Have you noticed anomalies in your Google Analytics data lately? For instance, a geographic location that’s not in one of the target markets for your website might show up regularly even if you’re not directing any advertising there. Well, the answer might boil down to VPNs—read on to see how they can affect your website data and what you can do about it.
What’s a VPN?
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) disguises a user’s real IP address by routing internet traffic through servers in different locations, oftentimes a different city or even country.
How does Google collect geographic data?
Google Analytics (the search engine’s digital data collection platform) determines a user’s location based on IP addresses, providing data on a website visitors’ city, region (state/province), and country
When a VPN is used, Google Analytics records the location of the server the website visitor is using instead of the user’s actual physical location.
How does using A VPN affect my website data?
If a VPN is used, Google cannot accurately identify the geographic location of your website users without supplementary data (such as the user having a registered account for your site). Depending on how many of your website visitors use VPNs, you might see inflated traffic from cities and countries that host popular VPN servers like ProtonVPN or NordVPN.
In turn, this can present challenges to your marketing efforts, as you may not be able to correctly identify users’ actual whereabouts in location-specific campaigns. It also may make your geographic analytics less meaningful, leading to less reliable information on city- or state-specific engagement and conversion rates.
How to address VPN use
You can ask your users to provide specific information, such as location, if registration or an account is required for your website. This can then be cross-referenced with IP-based data or other backend analytics to get a more accurate geographic picture of your users.
Also, keep a close eye on your Google Analytics and record any spikes in traffic from cities, regions, or countries that aren’t part of your marketing audience—this may be a good indicator of VPN usage. You can also look at the IP addresses associated with VPN providers and create a special segment in Google Analytics to monitor this traffic specifically.