Blocking entire countries from reaching your website is a surprisingly potent way to pull in more targeted, relevant, qualified traffic. On top of that, your analytics get squeaky clean, your hosting resources get a real boost, and in most cases you can close the door on a lot of spam.
Picture a business that serves the United States only, maybe an e-commerce store that only ships within the US. That alone is fair grounds to restrict who can even reach the site. Here is why it works.
Why it is effective
- You speak only to your real audience. When a niche site broadcasts to the entire internet, a huge share of the traffic is simply garbage. Cut out the countries you will never serve and what is left is the people who actually matter.
- Performance and security improve. You are lightening the load and keeping a lot of the creepy-crawlers out, which is a straightforward way to tidy up both speed and security.
- Search can benefit too. This one is debatable, but in my experience Google quietly rewards relevancy, and serving a site to its true target region has only ever helped my organic rankings, never hurt them.
A word of caution
Restricting access is a smart move, but tread lightly. You do not want to wall yourself off from genuine opportunities around the world. Be strategic, and only put country restrictions in place when you have a real reason to: spam, your actual operations and distribution, or security.
Developer's advice
Before you block anything, look at where your actual buyers came from over the past year, not just where the spam comes from. Block on real data, or you risk closing the door on a customer you did not know you had.