How Search Works In Store Locator Plus¶
Store Locator Plus is designed to search by proximity, NOT by discreet data elements. In other words, searching for specific item like a state entry does NOT match all the entries in the database by state. Instead it finds all locations within a radius of X miles from the center of that state.
The reason for this is due to the fact that Store Locator Plus uses the Google map engine to calculate locations and distances between them. That formula determines what locations are close to your search-for address.
State Pulldown Example¶
A good example of this is how the state pulldown works.
When you turn on the state pulldown, Store Locator Plus looks through all the entries in the location database and generates a pulldown that includes all of the states you entered.
When a user selects a state, the search engine simply copies that state into the "search for locations near this address" field.
The address, which is now simply something like "South Carolina", gets sent to the geolocation processor. The processor calculates the latitude and longitude of that address. It returns the lat/long of the location in the geographic center of the state. In the case of South Carolina this is setting the search for "all locations within X miles of Round Tree Drive in Gaston, SC". Round Tree Drive, Gaston SC happens to be very close to the geographic center of South Carolina.
Once the center of the state is determined the system uses the same radius and other map settings you have set to then find all locations near that address. If you have set your radius to something like "5 miles" then you will only see the locations in your database that are within 5 miles of Gaston, SC. Most likely not many of the locations you are searching for.
Increasing Results Returned¶
The quickest solution to return more relevant results is to increase the default radius for searches on your map.
This may return locations outside of the area you are searching for, however in most cases your customers aren't going to care if they pull up a store in North Carolina if they are in a border town in South Carolina.