<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GeoTarget is included with Premium plans and can be purchased for Shared plans by speaking with an Account Manager or the WP Engine Sales team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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About GeoTarget<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Users often face the struggle of finding a cacheable solution when implementing their geographically-customized content. For example, if a user wanted a Canadian phone number to show only for users in Canada and a US phone number to show for users in the United States, a developer would need to manually regenerate HTML for the page via PHP on every single page load, based on where the user is located.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With GeoTarget, WP Engine\u2019s proprietary page caching system will store variations of the page for each geographic location in separate cache segments. Our GeoTarget system uses the GeoLite database from MaxMind<\/a> to determine where the user is from, and serves them cached version from their location. This allows your site to scale better with waves of traffic while still providing a custom experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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With other integrations, you get GeoTarget from a Javascript library, but that loads only after the page has already been generated by WordPress\u00ae, and therefore you cannot make code-based modifications based on the geography.1<\/a><\/sup> There\u2019s also often a \u201cflash\u201d or other effect because the page is rendered before the Javascript gets a chance to do something differently.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, other page-caching systems are not flexible enough to be able to be tuned for specific GeoTarget use-cases, which means you generally have to disable page-caching, severely hampering your speed and scale. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than creating your own implementation of rules based on a GeoIP database, WP Engine minimizes the needed technical effort from your team by managing the complex configuration of these rules, as well as the back-end settings to cache page variations separately. Enablement of GeoTarget in three simple steps unlocks the ability to segment pages by geography, so you can focus on building the content.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE<\/p><\/div>

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GeoTarget is automatically included Premium WP Engine plans. It is available to be purchased as a product extension for all other plans by reach out to our Sales team.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Enable GeoTarget<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In this section we will outline the recommended steps to fully activate the functionality. After GeoTarget is enabled, users can create geographically-specific content and PHP functions using the proper GeoTarget variables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Purchase GeoTarget Product Extension<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Customers on Premium WP Engine plans will have GeoTarget included at no additional cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your plan is Lite, Startup, Growth, or Scale then simply reach out to your Account Manager<\/a> to purchase the product extension<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NOTE<\/p><\/div>

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You may use GeoTarget on any Site included in your WP Engine plan. As the product extension can be used on an unlimited number of environments within your plan, GeoTarget has a different price per plan tier.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Add WP Engine GeoTarget Plugin<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Login to your website’s wp-admin dashboard area<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Click Plugins<\/strong> and select Add New<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Search for WP Engine GeoTarget<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Install<\/strong> and Active<\/strong> the GeoTarget plugin<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Like any WordPress plugin, WP Engine will update the GeoTarget plugin from time to time. When an update is released, you will be able to update it in your WordPress Dashboard.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    NOTE<\/p><\/div>

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    The GeoTarget plugin can also be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Enable a GeoTarget Profile<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Finally, you will need to contact our Support team to enable the GeoTarget profile<\/em> for the environment(s) on which you wish to use the feature. This profile defines the caching bucket that GeoTarget can use on each site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Contact WP Engine Support<\/a> and provide the following information:<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    1. Environment name(s) for GeoTarget<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Bucket to enable<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    3. Support PIN<\/a> for verification\n