No one likes to be given the runaround…especially potential customers looking to buy from you! Learn how to use SmartCrawl‘s Location-Based Redirects to automatically send your site visitors to the right place based on their location.
If you run a simple site, you can easily direct visitors to different sections of your site using elements like navigation menus, breadcrumbs, keyword linking, and hyperlinks, to name a few.
But… what if you run global or multilingual sites where visitors need to be directed to pages based on their location or language?
Not a problem!
SmartCrawl Pro (our smart and powerful SEO plugin) comes with a powerful built-in URL redirection tool that lets you automatically redirect traffic from one URL to another. This is great if you have changed a page’s URL and wish to keep traffic flowing to the new page.
The plugin’s new Location-Based Redirects feature now extends the power of URL redirections by also letting you easily direct your website visitors to specific pages based on their location.
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use SmartCrawl’s new geolocation features:
Let’s jump right in…
Why Use Location-Based Redirects?
Geolocation-based URL redirects can be a powerful tool for website owners to enhance user experience and improve their online business.
Before we look at how to set up location-based redirects on your site, let’s look at several practical examples of why you would want to use geolocation with URL redirections:
Multilingual Content
If you have different versions of your website set up for different languages, you can use geolocation to automatically redirect visitors to the appropriate language version of your site. For instance, you can redirect users from France to the French version of your site, while sending visitors from Spain to the Spanish version.
Geo-Specific Landing Pages
If your business has multiple physical locations (e.g. a store chain), geolocation can increase foot traffic by directing users to their nearest store or office.
Content Localization
Do you run a news-based website? Use Geolocation to redirect users to local news or content relevant to their region and enhance engagement.
Load Balancing
Websites with multiple server locations can use geolocation to redirect users to the server nearest to them. This helps to reduce page load times and improve site performance.
Legal Compliance
Ensure compliance with local laws and regulations. For instance, your website can redirect users to GDPR consent pages if they are from the European Union.
Event Promotion
If you manage an event portal website, you can increase attendance at events by automatically redirecting users to pages about local events, seminars, or conferences happening in their region.
Targeted Ad Campaigns
Use geolocation redirects to show different advertisements based on the user’s location, ensuring that your ads are more relevant and effective.
The above are just some examples of how geolocation-based URL redirects can improve user experience, increase engagement, and drive business growth by delivering personalized, location-specific content and services.
Now that we have looked at why you should use location-based redirects, let’s look at how to set these up using SmartCrawl.
How To Set Up Location-Based Redirects
With SmartCrawl, you can now add Geolocation-based rules to URL redirects to ensure that your users see the most relevant content based on their locations.
Note: This is a SmartCrawl Pro feature. If you are currently using the SmartCrawl free version of the plugin, consider upgrading to Pro by becoming a member.
To do this, go to SmartCrawl Pro’s Advanced Tools section and click on the URL Redirection tab.
Click on the Add Redirect button to access the Location Rules feature
Note: To use SmartCrawl’s location-based redirection you will need access to Maxmind’s GeoLite2 Database. See our documentation section for step-by-step details on how to set up and configure a free Maxmind account.
After signing up for your account, enter your license key into SmartCrawl’s Location-based Rules settings to activate the feature.
Once the geolocation feature has been activated, SmartCrawl will automatically fetch the latest data from GeoLite2 each week.
With the license activated, you can now set up location rules by going to Advanced Tools > URL Redirection > Add Redirect > Location Rules and clicking on + Add Rule.
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In the Location Rules screen, choose whether to set up From or Not From rules to either include or exclude locations and specify the URL to redirect visitors.
The From and Not From options allow you to set up very specific redirects.
Notes:
- SmartCrawl currently allows you to set up location rules for countries only. Future plugin updates will include more granular options.
- The feature follows a “top-to-bottom” order of processing rules, so rules at the top of the list are processed first before the next item below it, and so on.
The location-based redirects you set up will display in the URL Redirection table with a “globe” icon for easy identification. (Tip: Hover over the global icon to view the options you have set up.)
To edit or delete your redirects, click on the gear icon next to the item.
Smart Post and Page Selection For Redirects
Another new and useful feature of SmartCrawl is smart post and page redirects.
Previous versions of the plugin included only a New URL field for adding destination URLs for redirection…
From SmartCrawl version 3.8 onward, in addition to the new Location Rules tab described earlier, you will find that the Advanced redirection section (which includes labels and Regex options) has been moved to its own tab, and two additional Redirect To options have been added to the URL field: Post and Page.
The Smart Post and Page selection tabs allow you to create redirections to existing posts or pages on your site more easily.
Simply start typing in a keyword and SmartCrawl will bring up a list of posts or pages from your site that you can select and redirect visitors to.
With this time-saving feature, you don’t have to search your site then copy and paste destination URLs…SmartCrawl’s smart engine will do the searching for you.
After selecting a post or page in the Redirect To field, select a Redirect Type from the drop-down menu, then click on the Apply Redirect button.
Coming Soon…New Features and Improvements
SmartCrawl is the only plugin you need to automate all of your WordPress SEO needs and it just keeps getting better.
Future versions of SmartCrawl’s URL Redirection tool will include new features and improvements like:
- New redirections types (e.g. 307 Temporary Redirect, 410 Content Deleted, 451 Content Unavailable for Legal Reasons)
- Automated notifications to create a redirection when a post is deleted or drafted
- Bulk editing/deleting redirects.
WPMU DEV members get access to everything, including all of our Pro plugins. If you need help setting up URL redirections, check out SmartCrawl’s documentation or reach out to our 24/7 expert support team.
