What is the v=xxxx String in the URL and How to Remove It

You might have noticed that the URLs in your site all come with a string at the end of it looking something like ?v=3j123445. What is it and where does it come from?

If your site uses WooCommerce, that is where it comes from and it is not dangerous at all, it is actually helpful!

WooCommerce and Geolocation

The string ?v=xxxx comes from the geolocation feature included in WooCommerce. It allows the system to calculate taxes and shipping costs based on the customer location before they even enter their address.

This is particularly useful for those shops that set their prices excluding taxes, to avoid showing prices that are not realistic and having customers dropping off from checkout only because they found out that they now have to pay more because of taxes.

Do I Have To Keep This Ugly String?

The good news is that no, you do not need to keep the ?v=xxxx string in the URL in order to use geolocation. WooCommerce comes with four different options to define the customer location:

1. No location by default: this means that WooCommerce will not assume any location at all and will wait for the customer’s input;
2. Shop base address: WooCommerce will use the shop address as a default location. Taxes and shipping costs will be calculated later at Checkout;
3. Geolocate: WooCommerce will try to geolocate the customer and use that location as their base location;
4. Geolocate (with page caching support): Same as above but with the cache. This is the option that adds the ?v=xxxxx string to your URLs.

If you see the string in your URL it means that you choose the last option. You can change your choice in WooCommerce > Settings > General > General options > Default customer location. Simply choose Geolocate or a different option other than Geolocate (with page caching support) in order to get rid of the string ?v=xxxx from the website URLs.