People use store locators all the time, but I wonder if businesses are taking advantage of the wealth of data that these tools can provide. In particular, I’m interested in the cases where someone types in a zip code, city/state, or cross streets, and there are zero matching results. I doubt these are logged right now, which is a shame. That data is a goldmine when it comes to planning out future store locations.

Think about it: each store locator search is a reflection of customer intent. They’ve found the way to your website, and they’re ready to visit a local store, restaurant, office, etc. But if they don’t get any results or the nearest match is quite far away, they’ll probably go elsewhere. Record each of these near-misses, and you’ll have a great idea of where new locations are needed and are likely to be profitable.