Search on zip code

All mail with the same first 3 digits is first delivered to the same sec center where it is sorted according to the last 2 digits and distributed to local post offices. The sec centers are not open to the public and usually do most sorting overnight. As you can see from the map of the first 3 digits of zip codes , the digits after the first are also generally assigned from east to west. In the map, 0 is closer to white and 9 is much more vivid.

It's easy to follow the gradient across each of the zones even though there are a few exceptions such as the southwest tip of Georgia which uses 39XXX like central Mississippi. Despite the fact that ZIP codes seem to be geographic in nature, that wasn't their intended purpose.

They are intended to group mail to allow the USPS to deliver mail more efficiently. Some ZIP codes will span multiple states in order to make mail routing and delivery more efficient.

In most cases, addresses in close proximity to each other are grouped in the same ZIP code which gives the appearance that ZIP codes are defined by a clear geographic boundary. However, some ZIP codes have nothing to do with geogaphic areas.

When ZIP codes appear to be geographically grouped, a clear shape cannot always be drawn around the ZIP code because ZIP codes are only assigned to a point of delivery and not the spaces between delivery points.

In areas without a regular postal route or no mail delivery, ZIP codes may not be defined or have unclear boundaries. The main issue is discussed above: there simply isn't always a clear geographic boundary for a ZIP code. The Census Bureau and many other commercial services will try to interpolate the data to create polygons shapes using straight lines to represent the approximate area covered by a ZIP code, but none of these maps are official or entirely accurate.

They provide a very close approximation of the area covered by a ZIP code. You can easily notice some of the boundary issues when viewing our maps. Very rural areas aren't labeled as belonging to a ZIP code such as much of Nevada and Utah where there are few, if any, addresses to deliver mail. If the address is on the same street as a ZIP code boundary on the map, be sure to search for the full street address to determine the ZIP code instead of relying on the map.

Sometimes your business will show up in search results throughout its whole service area, and sometimes it will only rank for searches performed just a few blocks from your doorstep. And you need to be able to localize the SERPs on a street level to:. However, now there is a nice tool to do the job much quicker. Google Chrome lets you load pages as if from anywhere in the world by specifying the exact geo-coordinates. A cool new tool to handle the same task is the Valentin app. The localized Google search results are opened in a new browser tab.

There are only two tools I know of that let you automate street address rank checking. However, they do the job in quite a different manner. One tool is best suited for tracking your positions and their changes. The other tool is best for visualizing your ranking coverage area. You can set up as many street-address locations as you need, and check Google SERPs for them automatically.

Local Falcon is my absolute favorite among all the new SEO tools to emerge in The app has a brilliant idea behind it — to visualize how your business ranks on Google Maps in the area surrounding it. Monitoring Maps will not substitute monitoring the SERPs themselves, but this visualization gives you some priceless data on your local performance.

With that many options and that much local ranking data, it might seem hard to find reliable benchmarks to measure your search success. Really, though, the best solution lies somewhere in the middle. On the other hand, there is no better way to diagnose your search performance and find room for improvement than by checking the SERP positions and their change over time.

Using full ZIP Codes ensure the fastest, most accurate mailing possible. They're only provided for an address once the address has been standardized , validated and proven real. These codes indicate a specific delivery route , meaning the actual path the mail truck would travel in a single drop-off. Usually this comprises ten to twenty homes or locations. Because ZIP codes plus 4 extra digits are based on delivery routes instead of more permanent boundaries, the last 4 digits of a complete ZIP Code can change often.

Not so for the full 9-digit ZIP Code. For another thing, they can help get you those bulk mailing discounts. Another important benefit to using the last four digits of ZIP Codes is delivery speed. That's right, your mail can show up faster if you label things right.

Bet you're scrambling for those codes now, huh? Get those extra 4 digits. If you want to try it on a single address, you can use our single address verification tool now. Go ahead and perform some postal address verification. Or you could call us instead if you'd rather talk to a real person.

We'd offer a fake person, but we don't have one of those on staff.