Address Verification – Common Mistakes

We’ve noticed that many raters often misunderstand some parts of the Address Verification
guidelines on their first attempt at the task. Below we have compiled some information to help
you avoid some common mistakes/misunderstandings we have seen. Hopefully this guidance
will help you get a step ahead and avoid any pitfalls a rater new to this task may make.

Make sure you understand what a Valid/Invalid query is:

• Before your first attempt, make sure you understand the contents of Section 3
and all its subsections in the guidelines. The most commonly made mistake is
misunderstanding what is a Valid query and what is an Invalid query. This is very
important to understand as if you mark a Valid query as Invalid you will not
answer all of the questions and thus lose more points than just one.

Queries do not have to be perfect to be considered Valid as long as they

reference one, unambiguous real-world location:
• Remember that per Section 3.2 of the guidelines the queries given are
queries from real-life users, which means they may contain small errors.
Users do not always enter all the information correctly when looking for an
address. This does not automatically mean the intended location cannot
be determined with these errors. There may be some parts of the query
you should accept and some that you reject. Do not automatically mark a
query as Invalid if the query address is not perfect. Section 3.3 outlines
examples of queries with minor issues that still be considered Valid. You
can contrast these with the Invalid examples in Section 3.4

A unit may or may not be required for a query to be considered Valid, it

depends on the address:
• A Valid query should allow a person to identify one, unambiguous, real
singular location from the query as outlined by Section 3 of the guidelines.
This should point to a singular property as outlined in Section 3.1. Please
make sure you understand the examples in Section 3.1. I’ve emphasized
some points below:
▪ If the street number of an address points to one building that
happens to be divided into units, a unit number is not required to
consider the address valid. This is because the address still points
to one building/one location.
▪ If one address is used to reference multiple rooftops instead of just
one, a unit may be required for the query address to be considered
Valid. This is a common scenario in some apartment complexes,
 shopping centers, strip malls, etc. Oftentimes, without the unit, the
exact location/rooftop being referenced cannot be determined, thus
the query address is considered Invalid (could apply to multiple
locations). There are some exceptions to this rule which I've
outlined below.
• There are some caveats to whether or not addresses that
cover multiple buildings need a unit number to be valid.
When determining if a multi-building address is Valid, you
should look into whether the address is actually divided into
units as well as if all the buildings at that address belong to
one business. If there are no units or all of the buildings
belong to one business, the query can still be considered
valid without a unit. Section 3.1 provides examples of
Valid/Invalid query addresses with multiple buildings.

Queries can be for real-world locations (e.g.: localities), but still be

considered Invalid as they do not point to a specific location:
o Remember that address queries should reference one unambiguous, real
location to be considered Valid. You can think of this as one property/one
building. If a query is not specific, it should not be considered Valid. For
example, cities, postcodes, counties, and states are way too broad to be
considered valid. For example, the query "Cincinnati, OH 45205" is way
too broad to identify a specific location. It should be considered Invalid.
There was one query that you marked as Valid when it was only specific
to the locality, so it should have been considered Invalid. See Sections 3
and 3.1 of the guidelines to review what is meant by a specific location as
well as the New York example in Section 3.4 for how to rate a locality
query

Ignore Areas of Interest and Points of Interest in queries:

• Per Section 3.2 of the guidelines, Areas of Interest (AOIs) and Points of
Interest (POIs) in the query address should be ignored for this task. You
should judge the query address without the POI/AOI. For example, if the
query is "St Edwards Park, Kenmore, WA 98028", the query address you
should judge is "Kenmore, WA 98028". In this case the query would be
invalid as Kenmore/98028 points to a large area and not a specific
location.

Rate Name Accuracy and Pin Accuracy based on the address represented by the
query, not the result address:
• Remember that for Address Verification, Pin Accuracy and Address Accuracy
should be rated in relation to the query address (see Sections 6 and 7 of the
guidelines). This means that you should rate Pin Accuracy and Address
 Accuracy based on the address the query represents (remember, there may be
errors in the query). A result address can represent an address that is different
from the address queried and contain all of the correct information for that
address, but still be considered Incorrect because it does not represent the
address queried. Similarly, a pin can correctly represent the location of the result
address, but still be considered Incorrect if it does not represent the location of
the queried address.

Check your locale’s Country Specific Guidelines:

• There may be specific Address Verification guidance for your locale in the
locale’s Country Specific Guidelines. This guidance may be slightly
different/more specific than the guidance seen in the general Address Verification
guidelines.

Third-party mapping websites may not be accurate, make sure you are relying on
official sources to confirm address locations:
• Do not use house numbers in the basemap of general mapping tools to confirm
the location of an address (examples in image below). There is no way to know
if they are accurate and will often lead you astray if they aren't. They can
sometimes be used to narrow down a location, but other sources (such as street
imagery or government maps) should be used to verify the location.