Geo Blocks

What Are Geo Blocks?

Geo Blocks let you restrict who can access your pages based on where they are. When a visitor from a blocked location arrives, you choose what happens: show them a message, display a popup, or redirect them somewhere else.

This is useful when you have legal, licensing, or regulatory reasons to limit access. For example, a streaming service might need to block content in countries where they do not hold distribution rights. An e-commerce store might block checkout for regions they cannot ship to.

Common Use Cases

How to Create a Geo Block

Open Geo Blocks in your dashboard

Navigate to Geo Block in the sidebar and click New Block.

Name it and set page targeting

Give your block a descriptive name (e.g., "EU Content Restriction"). Choose which pages to protect: all pages, specific URLs, or a URL pattern (a regular expression). See Page Targeting below.

Add blocking rules

Each rule targets a segment and specifies a block mode: message, popup, or redirect. You can add multiple rules to handle different regions differently.

Configure each rule's content

Depending on the block mode you chose, fill in the Message HTML, the Popup Title and Popup Content HTML, or the Redirect URL. See the Block Modes section below for details.

Save and test

Click Create Block to activate it. Use the Simulate Rules tool in your dashboard to test from different countries without needing a VPN.

Block Modes

Each blocking rule uses one of three modes. Choose the one that fits your situation:

Rules and Segments

Each Geo Block can have multiple rules, and each rule targets a different segment with its own block mode. This means you can handle different regions in completely different ways within a single Geo Block.

Rules are evaluated in order. The first rule whose segment matches the visitor's location is the one that fires. Visitors who do not match any rule see the page normally.

A block takes priority over Geo Content, Bars, Popups, Scripts, and Currency. When a block fires, none of those run on the page. Geo Redirects are checked first, so a matching redirect wins over a block. Message and popup HTML support content variables like {{country_name}}.

Page Targeting

You control exactly which pages your Geo Block protects:

With All Pages or Specific URLs, you can also exclude pages (by URL, path, or pattern), for example to keep your contact page open to everyone. See page targeting for more examples.

Search engines are not blocked

Googlebot and other search engine crawlers are never affected by Geo Blocks. They always see your original page content, which means your pages remain indexed and ranked normally. See the SEO Safety docs for more details.

Geo Blocks are applied by the GeoSwap script in the visitor's browser. That makes them a good fit for regional notices and licensing messages, but they are not a replacement for server-side access control. Your page is still delivered, so anything truly sensitive should be protected on your server too.

Best Practices

Be thoughtful about blocking. Restricting access should be a last resort, not a first choice. If you can redirect or personalize instead, that is usually better for the visitor experience.

Always provide an explanation. A blank page or generic error frustrates visitors. Tell them why access is restricted and what they can do instead.

Use redirect mode when you have a regional alternative. Sending blocked visitors to a relevant page is far better than showing them a dead end.

Use segments to define blocked regions clearly. Broad segments ("European Union") are easier to maintain than listing individual countries.

Test your blocks with Simulate Rules before going live. Verify that the right visitors are blocked and that unblocked visitors see the page normally.

Review your blocks periodically. Licensing agreements, regulations, and your own service availability change over time. A block you set up last year may no longer be needed.