Geo-restriction or geo-blocking has now become a common method that companies use worldwide to restrict internet users from accessing their services or content from a specific geographical location. It prevents users in one country from gaining access to content available in another country.
To get around such restrictions, people put different methods into use, of which the most effective is utilizing proxy servers. This post will cover proxies in brief, along with discussing the major reasons for changing geographic location. Let’s take a look.
What is a Proxy Server
A proxy is a system that acts as a gateway between a user and the internet. It works as an intermediary that prevents cyber attackers from getting access to a private network. Proxy servers can be set up as firewalls or internet filters, which protect a device from internet threats.
There are different types of proxies, all of which have slight variations in their functions. Almost all proxies are commonly used for changing a user’s current location. When a client requests access to a website, the request is sent to the proxy server for the primary step. Then, the proxy changes the original IP address and directs the access request to the targeted website on the client’s behalf.
Reasons to Change Geographic Location
With every passing day, an increasing number of websites are implementing strict measures for users of certain regions. The following are the main reasons why businesses and individuals prefer changing their geographic location:
Market Research
Market research involves gathering product and pricing information, competitor data, sentiment analysis, and other similar tasks. At times, carrying out market research to collect data from all across the world can get daunting due to various reasons.
Changing IP addresses frequently enable users to collect real data about their target audience in different parts of the world. For instance, businesses use proxy Thailand to access their online forums and communities. The use of proxy Thailand provides actionable intel on their target people and their preferences and pain points.
Ad Verification
Advertisement fraud is a serious concern causing 69% of brands to lose 20% of their budgets to digital ad fraud. Therefore, it is important to verify advertisements to make sure they appear to the right people.
This is possible when you check the advertiser landing pages anonymously using different IPs. Multiple IP addresses make you appear as an authentic web user of a certain area, city, and carrier.
With the latest targeting capabilities, including country, city, and ISP, you can ensure your advertisement campaigns perform in the best way and reach the right audience. Having an IP that does not appear as a corporate address, fraudsters find it difficult to feed users with misleading information, enabling them to get better results for the ad verification process.
Price Intelligence
Online sellers change their products’ prices several times on a regular basis and block corporate IPs to avoid snooping on their data. To keep up with the ever-changing industry and the increasing consumer price sensitivity, companies consider smart solutions that deliver reliable pricing data.
The best solution to get there is to use real and active IP addresses, hide actual IPs, access any website, and appear from anywhere around the globe. Having a different geographical location every time enables users to gather reliable pricing data and compare it with global pricing information at scale.
Businesses must have real-time pricing information to make informed decisions and stay ahead of their competition. Changes in location enable them to bypass geo-restrictions and IP blocks and ensure they have access to the most updated and accurate pricing information available.
Web Scraping
Web scraping enables businesses to quickly collect huge amounts of data from public sources for market research, lead generation, price aggregation, and more. Performing this process with the same geographic location can get difficult since websites limit the requests users can make.
For this purpose, it is important to continuously change IP addresses that belong to real devices. Scraping bots can send requests from different IPs in different geographic locations and gather data from all sources.
Access to Geo-restricted Content
Many sites, services, and content are only available to users from a specific region. Authorities, institutions, and providers can censor particular websites like search engines and social media platforms.
Getting an IP address in the desired region can help get around these limitations. Businesses and individuals can access content where it is available safely and privately while hiding their actual location.
Test Run Applications
Many times, applications are developed to function differently according to users of different regions. Before their release, developers prefer testing the apps to see if they work as intended.
By changing their location, coders can test-run their developed applications by appearing as users from different geographical locations and find out if the included features work according to their design.
In Conclusion
Though there are logical reasons why websites use geo-blocking, it limits users from accessing content that could be advantageous for their business. Fortunately, a proxy server can change a user’s actual IP address and enable them to perform important operations needed for the development of their businesses.
