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21-02-2002, 01:55/01:55AM
Here's a tip that does not apply to SEO. This is strictly information only and may be of use to those designing web sites using US addresses.
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has a pretty strict set of guidelines when it comes to addressing business mail. If you want to minimize delays in delivery, you'll want to optimize your addresses. ;)
I've been following postal specifications now for 12 years in my main career. Each time we bring on a new client, one of the first things we do is verify their address. We do this by utilizing the USPS Zip+4 (http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/lookup_zip+4.html) Lookup.
Once you've entered the requested address information and click the process button, you get this:
The standardized address is:
1835 W ORANGEWOOD AVE STE 250
ORANGE CA 92868-2044
<--This information for commercial mailing purposes-->
Carrier Route : C059 County : ORANGE
Delivery Point : 50 Check Digit : 2
Why do I bring this up? I had a client today who called and said we printed the wrong address on their business cards and it should have been Avenue instead of Street. Well, as it turns out, we originally confirmed their address with the USPS database, so Street was correct. I literally asked one of the executives to walk outside and look at the street sign. It read Street and here they have been using Avenue since 1989. This was the first time that we've printed their stationery products, its a newer client.
When designing web sites I like to use properly formatted addressing without the abbreviations. The above would end up being something like this:
Eagle
1835 West Orangewood Avenue · Suite 250 · Orange, California 92868-2044 USA
1-714-000-0000 · Fax: 1-714-000-0000
I always recommend including your country code and proper hyphenation between the numbers. Sometimes when receiving online contact requests, I get a string of numbers not separated by hyphens. Don't all telephone and fax numbers worldwide use a hyphen at least once?
It sure would be nice to have a resource that linked to all the various country address formats like the USPS has above. Does the UK have an interface this? How about France? Germany?
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has a pretty strict set of guidelines when it comes to addressing business mail. If you want to minimize delays in delivery, you'll want to optimize your addresses. ;)
I've been following postal specifications now for 12 years in my main career. Each time we bring on a new client, one of the first things we do is verify their address. We do this by utilizing the USPS Zip+4 (http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/lookup_zip+4.html) Lookup.
Once you've entered the requested address information and click the process button, you get this:
The standardized address is:
1835 W ORANGEWOOD AVE STE 250
ORANGE CA 92868-2044
<--This information for commercial mailing purposes-->
Carrier Route : C059 County : ORANGE
Delivery Point : 50 Check Digit : 2
Why do I bring this up? I had a client today who called and said we printed the wrong address on their business cards and it should have been Avenue instead of Street. Well, as it turns out, we originally confirmed their address with the USPS database, so Street was correct. I literally asked one of the executives to walk outside and look at the street sign. It read Street and here they have been using Avenue since 1989. This was the first time that we've printed their stationery products, its a newer client.
When designing web sites I like to use properly formatted addressing without the abbreviations. The above would end up being something like this:
Eagle
1835 West Orangewood Avenue · Suite 250 · Orange, California 92868-2044 USA
1-714-000-0000 · Fax: 1-714-000-0000
I always recommend including your country code and proper hyphenation between the numbers. Sometimes when receiving online contact requests, I get a string of numbers not separated by hyphens. Don't all telephone and fax numbers worldwide use a hyphen at least once?
It sure would be nice to have a resource that linked to all the various country address formats like the USPS has above. Does the UK have an interface this? How about France? Germany?