Initial Setup FAQs
Address Normalization
What is the correct address format?
Address Line 1= street name and number
Address Line 2= additional address details
When a location is added, our system goes through what we call a normalization process. Normalization is the process of verifying a location's address by automatically matching Address Line 1, Zip Code, and City to its geo-coordinates. Additional information should be included in Address Line 2, otherwise, it will interfere with the Normalization Process.
Examples
Incorrect:
Address Line 1: 66 Towers St, 2nd Floor
Address Line 2:
Correct:
Address Line 1: 66 Tower St.
Address Line 2: 2nd Floor
What happens when the system is not able to normalize an address?
Most of our directories expect geo-coordinates in order to create a listing. In the cases where normalization fails it means that we are unable to normalize the address. There are multiple reasons for a normalization error; with the most common errors driven by inputting incorrect data or the Google database being out of date.
If the system is unable to normalize a specific address and receive the geo-coordinates to place the pin on the map in an automatic way, it requires the user to set the geo-coordinates manually in the platform. The user will see the following pop-up on the location’s profile.
Once the user manually sets the pin, they must click on Save Changes. The location’s address is then normalized.
Cleansing
What does “cleansing” a location’s data mean?
Once a location is added to the system and synced, we are submitting the location’s data to our publishers. At the same time, the location is sent for review to our data quality team to ensure a high-quality Point of Interest data to our publishers.
If POI data is changed by our data quality team, we will re-submit the information once it is cleansed.
In case the address is rejected by a publisher upon the first submission, then this will be corrected and properly submitted once the location is cleansed. The cleansing status of the location is visible on the location’s profile.
Cleansing in Progress
If you update any basic profile data, the cleansing process is relaunched. For channels with mandatory cleansing such as Apple, the change will only be published after cleansing has been re-completed. For all other publishers, the changes will be pushed immediately and updated once cleansing is done (if differs from data as provided by the user).
Categories
How does WebPT Local work with categories?
The categories we create in WebPT Local are based on those that are available in Google. Once a category is added to the tool, we look for the closest match in all other publishers.
Sometimes there is no match in other directories. In this case, we look to match the "parent category" or as close a fit as possible.
The chosen category in the platform does not appear exactly with the same name on the different publishers. Why?
WebPT Local has its own set of categories, and we internally relate the categories to the closest
category offered by the publisher.
Directory Sync
What is the difference between Sync and Auto-sync?
Sync: Location information is pushed to our publishers to request an update. The Start Sync button is available on the Locations view. This allows you to manually sync the location, which will submit the location data to the selected publisher network.
Auto-sync: This feature is chosen on the location profile. If turned on, the data will be automatically synced and submitted within 30 min after a profile update.
After waiting 5 minutes, not all the publishers have been created/updated automatically. Why?
Each publisher has different synchronization times; for example, Google will apply the changes in real-time, however, other publishers may take a bit longer.
The creation of a new listing may vary from a couple of minutes to days, depending on the publisher. The one with the longest update is BING, which takes up to 10 days due to additional quality checks.