Thread: Americans, How Do You Search???

I'm wondering how often you Americans use County names in local type searches.

Those of you in bigger cities may only ever just type in your city name for a local search but if your not in a big center do you use county names or do you just use the name of the larger city closest to you?

Or do you just use State name because counties don't cover enough ground and the bigger cities are 2 or 3 counties over?

For those that don't know what I'm talking about, an example of a local seach would be "chicago hair salon" or "real estate florida" or "dentist rochester ny"

I rarely use county names. More often then not I'll plug in the zip code of the nearest big towns depending on what I'm searching for. For instance "music 12701"

The only time I've ever used county names is if I was searching for a county office such as Sullivan county NY tax collector or Orange County NY DMV.

So do you use the Zip more often than the city name?

In your example your talking about Monticello, NY which only has a population of about 6000 people so one zip code pretty much covers it all. If you know the zip code it might be easier to just type that instead of "music monticello, ny". But as soon as you get into cities of 50,000 people you could be looking at 5 different zip codes. A city of 250,000 might have 15 to 20. Chicago has like 90 zip codes.

It probably depends on what you are looking for. Something very specific that you don't want to travel too far for you might just use zips, like finding a dentist in your neighborhood of a big city. But if its more general and your not sure where abouts in the city it is located you probably would just use the city name to cover the entire area and see whats available.

I'm just thinking out loud here and want to hear what more of you have to say.

I've always thought that with search engines, Google more specifically, that zip codes are always converted to a city town name. For instance, I frequently search Brooklyn, NY most of the times I use the zip code 11223, because I know it by heart. Even though there are many more zip codes, I'll still get all listings for Brooklyn, NY. Perhaps my perception is wrong.

What originally got me into the habit of using zip codes is Google's weather search. For instance "weather 12701" will show you weather for Monticello, NY. Zip codes for me are easy to remember then spelling some odd town name and in my area where I live most of the larger towns have only 1 zip code anyhow. If I'm searching for something in a larger area, Brooklyn NY for example, I'm typically looking for something local to where I'm staying instead of across town so the zip code search serves me well.

Wow Dan you're smarter then me, I don't typically know zip codes, but I search with state name "syracuse,ny" etc.

Thanks Kim. It's just a habit I've gotten into and it works for me

I also wanted to add that when I do search with city/town name, I normally wind up going to www.usps.com and finding the zip code to continue my search. I think this is because so often I use places like Google Maps to actually find the location and zip code is faster to enter than a city, state combo.

For instance when I was in Florida, the bigger town next to where I was staying is Sebring, FL. When I was looking for a doctor, I searched for Wound Care Sebring, FL because I didn't know the zip off hand but didn't find what I wanted and wound up looking up the zip code and found what I needed.

If you're looking to SEO a site with county names, it might be a great way to rank. For those that search with county names, you could probably grab most of that market. Personally, I don't know anyone who searches by county name, except for in the instance of government offices that I mentioned above but there has to be people out there that do.

If you need zip codes, just go to http://www.usps.com

Dan, you might be right about how Search Engines will take your one Zip Code and lump it with all the zips in that city. Googles patent on geographical targeting mentions using zip code ranges.

axemedia added 233 Minutes and 6 Seconds later...

So far you guys have been confirming most of my assumptions. If anyone else has input I want to hear it.

The reason I was asking was I have one client who is targeting like a 100 mile radius that hits a few small to medium cities but also hits a bunch of very small towns. Too small to bother targeting on their own but i was wondering how those people in those really small towns might search. Use the closest city or search by state. Looks like they don't bother searching by county, unless like Dan said they are looking for a government service or something thats county specific.