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FindAnInspector.US Explained
FindAnInspector.US Explained
Every other week or so I get an e-mail from someone that essentially says
"I went to the FindAnInspector.US website and put in my postal code and members that don't even live in my town come up above me!"
So here's an attempt to explain how FindAnInspector.US works, why it works like that, and what you can do if you don't like the way it works.
How FindAnInspector.US Works
FindAnInspector.US search results are sorted by many factors. These include the distance any given inspector is from the search location (see below for an explanation of what we mean by this), the number of times (per week) that the inspector receives e-mails through FindAnInspector.US, the number of times (per week) that inspector's website is visited through FindAnInspector.US, and eventually the number of times per week that the inspector's phone number is requested (I'll get into this later).
The primary "attribute" that the search results are sorted by is distance. This is not the distance from the search location to your address . It is the distance from the search location to the closest zip code you've said you're willing to work in (you may list up to 20 zip codes). This means that even though some people may not be based in your town, they may still show up as an exact match for it.
A few other things to note about the distance:
- The distance used is the distance between the approximate center of one postal code and the approximate center of the other. This means that though the border of a given town may be only 5 miles away from your office, the calculated distance might be as far as 20 miles or more. Unless we knew the latitude and longitude of every building in North America this is unavoidable.
- Cities may (and often do) span multiple postal codes (each having different center points). When a user searches by City and State, the search application doesn't know which postal code he or she is referring to. So instead it picks a random one each time. This means that the results will change each time. Depending on the size of a city, this will have varying effects.
The other attributes contribute to an auto-parity system that ensures that each member gets a fair amount of exposure to potential clients. This system puts those members who've received the most e-mails and website visits at the bottom of the list, giving those who haven't had much exposure a better chance.
Why it works like it does
Sure, we could emulate the existing "Find an Inspector" sites and simply return an alphabetically sorted list of those inspectors whose business address is within a certain distance from the search location. But InterNACHI has never settled for "as good" as what exists. The FindAnInspector.US system ensures that all InterNACHI members get a fair chance at exposure on our sites.
What you can do if you don't like it
InterNACHI owns many websites. Most work and look identical to FindAnInspector.US, but we are starting to build versions that look and work differently. This is because people are more inclined to choose any given inspector if they see him or her several places. By maintaining many different sites that draw on the same information, we can make it appear that you're showing up on nearly all the different inspection websites that exist.
If you feel as though you have a better way to do things, send your ideas to Webmaster@nachi.org . I'll take a look at them and perhaps build your ideas into an alternate version of FindAnInspector.US.
Notes:
These comments do not apply to www.InspectorSEEK.com
Do not submit your 20 zips to our webmaster. Instead read http://www.nachi.org/tipsforzips.htm for zip code submission instructions or visit our member-controlled profile editor at: http://www.nachi.org/profileintro.htm
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