Geolocation is a broad term for technologies which allow businesses to pinpoint the physical location of any individual that interacts with their corporate network. It encompasses both the Global Positioning System (GPS) and IP address spaces, although this article focuses on the latter.

Virtually any industry can benefit from geolocation for various business requirements, primarily marketing and cybersecurity. This post discusses what users can expect and gain from IP Geolocation API.

10 Applications of IP Geolocation API

1. Steer Clear of Phishing by Monitoring Connected Domain Footprints

Age doesn’t matter, at least, not when it comes to cyber threats. And that’s what phishing has proven time and time again as it’s been used as a technique to trick people and organizations for decades.

Phishing indeed remains one of the greatest threats to any organization. At the end of the second quarter of 2020, the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) had recorded 146,994 phishing sites. Given its various forms, we don’t see the age-old threat going away anytime soon. But, like several other cybercrimes, phishing is to some extent preventable with IP Geolocation API’s help. Consider the following example to find out how.

Between March and April 2020, several recipients from a U.S. university, a Canadian healthcare agency, and an Australian energy company received emails (all related to COVID-19 supplies) from three separate accounts and different attachments. Over time, researchers found similarities in the attacks and declared they were all part of a campaign dubbed “SilverTerrier.” The threat actors used these domains, among others:

• Attack #1: mecharnise[.]ir, metadefenderinternationalsolutionfor[.]duckdns[.]org, and petroindonesia[.]co[.]id

• Attack #2: coffiices[.]com and mailhostbox[.]com

• Attack #3: hojokk[.]com and posqit[.]net

A more in-depth look at the domains used in the first attack revealed connections to the following IP addresses:

• Mecharnise[.]ir: 194[.]180[.]224[.]87

Connected URLs: felinculticas[.]online, installation[.]network, and ws-ebavisapia04-dll[.]ir, and www[.]ws-ebavisapia04-dll[.]ir

• Metadefenderinternationalsolutionfor[.]duckdns[.]org: 192[.]169[.]69[.]25 and 109[.]169[.]89[.]118

Connected URLs: 00chase-secure001[.]duckdns[.]org, 0ffice[.]duckdns[.]org, 0qjkgdao6r4jcjii3y05gi3xhi[.]kskhkdjskhjdkd[.]duckdns[.]org, 0utlook-secureprocced09jd[.]duckdns[.]org, and 1-00verlfy00-user65757-unl0ck[.]duckdns[.]org

• Petroindonesia[.]co[.]id: 202[.]67[.]10[.]173, 202[.]67[.]10[.]174, and 174[.]120[.]70[.]213

Connected URLs: 101project[.]dbenergi[.]com, 3code[.]co[.]id, 48iceblend[.]com, 48iceblend[.]monstericeblend[.]com, accounting[.]evania[.]co, cpanel[.]royaldanisa[.]com, igt[.]nalarnaluri[.]com, jns16[.]gppnetwork[.]com, mail[.]royaldanisa[.]com, cpcalendars[.]binainsani[.]com, cpcontacts[.]binainsani[.]com, d5[.]46[.]78ae[.]static[.]theplanet[.]com, girimulyo[.]id[.]or[.]id, and webmail[.]kedaitrader[.]com

Apart from blocking the URLs listed as indicators of compromise (IoCs) for SilverTerrier attacks, it may also be well worth looking further into the other websites/web pages hosted on the shared IP addresses (if your company doesn’t do IP-level blocking) to ensure these aren’t malicious. If the related URLs prove to be harmful, it’s best to block access to them to avoid becoming a SilverTerrier victim. Following the same procedure with IP Geolocation API’s help for all identified IoCs can support overall protection.

2. Protect against Carding

Another age-old attack that, most, if not all, e-commerce websites deal with to this date is carding, which this year alone could cost businesses worldwide more than $35 billion. Much like phishing, carding is also avoidable with IP Geolocation API usage.

Integrating IP Geolocation API into payment portals to instantaneously compare a customer’s IP address at the time of a transaction to that stored in network logs can weed out fraudsters.

3. Customize User Experience

Most of today’s most prominent brands (e.g., Amazon and Lululemon) gain as many patrons as possible because they take personalization to a whole new level. Apart from making sound product recommendations by monitoring customer purchases, they also tell buyers if the products they wish to obtain are deliverable to their locations before they go through the acquisition process. And that’s made possible by solutions like IP Geolocation API.

4. Take Advantage of Geotargeting

Given the massive number of e-commerce shops online, it’s hard to get noticed. Converting marketing efforts into sales is thus a considerable challenge. Digital marketers are now employing geotargeting to boost their conversion rates to adapt.

Still, geotargeting, much like other geolocation-based marketing efforts, isn’t possible without the help of a robust solution like IP Geolocation API that lets users identify their target audiences’ approximate locations.

5. Get the Most Out of Social Media Advertising

No longer a temporary craze to gain the upper hand against competitors, businesses are now employing geolocation to enhance their social media advertising efforts. Apart from geotargeting, social media advertisers can also harness the power of IP Geolocation API to enforce geo-exclusion and geo-conquesting.

6. Jump onto the Mobile Marketing Bandwagon

Experts expect the 2020 mobile location-targeted ad spending to increase to $31.1 billion, which means that digital marketers believe mobile marketing is a worthwhile investment. To get the most out of the strategy, though, it may be best to enhance mobile marketing solutions with data from IP Geolocation API. Doing so helps with real-time proximity targeting, remarketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and website localization.

7. Ease Geo-Based Redirection

Geo-based redirection, much like geotargeting and similar geolocation-based marketing tactics, allows website owners to enhance user experience (UX) through personalization. It is mostly associated with localizing pay-per-click (PPC) ads that can earn site owners additional revenue with every visitor’s click. IP Geolocation API in this case provides the much-needed visitor location data that would make geo-based redirection efforts tick.

8. Improve Geolocation Search Engine Optimization

Geolocation SEO is related to geo-based redirection. It is also one of the top ways in which businesses personalize UX. Using data obtained from solutions like IP Geolocation API, companies can instantly find out where a visitor is from and serve him/her pages in his/her native language, prices in his/her local currency, and account for other aspects. Businesses that primarily offer content would immensely benefit from geolocation SEO perks.

9. Employ Geotagging

Almost half of the global population has at least one social media account. It’s where they get news and updates on events, incidents, and social happenings. And they do so because they get the information they need with a few lines or a video/photo. That brings us to why geotagging or adding geographical details to an image, a video, or any media in the form of metadata is essential. It helps users to determine where a picture/video was taken or where an article or social media update was posted from.

Geotagging aided by solutions like IP Geolocation API may be of great use to businesses that host or sponsor events as part of their marketing strategies. By including location data photo/video metadata in social media-promoted posts, interested attendees can easily join in on the fun if they want to.

10. Add Geofencing to the Marketing Mix

Another growing marketing strategy is geofencing or triggering notifications when a mobile device and its user leave or enter a particular area. Geofencing perimeters can encompass the mall a brand’s kiosk/store resides in or an entire state/locale the company provides products or services to. Like other geolocation-based marketing tactics, geofencing is enhanced by tools like IP Geolocation API, which pinpoints where a mobile device user is at any time.

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As this post shows, IP Geolocation API and similar technologies are an excellent means to pinpoint a website visitor’s, a customer’s, or a social media or mobile device user’s approximate physical location at the time of transaction or communication. IP geolocation data can enrich any business’s cybersecurity and marketing efforts, ensuring not just the safety of its clients’ personal data but also their customer satisfaction and UX.