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Geocoding addresses
Geocoding addresses

Geocoding is the process of connecting an address in your database to a location on a map.

Updated over 4 years ago

📌 Note: Geocoding and mapping is included in our Pro plan and higher.

Table of Contents

Where to start

When an address is submitted on your website or entered through your control panel, it will be sent immediately for geocoding. 

However, there are times when you may want to manually update the geocoded address for a person, this is done from within a person's profile, under the Location tab.

Updating an address based on geocoding

Once an address is geocoded, it is connected to longitude and latitude points so that it can be placed on a map. 

Additionally, there may be differences between the address you provide and the one which is returned by our geocoding service. When that happens you will be able to choose which address to use. A Use this address button will display and the address associated with my profile will be updated to the mappable address. 

If the original address is correct, no action is needed. As long as the address is geocoded, it will display on a map. 

Geocoding status vs. mappable status

When an address is submitted on your website or entered through your control panel, it will be sent immediately for geocoding. When address information is imported, it can take up to 48 hours to complete the geocoding process, depending on the number of addresses in the import. 

Within the Settings section of the control panel, you can review both the geocoding status and the mappable status of your nation. Geocoding status shows how many addresses in the database have been connected to a point on a map. The mappable status shows how many primary addresses are mailable. A profile can have up to seven addresses and each profile is mapped to its primary address. 

Geocoding status is found at Settings > Database > Geocoding status.

Here you can see the geocoding status of every address in your people database. There will probably be more addresses listed in geocoding status than people in your database.

Addresses: the total number of addresses connected to people in your nation. Each person can have up to seven addresses in his profile. 

XX geocoded: number of addresses that have been connected to a point on a map with geocoding. This means the address can at least be connected to a country.

XX ungeocodable: number of addresses that could not be placed on a map.

XX not geocoded: number of addresses waiting to be processed. When an address is submitted on your website or entered through your control panel, it will be sent immediately for geocoding. When address information is imported, it can take up to 48 hours to complete the geocoding process, depending on the number of addresses in the import. 

Mapping status can be found at Settings > Database > Mapping status.

Here you can see how many people are in your nation and whether or not these profiles are mailable. People are mapped to their primary address and the information here is based on people who have mailable addresses.

People: total number of people in your nation.

Addresses mapped: number of people who can be sent postal mail. Links to a filter of people whose primary address is mailable. 

People who did not provide addresses: people who did not provide a mailable address.

Addresses pending mapping results: number of people whose addresses are waiting to be processed through geocoding.

Addresses failed mapping: number of people who cannot be placed on a map. Since this is a count of people, the number is probably lower than the number of ungeocodable addresses in geocoding status. 

The screenshots above are from the same nation - there is a large discrepancy between the number of geocoded addresses and the number of addresses mapped. This is because most of the addresses in this nation were pulled from social media profiles - so they only include a city and state. Those addresses are not mailable and people who only have a social media address are included in the group of people who did not provide addresses. To find people with incomplete addresses, search for addresses that are not mailable. These are addresses that could not be mapped. 

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