View geo-analyses with a certain degree of caution

von Katrin Nebermann

View geo-analyses with a certain degree of caution

Under Basic Reports → Location → Geo, reports can be called up according to the dimensions country, region (federal state) and city. The location is determined using the anonymized IP address, which allows conclusions to be drawn about the dial-up node or router. Ideally, this is only a few kilometers away from the user’s actual location, but it can also be several hundred kilometers away. According to IPLocation.net, the accuracy of IP-based geolocation is around 95 to 99% for a country, 55 to 80% for a region (federal state) and only 50 to 75% for a city.

The reason for deviations lies in the use of VPNs, remote access via company networks and so-called ISP routing.

The HTML5 approach offers a more precise determination of the location, but this requires the explicit consent of the user and is therefore practically unusable for web analysis. In this respect, it is important to understand the data as the best possible orientation aid for detecting regional peculiarities, despite its vagueness.