The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for Search and Autocomplete rating within the UK market. As such, these guidelines should be considered supplemental to the Global Search 2.0 and AC 2.0 Guidelines.
The following tables should be referenced when marking address issues:
Maps Search: Global Guidelines section 7.1.7 –The country is a “nice to have” piece of information but should always be included when the result is located in a country other than the test locale. If missing, rate Incorrect – Country. | |
Country* | Autocomplete: Global Guidelines section 6.1.7 – The country is only mandatory for address type results located in a country outside of the user’s location. If missing, rate Incorrect – Country. |
The UK market has several unique situations which should be accounted for when rating. For the purposes of this section the use of Maps Search results will be used to better facilitate the examples and explanations. It should be noted that these issues are present in both Maps Search and Autocomplete.
The UK is comprised of four separate countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. As such, any of those four countries, or the United Kingdom, may be returned as the country component in a result. If the result/suggestion is within the boundaries of the named country it can be considered a correct component.
Result Address | Official Address | Address Rating |
London Liverpool Street Station, London, England | London Liverpool Street Station, London, England | Correct: This station is located within the boundaries of England. |
Liberty Stadium, Swansea, United Kingdom | Liberty Stadium, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom | Correct: The Liberty Stadium is located in Wales, but the United Kingdom is a valid alternative for any result located in the UK. |
Gatwick Airport, Gatwick, Scotland | Gatwick Airport, Gatwick, England | Incorrect: Gatwick is not located in Scotland. The address accuracy should be rated as Incorrect – Country. |
Some results may list a building/estate name. The building/estate name must be correct. If incorrect, the address should be rated Incorrect – Apt/Unit or Incorrect – Street Number depending on the role of the building/estate name as outlined in the following table.
Result Address | Official Address | Address Rating |
Smile Studios Birchfield House Ifield Road Charlwood RH6 0DR United Kingdom | Smile Studios Birchfield House Ifield Road Charlwood, Horley RH6 0DR United Kingdom | Correct: The result address includes the building name, “Birchfield House”, which is the correct building name for this address. |
Cass and Claredale Claredale Street, London, E2 6PE | Cass and Claredale Claredale House Claredale Street, London, E2 6PE | Incorrect: The building name is missing, and is an addressed building name, so the address should be rated as Incorrect – Street Number |
Circus Creative Zetland House, 52-58 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4NJ | Circus Creative Friendly House, 52-58 Tabernacle Street, London, EC2A 4NJ | Incorrect: The building name is incorrect. The building name is cosmetic so per the address component table this result should be rated Incorrect – Apt/Unit |
Tesco Extra Pontypridd, CF37 5SN | Tesco Extra Gelli-Hirion Industrial Estate Pontypridd, CF37 5SN | Incorrect: The estate name is missing, and no street number is part of the official address, so the address should be rated as Incorrect – Street Number |
Some addresses in the UK will consist of a range for the street number. In these situations, the result is considered correct if the street number, or numbers, returned are within the correct address range and located on the same side of the street. If it does not meet these stipulations, then the address should be rated Incorrect – Street Number.
Result Address | Official Address | Address Rating |
22 Bath Street Nottingham NG1 1DF | 22-26 Bath Street Nottingham NG1 1DF | Correct: The result address is located within the official address range. |
13 Galindo Street Bolton BL2 3DF | 12-14 Galindo Street Bolton BL2 3DF | Incorrect: “13” is not located within the official address range of “12-14” because it is located on the opposite side of the street. |
Some results, such as in villages outside of a postal towns, will require a sub-locality in the address. If missing/wrong in the address, select Address – Incorrect Sub-Locality. Sub-localities should be confirmed using the official postal service, Royal Mail.
Result Address | Correct Address | Address Rating |
2 High Street, Ramsey, Huntingdon, PE26 1AE | 2 High Street, Ramsey, Huntingdon, PE26 1AE | Correct: Royal Mail confirms that Ramsey is the correct sub-locality for this address |
2 High Street, Bury, Huntingdon, PE26 1AE | 2 High Street, Ramsey, Huntingdon, PE26 1AE | Incorrect (Wrong): Royal Mail lists Ramsey as the correct sub-locality, Bury is a separate village not associated with this postal code. This should be marked as Incorrect – Incorrect Sub-Locality |
2 High Street, Huntingdon, PE26 1AE | 2 High Street, Ramsey, Huntingdon, PE26 1AE | Incorrect (Missing): The sub-locality is not included in the address and is confirmed as a necessary part by Royal Mail. This should be marked as Incorrect – Incorrect SubLocality |
Within the boundaries of Wales, Welsh is considered an official language. As such, results that are located within the boundaries of Wales should be considered to be displayed in the correct language if either English or Welsh is used. Similarly, some locality results that are queried in English may be returned using the Welsh name. While the English name is the expected format, a result showing a Welsh name is a valid alternative for localities located within the boundaries of Wales.
Query | Result | Rating & Description |
[Isle of Anglesey Council] User and VP over Cardiff Wales, UK | Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn Council Offices Anglesey LL77 7TW | Correct: “Cyngor Sir Ynys Môn” is the Welsh version of “Isle of Anglesey Council”. Since this result is located within Wales it is considered a correct version. |
[Police Station] User and VP over Manchester, UK | Heddlu 18 Garratt Way Manchester M18 8HE | Incorrect: “Heddlu” is the Welsh word for police. Since the result is located outside of Wales and the query is in English, this result |
should be rated Result name/title is in unexpected language. | ||
[3 Victoria Road] User and VP over Penygroes, Wales | 3 Heol Buddug Penygroes LL54 6HD | Correct: “Heol Buddug” is the Welsh version of “Victoria Road”. Since this result is located within Wales it is considered a correct version. |
[Trefynwy] User and VP over Monmouth Wales, UK | Trefynwy | Correct: Trefynwy is located within the boundaries of Wales and is an officially accepted name for the locality. English equivalent is Monmouth |
[Trefynwy] User and VP over Monmouth Wales, UK | Monmouth | Correct: Research indicates Trefynwy is the Welsh name for Monmouth and the locality is located within Wales. Thus the locality matches the query and meets the stipulation of Welsh locality results. |
[London] User and VP over Croydon, England, UK | Llundain | Incorrect: Llundain is the Welsh name for the city of London. Since London is not within the boundaries of Wales this result should be marked as Result name/title is in unexpected language |
When judging distance, keep in mind that the United Kingdom is not a very large country and users are less likely to travel as far as would be expected in much larger countries. This is particularly true in very dense metropolitan areas. In more rural areas, longer distances may be appropriate, depending on the distribution and availability of possible results.
Within the UK it is very common for major POIs such as transit stations, markets, and stadiums to share the name of nearby geographic features. Establishing the relationship between the two entities and determining if the query has a distinct navigational intent should be based upon prominence and how well the result will satisfy the user’s intent.
| Query | Result Type | Relevance Rating |
|---|---|---|
[Covent Garden] | Covent Garden, London, UK | Excellent: Result is for one of the major districts in London. |
Covent Garden Station, London, UK | Excellent: Result is for a prominent highly used underground station. | |
[Easter Road] | Easter Road, Edinburgh EH7, UK | Excellent: Result is for one of the major thoroughfares in Edinburgh |
Easter Road Stadium, Edinburgh, UK | Excellent: Result is a major football stadium located in Edinburgh named after the nearby thoroughfare | |
[Cutty Sark] | Cutty Sark, London, UK | Navigational: Result is for a former ship converted into a prominent historical attraction in Greenwich. |
Cutty Sark (for Maritime Greenich) Station, London, UK | Good/Acceptable: Result is for the DLR station located adjacent to the historical attraction. While relevant, the station is not as widely known or prominent as the ship itself. |
Postal codes in the UK are composed of two parts, the outward and inward sections. The outward section is made up of the Area and the District and identifies the sorting office. The inward section is comprised of the sector and unit and identifies the postal sector as well as the thoroughfare, section of the thoroughfare and/or individual address.
Postcode [E2 6PE] | |||
Outward Section | Inward Section | ||
Area | District | Sector | Unit |
E | 2 | 6 | PE |
East London | Tower Hamlets | Claredale Street | Claredale House, Flats 1-65 |
Queries for postal codes, in Search, should be returned to the same level of specificity as queried. For example, a full postal code query should return a full postal code and a partial postal code should return only a partial postal code.
A query for a non-existent postal code should addressed in two steps:
In rare cases, a postal code that is no longer in use by the postal service can be returned as a result. If this occurs, refer to Maps Search Guidelines Section 5.12 Address Does Not Exist. Remember, relevance is always rated independently of any data issues.
User Query | Result | Relevance Rating |
[E2 6PD] User and VP located over London | E2 6PF London, England | Excellent: The queried postal code does not exist. The result is a likely spell correction and should be rated Excellent. |
[PO30 6AN] User and VP located over Newport, UK | PO30 Newport, England | Excellent: The queried postal code does not exist and no obvious spell correction can be found. The postal district of PO30 is the best possible option to show the user and should be rated Excellent. |
Postal sectors are postal codes that contain a full outward section and a partial inward section. These should be rated Bad for Relevance for all postal code queries except when a user has explicitly queried for a postal sector using a space to separate the outward section and the partial inward section. When a postal code is returned incorrectly the Address Accuracy should be marked as Incorrect – Postal Code.
Query | Suggestion | Rating & Explanation |
[E2] | E2 6 | Result has an incomplete inward section because it is missing the unit section of the postal code. Because of this the Relevance is rated Bad and the Address Accuracy Incorrect – Postal Code |
[NW9 5] | NW9 5 | The space between the 9 and 5 means this query is explicitly for a postal sector. The relevance should be rated as Navigational |
Any result address which has a full postal code attributed to it should include the full postal code. If a partial postal code is displayed in the result address, the address should be rated as Incorrect – Postal Code. Some features, such as parks or beaches, will not have full postal code attributed to them and a partial postal code is considered Correct.
Result Address | Official Address | Address Rating |
The Sun Tavern 441 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 | The Sun Tavern 441 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 0AN | Incorrect: The result address contains a partial postal code, “E2” and should be completed to “E2 0AN”. |
The Cross Keys 39 High Street, Upwood, Huntingdon, PE26 2QE | The Cross Keys 39 High Street, Upwood, Huntingdon PE26 2QE | Correct: The result address includes the full, correct postal code. |
London Fields London, E8 England | London Fields London England | Correct: The park does not have a full postal code attributed to it. As such, if a postal code is displayed it should be confirmed to encompass this feature completely. |
When confirming address components in the UK, you may come across results for which no street number is listed on the official site or where the postal code in the result address differs from the POI’s official site. When this occurs, you are expected to use Royal Mail to investigate the discrepancy and determine the appropriate components for the full address listed in the result.
In some cases, the official URL will not list the street number, but the result address will include a street number. If this occurs, Royal Mail should be used to verify if the street number provided is correct.
In some situations, an official URL will list a different postal code than the result OR not list a postal code at all. The postal service in the UK is constantly updating postal codes so it is important to verify any postal code discrepancy between the result and the official URL. Royal Mail should be considered the final authority on postal codes.
When confirming a postal code with Royal Mail, input the address into the postcode finder and scroll on the dropdown to the intended address. If the postal code that Royal Mail displays with the address matches the result address rate the address accuracy as Correct. If Royal Mail returns a different postal code than the result address rate the address accuracy as Incorrect – Postal Code.
As mentioned in section 5, the United Kingdom is not a very large country so the average user will not be expected to travel incredibly large distances. Keep in mind though, that longer distances may be appropriate for some query strings depending on the distribution and availability of possible suggestions.
Remember that the best, closest suggestion should not be demoted only for being far away. To demote a suggestion strictly for distance, a closer matching suggestion must exist. Likewise, all
suggestions should be demoted in context of closer real-world possibilities, including those not returned.
There are no set quality hierarchies in Autocomplete and each situation should be investigated and rated individually per query string. For example, the United Kingdom has many instances of transit stations or other features sharing a name with a locality. Do not demote a suggestion simply because there is a locality/region of similar name without researching all factors for the rating. Each situation will present different context to be rated against in terms of distance, prominence, user location, viewport location, and other closer options.
User Query | Suggestion | Rating & Explanation |
[Wemb] User and VP located over Camden, London | Wembley, London, UK | Excellent: Region on London with ~14,000 residents |
Wembley Stadium | Excellent: Internationally known, major stadium which seats ~90,000 people | |
Wembley High Road | Good/Acceptable: Major Road and commercial area of Wembley, however less prominent than both the stadium or the locality | |
Wembley Road (Manchester) | Bad: Road located in Manchester, very far from the user and VP, this result should be demoted for both prominence and distance |
While many users search for transit POIs using transit related terms such as ‘‘Station’’, many users also search for these features using only the station name without including the POI type. Because of this, we should consider all matching transit POIs as reasonable matches that should not be demoted simply because a geographic feature or POI of the same name exists. Once a match has been established, each suggestion should be investigated to determine prominence versus other real-world options.
User Query | Suggestion | Rating & Explanation |
[Liverp] User and VP located over Hackney, London | Liverpool Street Station | Excellent: The station shares a name with a large street in London but is the more prominent of the two due to its status as one of the busiest stations in London. |
| Liverpool Street, London, UK | Good: The street matches the query and is a prominent street in Central London, however the station of the same name is much more prominent. |
[Mon] User and VP located over London | Monument Station | Excellent: Query matches a London Underground station. While the query also matches the landmark POI, The Monument, an internet search and market knowledge reveals that the station is of higher prominence due to its high usage and central location. |
The Monument | Good: The landmark matches the query, but the station of the same name is a highly utilized station in Central London which would be the more likely intent for a user in the UK. | |
[Has] User and VP located over Bexhill, England | Hastings Station | Good: The query matches the main station within the town of Hastings, as well as the locality itself. Due to the size and prominence of the locality vs the station we would demote the station to Good for prominence. |
Hastings, England | Excellent: The locality matches the query and is the most prominent feature to return to the user. | |
[Stad] User and VP located over Sunderland, England | Stadium of Light Metro Station | Good: The query matches the metro station serving the stadium. The stadium, however, is a much more prominent POI, thus the station should be demoted for prominence to Good. |
Stadium of Light Stadium | Excellent: The stadium matches and is a major, nationally known POI. | |
[Barb] User and VP located over Finsbury, London | Barbican Station | Excellent: The station matches the query and is highly used/prominent. |
The Barbican | Excellent: The Barbican is a nationally recognized POI. Since both the station and The Barbican are of relatively the same prominence both can be rated Excellent. |
As explained in section 4.3, postal codes in the UK are composed of two parts, the outward and inward sections which are comprised of the area, district, sector, and unit, as shown in the table below.
Postcode [E2 6PE]
Outward Section | Inward Section | ||
Area | District | Sector | Unit |
E | 2 | 6 | PE |
East London | Tower Hamlets | Claredale Street | Claredale House, Flats 1-65 |
Queries for postal codes in Autocomplete can be returned in one of three formats; partial, full, or as a postal sector. Each type should be rated as explained in the following sections.
Expected suggestions for postal code queries are dependent on the total number of characters in the query string. This is because the likelihood of presenting a relevant postal code for a very short query string is very low, combined with the fact that a single, full postal code is much less prominent than the overall postal area.
In general, suggestions for full postal codes should be initially rated Good/Acceptable until a query string consists of enough characters to form both the outward and part of the inward section of a postal code. General considerations when rating postal code suggestions include:
Query String | Suggestion | Rating and Explanation | |
[E2] User and VP over Shoreditch, London | E2 | Relevance | Excellent |
This is a valid outward section of a relevant postal code. | |||
E20 | Relevance | Good (User Intent) | |
This is a valid outward section, but this postal area is further from the user location than E2 | |||
E2 6PE | Relevance | Good/Acceptable (User Intent) | |
Even though this is a valid full postal code, the query string does not contain enough characters to form | |||
|
| both the outer and inner section of the postal code. The likelihood this is a relevant postal code for the query string is low and other much more prominent suggestions exist. | |
[N1 5] User and VP over Finsbury, London | N1 5LH | Relevance | Excellent/Good |
The suggestion matches the query string and is a full, valid postal code. | |||
N1 5AE | Relevance | Excellent/Good | |
The suggestion matches the query string and is a full, valid postal code. | |||
N1 | Relevance | Bad (User Intent) | |
This suggestion does not match the query string. | |||
[E20 2ST] User and VP over Whitechapel, London | E20 2ST | Relevance | Excellent |
This suggestion is the only possible postal code suggestion for this query string. | |||
[Y015] User and VP over Bridlington, UK | Y015 1AM | Relevance | See: AC Guidelines 8.1.1 Address Does Not Exist |
This suggestion is a non-existent postal code. The relevance is independent of the data issue and should be rated per the Global AC Guidelines Section 8.1.1 Address Does Not Exist and is dependent on closer real-world suggestions. The Address Accuracy should be rated Incorrect – Address Does Not Exist. | |||
As stated in 5.3.2, postal sectors are postal codes that contain a full outward section and a partial inward section. These should be rated Bad for Relevance. Suggestions such as these do not meet the average user expectations nor are presented in a usable format for the average user. In this situation, the Address Accuracy should be marked as Incorrect – Postal Code.
Query | Suggestion | Rating & Explanation |
[E2] | E2 6 | Result has an incomplete inward section because it is missing the unit section of the postal code. Because of this the Relevance is rated Bad and the Address Accuracy Incorrect – Postal Code |
[SW1] | SW1 1A | |
[NW] | NW9 5 |
Because postal codes are often used for navigating from one place to another, Autocomplete may also suggest features which are present inside a postal code and may be useful to a user in finding their end goal. These features should be shown only for a complete postal code and may include streets, buildings, addresses and businesses. When rating these types of suggestions, first verify they do in fact exist in the postal code in question, then rate them based on a scale determined by the prominence of the suggestion.
Query | Suggestion | Rating & Explanation | |
[M33 6LP] | M33 6LP | Relevance | Excellent |
This suggestion is the only possible postal code suggestion for this query string | |||
Glebelands Road, Sale, England | Relevance | Excellent/Good | |
Royal Mail confirms the suggestion is for the only street which exits within the postal code M33 6LP. | |||
119 Glebelands Road, Sale, England | Relevance | Excellent/Good | |
Royal Mail confirms the suggestion is for a valid address that exits within the postal code M33 6LP. | |||
[BD7 4QR] | Anne Street Bradford, England | Relevance | Bad |
Royal Mail confirms that the suggested street does not exist within the queried postal code. | |||
When an input address contains a valid building name, but no street/flat number, this should be rated as a valid address point. This is due to the utilization of building names in place of street numbers in the United Kingdom.
Claredale House Claredale Street London E2 6PE | Valid | This address is rated Valid because the building name is confirmed to be valid and the building in question represents a singular point |
Smith House Teesdale Close London E2 | Invalid | This address is rated Invalid because the building name used in the input address is confirmed to not exist. |
Some input addresses will not have a street number, nor a building included. Before rating these as invalid, research must be done to ensure that such an address is not in fact a valid full address. After determining if an address is a valid full address, next determine if it is used by only a single POI or residential building or if multiple entities use the address. If the address represents a singular address point, then the address is rated Valid. If the address is used by multiple entities, then the address is rated Invalid but Reasonable.
Post boxes are often, but not always, located on pedestrian paths along roadways. Perfect pins should be placed relatively on top of the postbox itself or in the immediate area up to 5m away from the post box location and on the same side of the street. Approximate pins can be placed within 50m of the post box and within the Half ‘n’ Half Rule.
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