WPLocation resolves a visitor’s estimated country from their IP address using a local GeoLite2 Country MMDB selected in Free. Pro uses the same resolver; it does not make a second hosted lookup for each visit. A country is an estimate of network location, not a claim about a person’s residence, citizenship, shipping eligibility or legal rights.
Why results can differ
- VPNs and company networks: the visible IP may belong to an exit node in another country.
- Mobile carriers: shared gateways and roaming can make the apparent country differ from the device’s physical position.
- Newly assigned IP ranges: even a current database may lag real network changes.
- Proxy or CDN configuration: WordPress can see the proxy address instead of the visitor address if forwarding is not verified.
- Private, local or unmapped addresses: these may have no country result.
What WPLocation does when lookup fails
It does not guess a fallback country. An active restriction hides content if the country is unknown; unrestricted content is left alone. A United States shortcode can display a fallback label. Check the shortcode examples and blocked-content behavior.
Protect trusted proxy handling
Free does not automatically trust arbitrary forwarded-IP headers. A site-specific integration may use the wplocation_verified_client_ip filter after verifying that requests come through your own proxy or CDN and that direct origin access is controlled. Never treat a client-supplied X-Forwarded-For value as verified on its own. See the trusted proxy guide.
Improve the quality of decisions
Keep the licensed database current, inspect its build date in Diagnostics, test representative networks, and review your cache. Use the appropriate business checks at checkout or login for legal and security decisions.
Contact WPLocation with your software versions and the result you expected. Keep keys and customer data private.