For many years it didn’t really matter where your proxy was located.  After all it hid your real identity and stopped all that logging and tracking which was enough.   Unfortunately this is no longer the case and now most of the major websites analyse every last details of your connection.   Just like the search engines they’re increasingly geo-targeting to a very precise level even to specific cities.

Some web sites even enforce these restrictions based on area, advertising directories like Craigslist only let you post if you’re based in the local area.  It does seem a little restrictive, not being able to place and advert on a New York advertising directory from Chicago for example.  Search engines have been doing this for years of course tailoring your search results to your exact geographic area.   You can also do the same with Google Adwords making sure you reach your specific market.

For advertisers this is obviously extremely useful being able to place adverts targeted at very specific local audiences. Facebook is a another great example where a local business can ensure that they don’t waste their budgets on geographic areas that are unlikely to bring any economic benefit.   However this does bring with it certain challenges for those of us who don’t have access to the web analytics of our targeted servers.

So for example, it’s fine being able to target specific regions but how can you check your adverts are being displayed properly?  How about market research how can a company look at the adverts a competitor is placing in these locations?  It’s difficult to see them unless you’re in the exact location yourself.  This is of course rather ridiculous, managing and operating a global advertising budget without being able to see the results of your spend.

Why People Need a New York Web Proxy or a Chicago One etc

Advertising and research aren’t the only reasons why people need to change their digital locations.  Which is why a huge market has developed for professionally run proxy services which can cater to these needs.  Many businesses need to switch their digital locations to very specific areas for all sorts of reasons not just placing adverts.  It’s certainly not unusual for a business to need to switch between hundreds of different cities, areas or even countries for all sorts of purposes.

Proxy services linked to a proper network infrastructure can allow a single desktop to switch location quickly and easily. Routing through a rotating proxy for example you can switch your location from New York to Los Angeles and then to Hong Kong with a click of a button.  It’s invaluable if you’re running adverts for a multinational or doing market research for a blue chip.  By selecting a proxy in the correct country you can ensure that your advert is being displayed in the correct language for instance!   Or on a smaller level the digital marketer can sell their services by advertising on loads of individual Craigslist directories without opening dozens of offices.

What’s more there are other complications, IP addresses which are registered for commercial use won’t always work properly. Sometimes they’re even blocked from the site, which is unfortunate if you need to access the site properly. In these scenarios the IP addresses need to be both in the right location and registered as ‘residential IP addresses’ too. These are normally only allocated for ISPs to assign to normal home users which makes them difficult to obtain for most proxy companies.

Indeed only a handful have decent networks with lots of residential IP addresses like Storm Proxies who can certainly supply you with a USA proxy. Yet if you want to be able to switch between specific countries or even cities there is even less choice, indeed only a couple of providers can genuinely offer this service. Our recommendation for obtaining and switching locations world wide is the largest company in this market – Luminati proxy who have over 40 million addresses.

Using their proxy dashboard you can actually control to a very precise level what sort of IP address you are allocated for each connection. It works like a kind of online IP changer which can allocate you a New York IP address one moment then switch to whichever location you need. All can be residential IP addresses and made directly from a single computer. If you want residential addresses there’s no other company who can offer this flexibility of using proxy by city.