“geocode was not successful for the following reason: ZERO_RESULTS”

This error occurs when Google’s Geocoding API fails to return a matching location for the provided address or postal code.

Main Cause: Duplicate Locations for the Same Postal Code

One of the primary reasons for this issue is that certain locations—particularly postal codes—exist in multiple countries. When the system attempts to search for such a postal code without specifying the country, Google may fail to determine the correct location and return zero results.

Example Scenario:

• The postal code 65536 exists in the United States.
• However, this postal code may also be assigned to another country.
• If you search for “65536” without specifying the country, Google may be unable to determine the correct location and return zero results.

How to Fix the Issue

1. Include the Country in the Search Query
   • Instead of searching for a postal code alone (65536), add the country name:
     Example: "65536, United States"
2. Enable Country Restriction in Google Geocoding API
   • Set a preferred country in the ASL Settings that can be setup in the ASL Settings > Country Restriction, however there is a limitation that Geocoding API can only be restricted with a single country, multiple countries restriction is only supported in Google Place API.

1. Missing Google Maps in Store Registration Form: Ensure that your frontend store registration form includes a Google Maps element. When a form includes a Google Maps component, the submitted entry automatically carries the coordinates.
2. Geocoding API Configuration: If you prefer not to include Google Maps in the registration form, coordinates are fetched upon approval of the store entry. However, if coordinates are missing even after approval, it could indicate a configuration issue with the Geocoding API server key. Validate the API key and ensure that the results are in green. If the results appear in red, address the server Geocoding issue to resolve the problem.

 

Image of Agile Store Locator Manages Stores

If the values are not “null” then make sure the coordinates (Lat/Lng) are in the right range. Longitude is in the range -180 and +180, specifying coordinates west and east of the prime meridian, respectively. For reference, the equator has a latitude of 0°, the North pole has a latitude of 90° north (written 90° N or +90°), and the south pole has a latitude of -90°. So maximum and minimum values are as follows.

• Latitude max/min +90 to -90
• Longitude max/min +180 to -180

The precision of location can be made accurate by the decimal places, so if your coordinates have five to six decimal places, the accuracy will be pretty high.

1. First of all, make sure the cache in the ASL Settings is disabled as you may be caching results instead of the actual locations that are in the Store Manager.
2. Make sure that the server API key is valid on the Import/Export page, in case you have any problem with it you can troubleshoot that first.
3. Click on the Fetch Missing Coordinates button on the Import/Export page, which should fillup all the coordinates that were wrong or invalid.
4. In case the step 3 doesn’t resolve the problem, export your store’s CSV file and make sure to empty the lat and lng columns in it.
5. Press the Delete All button on the import/export page to delete all the existing rows.
6. Import your CSV file and the import process will fetch all the missing coordinates by geocoding the given street, state, city, and postal code.

Since version 4.7.20, we have included a new option to directly remove the duplicate stores from the stores’ table, you simply need to click on that button to remove the duplicate rows, here are the steps:

• Go to the Import/Export page of the Store Locator
• Click on the Remove duplicates button as in the screenshot below.

Avoid Duplicates during the Import of CSV

Our import process has a new control added by using that duplicates rows in the CSV file will be skipped and you don’t need to worry about duplicates in the stores’ table, you have to select a filter column that you want to apply during the import process, it can be either the title, phone, email, or coordinates.

Under Avoid Duplication, enable:

Skip Duplicate Entries

Then choose the attribute you want to validate:

• Email – Skips rows if another store already uses the same email.
• Title – Skips rows with the same store title.
• Phone – Skips rows with the same phone number.
• Coordinates – Skips rows with the same latitude & longitude.

This ensures that matching records are not inserted again.

Remove Duplicates through CSV

Before importing a CSV file it is important to make sure that the file does not have any duplicate rows. Furthermore, having duplicate rows means the store’s data will be imported twice.

To remove any duplicate rows from the CSV file, please do the following:

1. Export the CSV file
2. Remove the duplicate records from the CSV file
3. Delete any previously existing records via the red button on the Import/Export page.
4. The last step will be to import the data only once.