How to test websites from different countries or Geo-locations?

Businesses serve tailored content and/or ads relevant to specific locations to capitalize on marketing efforts. Additionally, this tailored content must adhere strictly to the content distribution laws for particular geographies. In such cases, testers must verify that the right content is viewed by users in different geographies when they access a website or app.

Let’s consider Hotel booking sites for instance. Such websites rely heavily on the geolocation of a particular user. Teams need to ensure that these sites are displaying all the hotels within the specific region where the user is located. Based on the customers’ location, the website should be able to provide a tailored list of restaurants near them.

Any discrepancies in terms of listings for a specific location can result in a significant loss of customers and potential revenue. This is why it is vital to perform geolocation testing.

Cloud-based platforms like BrowserStack makes it effortless to test websites from different countries or locations on real mobile or desktop devices.

To test websites from different countries on real devices follow the steps below:

1. Signup on BrowserStack Live or Log in if you already have an account
2. Once you have logged in, navigate to the Live Dashboard
3. Choose the operating system and browser you wish to test on. (For example, in this example, we choose Windows 10 and Chrome 84)
4. Once you choose the desired OS-Browser combination, a session will be initiated for the same.
5. Once the session begins, select the Change Location option from the floating tool-box and enter the desired location or a country from which you wish to test your website. (For the example below, we have considered Germany as the desired location and BrowserStack as the website under test)

By default, the location is set to None; thus, the search results stay unaltered. However, once the location is set to Germany, and if you search for a random query like “hotels near me”, the search results appear in the German language. Refer to the image below to observe how Google provides localized search results for queries made from Germany.

As one can observe, the search results displayed are in German.

Similarly, BrowserStack enables teams to test websites from different countries on real mobile devices (Android and iOS). One just needs to choose the platform (Android or iOS), and select the desired handset to test on from the live Dashboard. Once the session begins, set the target location and then test your website.

With businesses expanding their services globally, testing features like Geotargeting, localization, and Geoblocking is mandatory. Doing this ensures that companies can successfully reach out to the target audience and deliver tailored content.