Geo Redirects
Automatically redirect visitors based on location
What are Geo Redirects?
Geo redirects automatically send visitors to a different URL based on their geographic location. This is the most common form of geo-targeting, used by businesses that have separate websites or landing pages for different countries or regions.
For example, you might redirect visitors from Germany to example.de and visitors from France to example.fr, while everyone else stays on example.com.
How It Works
Visitor loads your page
The geoswap.js script loads on your page and sends the visitor's request to the GeoSwap edge network.
Location is determined at the edge
Cloudflare Workers determine the visitor's country, region, and city using edge-level geolocation. No third-party API calls are needed.
Rules are evaluated
The Worker checks your redirect rules (stored in Redis for speed) and determines whether a redirect should happen. Rules are evaluated in priority order.
GeoRedirect executes client-side
If a rule matches, the geoswap.js script performs the redirect. The visitor sees a near-instant navigation to the correct URL.
Setup Guide
Step 1: Install the GeoSwap script
Add the GeoSwap script to your website. See the Installation Guide for platform-specific instructions.
Add to <head>html
<script src="https://cdn.geoswap.co/geoswap.js" data-account="YOUR_ACCOUNT_ID" defer></script>Step 2: Create a redirect rule
In the GeoSwap dashboard, navigate to Redirects and click New Geo Redirect.
Source URL
The page where the redirect should trigger. This can be a specific URL or a URL pattern with wildcards (e.g., example.com/*).
Target countries
Select one or more countries. Visitors from these countries will be redirected. Use explicit matching (select the countries you want to redirect) rather than exclusion rules for best SEO safety.
Destination URL
The URL where matched visitors will be sent. Must be a full URL including https://.
Step 3: Configure options
Option
Description
Pass-through mode
Append the original path and query string to the destination URL. Useful when redirecting between domain variants.
Once per session
Only redirect a visitor once per browser session. Prevents redirect loops if a visitor navigates back.
Status code
Choose between 302 (temporary) and 301 (permanent). Use 302 for testing; switch to 301 once confirmed. GeoSwap defaults to 302.
Priority
When multiple rules could match, the highest-priority rule wins. Lower numbers run first.
SEO Safety
Googlebot is never redirected
When you use explicit country matching (e.g., "redirect visitors from Germany"), Googlebot does not match any country and sees your original page. This is by design. See the SEO Guide for details.
Avoid "not equal to" rules
Rules like "redirect everyone NOT in the US" will match Googlebot (whose IP resolves to no identifiable country), causing it to be redirected away from your page. Always use explicit country targeting instead. GeoSwap will warn you in the dashboard if you create a rule that could affect search engine crawlers.
Automatic Hreflang Tags
When you create geo redirects between language or country variants of your site, GeoSwap automatically generates the correct hreflang tags. These tags tell search engines about your alternate-language pages, preventing duplicate content issues and ensuring the right version appears in local search results.
Generated hreflang tagshtml
<!-- Auto-generated by GeoSwap -->
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="en" href="https://example.com/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="de" href="https://example.de/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="fr" href="https://example.fr/" />
<link rel="alternate" hreflang="x-default" href="https://example.com/" />You can also use the Hreflang Generator tool in the dashboard to preview and customize the output.
Testing Your Redirects
You do not need a VPN to test geo redirects. GeoSwap provides two ways to simulate a different location:
Dashboard test panel
Each redirect rule has a "Test" button that lets you simulate any country and see exactly what would happen.
Simulate Rules
Use the Rule Simulator tool in your dashboard to test geo-targeting from any country. Pick a country, device, and page to see exactly which rule fires — no VPN needed.
Best Practices
Use explicit country matching (select specific countries), not exclusion rules.
Start with 302 (temporary) redirects during testing, then switch to 301 once confirmed.
Enable "once per session" to prevent redirect loops when visitors use the back button.
Use pass-through mode when redirecting between domain variants (e.g., example.com to example.de) to preserve the URL path.
Add labels to organize rules when you have many redirects (e.g., by region or campaign).
Review the SEO Check tool in the dashboard after creating rules to catch potential issues.
Next up
Manage redirects at scale with CSV import and edge execution.