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Geographic Exploration on the Globe

Navigate to specific regions on the 3D Globe, zoom into countries, and use the stats overlay to filter by location.

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Last updated: January 15, 2025

Explore your visitor data geographically on the 3D Globe by zooming into regions and using the stats overlay to filter by country.

Manual Navigation

You can manually navigate to any country by rotating and zooming the globe:

  1. Click and drag to rotate the globe to the desired region
  2. Scroll to zoom in on a specific country
  3. Continue zooming to see city-level marker placement
  4. Individual visitor markers become more spread out as you zoom in

Fly-to via Activity Feed

Click any visitor in the Activity Feed to fly the globe directly to their location:

  • The globe smoothly animates to center on the visitor
  • Zoom level depends on data precision:
    • City-level coordinates: Zooms to zoom level 8 (city view)
    • Country center fallback: Zooms to zoom level 5 (country view)
  • If the visitor's city is geocoded after the initial fly-to, the globe re-animates to the more precise location

Country Stats in the Overlay

Top Stats Overlay

The Top Stats overlay at the top of the globe view shows geographic breakdowns:

  • Country breakdown: Shows which countries your current visitors are from
  • Device breakdown: Desktop, mobile, and tablet splits
  • Referrer breakdown: Traffic sources for active visitors

Filtering by Country

Click on a country in the stats overlay to filter the globe:

  1. Click a country name in the stats breakdown
  2. The globe filters to show only visitors from that country
  3. The Activity Feed updates to show only matching visitors
  4. Click the filter again or refresh to clear it

Zoom Levels

What You See at Each Level

Zoom LevelViewMarkers
Low (zoomed out)Full globe visibleMarkers clustered by region
MediumContinental viewCountry-level marker spread
HighCountry viewCity-level marker placement
MaximumCity levelIndividual markers clearly separated

Marker Placement at Different Zooms

  • At low zoom levels, markers from nearby locations overlap
  • As you zoom in, markers spread apart to show their actual positions
  • City-geocoded markers show precise city placement at high zoom
  • Country-center fallback markers remain at the country's geographic center

Geographic Data Quality

Location Accuracy by Region

Location accuracy varies by geographic region and depends on IP geolocation data quality:

  • North America & Europe: Generally high accuracy to city level
  • Asia Pacific: Good accuracy in major cities, less precise in rural areas
  • Africa & South America: Accuracy varies, often accurate to country or major city level
  • Mobile visitors: May be attributed to carrier gateway cities rather than actual locations

Why Visitors May Appear in Wrong Locations

CauseEffect
VPN usageVisitor appears in the VPN server's country
Corporate proxyVisitor appears at the proxy location
Mobile carrierVisitor may appear in the carrier's routing city
ISP data errorOccasional misattribution to nearby cities

IP geolocation accuracy depends on third-party data providers and varies by region. Some visitors may appear in approximate rather than exact locations.

Country Fallback Coordinates

When a visitor's city-level coordinates are not available or unreliable, the globe uses built-in country center coordinates. The globe includes fallback coordinates for 30 commonly visited countries:

Major countries with fallback coordinates include the US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, Brazil, India, China, and others. Visitors from countries without predefined fallbacks are placed at coordinates (0, 0) in the Atlantic Ocean.

Practical Use Cases

Monitoring Geographic Reach

Use the globe to understand your traffic distribution:

  • Rotate the globe to see where markers are concentrated
  • Zoom into key markets to see city-level detail
  • Check the stats overlay for country percentage breakdowns

Campaign Impact

When running a geographically targeted campaign:

  • Watch for new markers appearing in the target region
  • Use the country filter to isolate traffic from the campaign's target country
  • Compare activity levels visually across regions

Identifying New Markets

Discover emerging traffic sources:

  • Look for markers in unexpected countries
  • Check the stats overlay for new countries appearing
  • Use the Activity Feed to see which pages visitors from new regions are viewing

Troubleshooting

Visitors Not Appearing in Expected Countries

  • Verify the tracking script is collecting geographic data
  • Check if visitors are using VPNs (common with tech-savvy audiences)
  • Note that some mobile visitors may be attributed to carrier gateway cities
  • Confirm the website is receiving traffic from the expected regions

Markers Appearing in the Ocean

If markers appear at coordinates (0, 0) in the Atlantic Ocean:

  • This means the visitor's country code is missing or not in the fallback list
  • The visitor data was received but geographic location could not be determined
  • This can happen with certain VPN services or unusual IP addresses

Zoom Not Revealing More Detail

  • Marker placement is determined by available geolocation data
  • If multiple visitors have only country-level data, they will remain clustered at the country center even when zoomed in
  • City-level detail requires city-level IP geolocation data from the visitor record

Next Steps

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