Map defaults to Western Australia for some locations

[Jenny]

I have a Store Locator directory of locations primarily in the state of Victoria Australia. I have the map centred for Victoria. However, for each location, users have to include the state because for some locations the result default to locations with the same name outside of Victoria.

For example, if you search for ‘Laverton’ – it defaults to Laverton in Western Australia rather than Victoria.

This has been a problem with this plugin for a long time and I was wondering if it has been resolved and if there is something I can do to prevent this.

 

https://learnlocal.org.au/find-a-learn-local/

[Cici]

C

Without additional information such as versions plug-in info (see Posting in forums guidelines). I might not be able to provide you with the best answer.

I have no idea what your radius settings are , or if you have the Google Map domain set as Australia etc etc.

The center Map at does NOT limit what Google provides as a return when a search is done.  The center map merely centers the MAP.  The search works based on radius  AND what  Google “thinks” is the  best results etc.   how Google determines what to give you as results is based on their algorithms not ours. They apparently have decided that the most believable answer to return is the town in WA not in Victoria.

If you were using the SLP SaaS we could fine tune and add certain locations thru to our data base, but we  have no way to  run interference with what Google  MAP APII determines is correct in  the self managed version  i.e. the Plug-in.  We can provide you with some suggestions

Check under  Radius Behavior 

You might also  want  to use Location sensor if the site visitors live near that town  it will narrow down the returns

Or, If you have the Premier updates and active you can also use Show Google address guess

 

Or if ALL your locations are limited to Victoria add some shortcodes 

to the WP  Page where you have SLP

 

Example I use this to ensure Google returns San Jose in Costa Rica instead of the many other San Joses that Google favors .

• [SLPLUS  center_map_at=”Costa Rica” append_to_search=”Costa Rica” initial_radius=”1000″]

You would of course need to use the parameters and fields that make sense for your situation

[Cici]

C,

I changed some settings on my site and , like you Google has decided that Laverton is in WA.  The good thing about having to pay for Google API services with the plug-in version is that you have access to their Support.  If all else fails please reach out to Google and tell them what you are experiencing. They might tell you that your site visitors still need to add either a state or a Postal code and not just search by town/city since even when you search using Googles own browser they always return the Laverton WA,  they have a reference that the other Laverton is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 

 

So at the very least they probably want a postal code in addition since there are two

 

[Cici]

I checked and indeed if I search by the postal code 3028 it works no problem on my test site as well as your site.

 

Suggest you change your search label to stipulate to add the postal code not suburb/town

 

[Jenny]

Thanks Cici.

[Author]

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