Search Results - Probably more complex than possible but...

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Tagged: geographic limits, postal code, radius, results, search, zip

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April 19, 2019 at 8:53 pm #481827

jkirker
Lifetime Member

Post count: 298

Yelp allows companies to define service areas. When a potential customer is outside of said service area, they will not show up in the search results because the company really wouldn’t be able to help them.

I’m curious if there is any type of field or function where we would be able to allow folks in the directory to select a radius in miles or km that they provide services to, or zip/postal codes, etc.?

I have a directory that I’m updating for a client and their vendors service different sized areas on a per vendor basis.

We want to show the potential clients the vendors that are closest to them, but if the potential client is outside of the vendors area we don’t want to recommend them as it would just cause confusion and frustration.

Thoughts?

April 19, 2019 at 10:48 pm #481837

Alex Rollin
Moderator

Post count: 27815

It’s an interesting idea. Such a thing would mean a very different type of query from what we have in place now, though.

The developers will add a comment here if they have any plans for a feature like that.

April 19, 2019 at 10:57 pm #481843

Paolo
Site Admin

Post count: 31206

Stiofan and I talked about this several times.

The level of complexity is huge.

Basically a completely different scope that would require a different app.

We are not planning now to work on it, but maybe in the future we will.

Thank you

April 19, 2019 at 10:57 pm #481844

jkirker
Lifetime Member

Post count: 298

You could do a simple version on add/edit of a listing.

If a geo-range is populated, it could query and compile a list of zip/postal codes and add them to an array field.

That field could then be integrated into the searches where applicable.

You could also use a map drawing tool like this to achieve the same results:
https://www.freemaptools.com/find-zip-codes-inside-user-defined-area.htm

😉

April 20, 2019 at 11:01 am #481888

Stiofan O’Connor
Site Admin

Post count: 22956

I’m happy to have a conversation about this…

The issue is not defining the service area, this would be the “relatively” easy part, the issue is searching these in a efficient manner, in a way that will scale to millions of listings not a few hundred.

How do yelp define the area, a radius, freedrawn or zipcodes?

Stiofan

April 20, 2019 at 1:57 pm #481917

jkirker
Lifetime Member

Post count: 298

Hi Stiofan, it’s been a while 😉 Hope you are doing great.

Yelp uses service areas by Neighborhood, Zip, City or County (Up to 6). They then use those neighborhoods as boundaries to paint the areas in between. They do make an assumption that you would cover all areas inside the furthest extremes of the bounds.
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