In today's data-driven world, efficiency and precision are paramount. Meet our cutting-edge UK Postcodes Batch Geocoding tool - a revolutionary solution designed to elevate your business operations to the next level.
This tool is your ticket to fast, accurate, and reliable geocoding, capable of handling large volumes of UK postcodes swiftly and seamlessly. Equipped with a user-friendly interface and robust features, it simplifies the geocoding process, enabling you to save time, reduce errors, and optimize productivity.
Whether you're dealing with logistics, real estate, or any other industry dealing with geographical data, our tool is an essential companion, delivering precise location data at scale. Step into the future of geocoding with our UK Postcodes Batch Geocoding tool and experience the profound impact it can have on your business operations.
The WebMaps batch geocoding tool is very simple. The main function of this tool is to convert full UK postcodes into latitude/longitude pairs. By efficiently processing large quantities of postcodes, this tool enables a straightforward conversion into geographical coordinates.
Batch geocoding, as the process is known, has a broad range of applications across numerous sectors. From logistics and transportation planning to public sector administration, real estate and advertising. The ability to quickly convert postcodes to geographical data can be invaluable.
This tool simplifies this process through an intuitive user interface, comprehensive data handling capabilities, and high-speed processing. We have the ability to convert thousands of postcodes within a few seconds.
Many of our customers benefit from our geocoding tools. Delivery companies need to plan their deliveries on a map using latitude/longitudes; Governments and local councils often use geocoding when planning or analysing their local areas and real estate agents often use this tool to visualise their listings on a map.
UK postcodes are changing fast, updates are made every single day as new housing developments are finished or older streets are changed, requiring a different postcode.
To keep our data accurate we use a couple of different methods to make sure our postcode lists are as accurate as possible. We have our own database that contains around 1.7 million postcodes and corresponding coordinates. Once we’ve found your postcode in there we often cross-reference the location with a public API that is updated daily. From our testing we’ve established a very high accuracy rate with these two methods.
Oftentimes you will want to know the lat/lng of a postcode quickly, without having to remember a website and navigate there in a new tab. For this reason we’ve released a very simple geocoding chrome extension. It works in a very similar way but will allow you to geocode a postcode within 10 seconds.
This is a very new tool so we’re constantly looking to add new features and improvements. A lot of our business at WebMaps and GB Maps[] use this tool so it’s a great benefit to have new features.
A lot of postcodes are terminated every week. Even though your postcodes will still have a valid latitude and longitude, we’re looking to add a feature that shows whether each postcode has been terminated or not. You don’t want to be doing any mass mail marketing to postcodes that don’t exist anymore.
We’re also going to be adding options to output easting/northings and What3Words locations. Easting/northings are specific to the UK so can be used in different situations.
We’re also going to be adding a CSV export. You can already copy the output and easily split the data into columns but in case you have a large amount of postcodes we’ll add a button for excel exports that will work fast and will be formatted well.
As mentioned above, we use a combination of an in house database and a public API. After validating the postcode list we check the postcode against our database. This is where we achieve the crazy speed of this tool.
If a postcode isn’t in our database we will double check with a public API just to make sure it hasn’t been added recently.
You may have seen some other bulk geocoding tools on the internet but we see a company called Doogal Batch Geocoding as the most popular option.
We’ve tested our new tool directly against Doogal’s geocoder. We added the same 1,000 postcodes to both tools before timing how long they took to geocode.
Doogal took just over 6 minutes, while the WebMaps Geocoding tool took around 1.5 seconds. A big difference that adds up when converting a lot of postcodes.
Latitude and longitude are geographic coordinates used to locate a point anywhere on the Earth's surface. They are part of a grid system that helps in navigation and mapping.
Latitude measures how far north or south a location is from the Equator. It is represented by horizontal lines on a map, called parallels, ranging from 0° at the Equator to 90° at the poles. Locations north of the Equator are marked as 'N' (for North), and those south are marked as 'S' (for South).
Longitude measures how far east or west a location is from the Prime Meridian, which runs through Greenwich, England. These are vertical lines, called meridians, ranging from 0° at the Prime Meridian to 180° east or west. Locations east of the Prime Meridian are marked as 'E' (for East), and those west are marked as 'W' (for West).
Together, these coordinates provide a precise address for any location on Earth, essential for global navigation, location tracking, and geographic information systems.
Easting and northing are terms used in the grid-based geographic coordinate systems, particularly in the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) and the British National Grid. They provide a way to pinpoint exact locations on Earth's surface using a simpler, more practical system for certain applications like land surveying and mapping.
Easting refers to the distance (in meters or feet) eastward from a defined meridian (a north-south line). In a grid system, eastings are represented by vertical grid lines. The value increases as one moves east from the reference meridian. It's akin to longitude but uses a linear measurement from a fixed point rather than degrees.
Northing indicates the distance (in meters or feet) northward from the equator or a specified parallel (an east-west line). In the grid, northings are horizontal lines, and their values increase as you move north from the equator or the base parallel. It's similar to latitude but again uses a linear scale.
Together, easting and northing coordinates provide a clear, grid-based location reference, crucial for detailed topographical maps, land division, and various engineering projects. This system simplifies calculations and is widely used in many regional and national mapping systems.
