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Location, location, location

Business location search is all about location. You can find the perfect office or warehouse, but if it isn't in the right place, then it's wrong.

Alissa Sklar
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on June 30, 2016
Alissa Sklar
Vice President of Marketing

It all started with a sudden downpour.

 

I was late to pick up one of my teens from the bus stop after a day of school. Normally not a big deal, as they are perfectly capable of managing the 25-minute walk home. But then the skies opened. Hailstones. Soaked school uniform. Drenched backpack. Shoes that squelched when she walked. All leading to the sort of angry death stare only a 13-year-old can truly master.Flickr: Franck Michel Heavy rain

 

That night at dinner (with one unusually sullen teenager, and two just normal, everyday sullen teenagers), it dawned on us that we'd outgrown the house we'd bought 9 years ago because it was on a quiet street full of young families, next to a park. We used to joke we'd moved to 1972, because the streets were full of kids each day after school, zipping around on bikes, scooters and roller skates, playing basketball, and running in and out of each other's houses until parents called them in for dinner.

 

Somewhere in the intervening years, our three kids had outgrown their scooters and roller skates. They didn't want access to a park anymore, they wanted easy public transit to go out with their friends. The quiet street was "boring," the park was "lame." They didn't want 1972, they wanted 2016.

 

Our bright, comfortable home with lots of closet space still suited us, but it was in the wrong place. So we turned to the Internet. Like all contemporary house hunters, we began by first choosing the communities, and then the streets, that suited our new needs. Then we put in searches for the house criteria we needed. Lots of possibilities popped up, and we are still working our way through them.

 

Corporate real estate is just the same. You can find the perfect office, retail location or warehouse, but if it's in the wrong place then it's just, well, it's just wrong. Which is why we are pleased to be getting such glowing reviews for our newly redesigned and reimaged US national site selection portal, ZoomProspector.com (such as this one from Real Estate Tech News, and this one from CRE expert Duke Long). We are delighted to see that our business location search website garners more online traffic any comparable site. 

 

When businesses and site selectors search for ideal locations, they have a list of criteria in mind. They don't want to sign up for accounts or pay exorbitant fees. They just need access to data for every single community in the nation that is robust, reliable and up to date. And once they use ZoomProspector.com to find the communities that match those important requirements, they can then search for the actual sites or properties they need. Communities with Economic Development Online (EDO) Profiles can then direct interested entrepreneurs or site selectors to their own website and provide contact information to carry on the conversation.  

 

It's win-win.

 

Consider the importance of community search the next time you are looking for a restaurant around you on Yelp, a movie theater around you on Flixster, or a house in the right neighborhood on Zillow. Location is everything. Visit ZoomProspector.com yourself to see how we've made site selection and economic development marketing easier than ever - right across the U.S.                                                                

Site Selection GIS economic development online business location search national site selection portal Economic Development Place Marketing GIS data