International IP detection/ Advanced

[Posterclub]

Hi All,

Our web site use ip detection to direct customer to the approriate version of the website.
For instance spanish detected ip will see price in Euro and the language of the website will be set to spanish.

Problem: To QA the user experience we are currently using proxy they are hard to find and super slow.
Do any of you have suggestions on how to make this process much easier.

Thanks

[lammert]

Did you consider using the variables sent to you by the browser? One of these variables is HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE, which contains the preferred language. This could be more helpful and faster than IP detection, especially in countries with more than one language like Belgium or Switzerland.

[Leosghost]

This serving language by IP can be very annoying for people who live in a country ..but are not entirely fluent with the language ..for example the large ex pat British community living in Spain and France ..they speak the languages enough to get by ( maybe ;) .but they rarely can read it ..

They usually have a high spending power ..and are prepared to by from the net what they cannot find easily locally ( due again to language problems for them in local businesses ) .. ( again it may even be their preferred way to buy ..for example most ex pats buy their DVD's books etc from amazon UK ) you are cutting them off as potential customers if you presume that they can read your landing page ..

Better is to offer them the choice ..and show their flags ..or offer more than one language on the entry page ..

Or lammerts idea ..which had totally slipped my mind is even better ..if you also let them choose the language once they are on site ..some places have one setting in browser ..but users who don't all have the same fluency in that language ..

[lorax]

>> who live in a country ..but are not entirely fluent with the language

Excellent point

[pmkpmk]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld, PosterWorld!

Do I understand it right that your question is about ways how YOU YOURSELF can test the geotargeting? Right now you use proxies to test it, but it is too slow for you?

Well, since it is your very own programming, nobody prevents you from implementing a special URL variable for testing purposes? I would still use a proxy to test if it works at all, but for the normal testing I would add something like

www.example.com/products.php?testcountry=spain

.

I second Leosghost that I personally object mandatory geotargeting. Offering it as an option is OK, but leaving the user no choice at all is not user friendly.

On a sidenote: which database/service are you using for geotargeting?