Overview
This article helps you understand how locations work on your Access Volcanic website to power job search, candidate profiles, and integrations with Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems. You'll learn how to configure basic location behaviour, work with the global location database, and resolve common location issues like incorrect suggestions or mismatches between systems.
Key benefits
Enhance candidate experience through accurate location filters and search functionality.
Support reliable system integrations with consistent location mapping between Access Volcanic and ATS or CRM systems.
Improve reporting accuracy by maintaining consistent location assignment across all jobs.
Reduce support queries through predictable location search behaviour and clear autosuggest functionality.
Enable better search performance with location data that supports both broad regional and specific city-level filtering.
Before you start
Before managing locations, make sure you have:
Admin access to your Access Volcanic platform.
Knowledge of which countries and regions you recruit in actively.
Understanding of any ATS or CRM integrations that send job location data.
📌 Note: Some location features can only be changed by Access Volcanic Product or Engineering teams. Contact Support if you're unsure about your location service version or see unexpected behaviour across many jobs.
Understanding how location data works
Global location database
Access Volcanic uses a global locations dataset to provide consistent location options across your website. This dataset comes from GeoNames, a comprehensive geographical database that ensures standardised location information.
The same location data powers multiple areas:
Job posting and editing in the Admin Area.
Job search filters and keyword searches on your website.
Candidate dashboards and profile location fields.
ATS and CRM integration mappings for job synchronisation.
📌 Note: A new Locations Service V2 is currently in beta testing with selected customers. For administrators interested in learning more about this upcoming update, speak with your Account Manager or Customer Success Manager.
Location as a job field
Location is a required field when creating or editing jobs in Access Volcanic. When you select a location, it's used to display job information, power search filters, and feed data to integrations.
Choosing the correct location during job creation is essential for accurate search results, reporting, and integration behaviour.
📌 Note: For detailed guidance on job posting, see the Job Posting guide.
Configuring location behaviour
Accessing job search settings
Location behaviour is controlled through Job Search Settings in your Admin Area.
Key location settings overview
The main location settings you can configure include:
Filters: Determines which filters appear on your job search page, including location filters.
Locations limit: Controls how many locations appear in the location filter list.
Autosuggest location type: Determines which dataset powers location suggestions (Global locations or SEO locations).
Location search filter: Controls which location categories appear in filters (continents, countries, regions, cities).
Scope location search to existing jobs: Determines whether location options come from locations with live jobs only or the complete global dataset.
📌 Note: For detailed configuration steps and explanations of these settings, see the Job Search Settings guide.
Location matching
Access Volcanic automatically matches location information when jobs are created through integrations or manual entry. This helps ensure consistent location data across your platform.
How location matching works
When you enter a location like Manchester, UK, the system:
Breaks down the location into parts (city and country).
Searches for matching locations in the database.
Considers factors like population size to find the best match.
Selects the most likely correct location.
Best format for locations
For the most accurate results, use this format:
City, Country (for example: Manchester, UK)
Or include more detail:
City, State, Country (for example: Portland, Oregon, US)
🤓 Tip: Including more context helps avoid confusion between cities with the same name in different countries or states.
Locations Service V2
Upcoming location improvements
Access Volcanic is developing an enhanced location service that addresses several challenges with the current system:
Reduced dependence on publicly editable databases.
Elimination of duplicate locations across multiple categories.
Improved handling of colloquial location names.
More reliable, curated location data.
The enhanced service includes location classes to organise and control available locations, such as Country, State, Region, City, Unofficial Region, and School categories.
⚠️ Important: This enhanced location service is currently in testing and is not widely available.
📌 Note: If you're interested in learning more about these upcoming location improvements, contact your Account Manager, Customer Success Manager, or Support team to discuss whether this might be suitable for your site.
Location integrations
When jobs come from your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Access Volcanic automatically matches the location information to ensure consistency.
Different systems send location data in different ways:
📌 Note: For information about SEO Locations, see the SEO tools guide.
If the location information from your integration system is unclear or incomplete, Access Volcanic might select an unexpected location. This is why it's important to use clear, detailed location information in your source system.
🤓 Tip: Work with your integration system to ensure location data includes both city and country information for the best results.
Best practices
Use clear, fully qualified locations when posting jobs including city and country.
Configure base locations to match your actual recruitment markets.
Avoid posting single jobs to multiple broad locations (such as multiple countries or entire continents) as this can harm search relevance.
Regularly review job locations for accuracy and correct any assignment errors.
Test candidate search journeys using common location terms.
Include state or province information where relevant to avoid city name confusion.
🤓 Tip: Consistent, accurate locations improve candidate experience, reporting quality, and integration reliability across your recruitment platform.
FAQs
Q1: Can Access Volcanic add locations not in GeoNames or with populations below 10,000?
Answer: For the current location service, locations must exist in GeoNames with supported feature codes and populations above 10,000. Locations that don't meet these requirements cannot be added to the global dataset.
Q2: Why do I see locations in countries where we don't recruit?
Answer: Your Access Volcanic site likely uses Global locations without base location restrictions configured. Base locations help filter out irrelevant location suggestions by limiting available locations to countries where you actively recruit. Contact Support to review your base location configuration and restrict it to countries where you actually post jobs.
Q3: What should I do if my Applicant Tracking System (ATS) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) shows one location but the Content Management System (CMS) shows another?
Answer: When locations don't match between systems, don't bulk-edit locations manually in the CMS as this can cause integration issues. Instead, raise a Support case including your ATS or CRM system name, sample job reference, expected location, and actual location shown.
Q4: How do I fix jobs appearing under the wrong location in search filters?
Answer: Filter by the incorrect location on your job search page, open an affected job, click Edit Job, carefully select the correct location from suggestions, and save the job. Repeat for other affected jobs. When selecting locations, include country or state information to avoid choosing similar location names from different regions.
Q5: Why is a location missing from filters or autosuggest?
Answer: Check that the location exists in your dataset, verify the location category is enabled in Job Search Settings, and confirm you're not using Scoped Locations without jobs in that area. If the location still doesn't appear, the population may be below 10,000, the GeoNames feature code may not be supported, or the location may not exist in the global dataset.
Q6: How can I improve location matching for integrations?
Answer: Provide detailed location strings including city, state where relevant, and country in comma-separated format like Manchester, UK or Portland, Oregon, US. Work with your ATS or CRM provider to improve field mappings and ensure consistent formatting in source data.
Q7: How do I handle location mismatches between my ATS/CRM and Access Volcanic?
Answer: When locations don't match between systems, don't manually correct locations in bulk if the issue affects many jobs. Instead, raise a Support case including your ATS or CRM system name, sample job reference, expected location, and actual location shown.
Q8: What is Locations Service V2 and can I get access to it?
Answer: Locations Service V2 is an enhanced location system currently in beta testing with selected customers that provides improved location matching and organisation features. It's not widely available and is being rolled out on a case-by-case basis. Contact your Account Manager, Customer Success Manager, or Support team if you're interested in learning more about these upcoming improvements.
Q9: Can I use SEO Locations with the enhanced location service?
Answer: SEO Locations are not compatible with Locations Service V2 and are being phased out across the Access Volcanic platform. If you're currently using SEO Locations and are interested in the enhanced location service, discuss migration options with your Account Manager or Customer Success Manager.
Q10: What are the location classes available in the V2 beta system?
Answer: For customers participating in the V2 beta testing, the enhanced service includes location classes such as Country, State, Region, City, Unofficial Region, and School. V2 configuration and setup can only be managed by Access Volcanic Product and Engineering teams.
Q11: Why do some jobs show blank locations after a system update?
Answer: This can happen during location service updates where only live jobs are migrated to new location data. Expired or archived jobs may display blank or missing locations, but this doesn't affect new or currently active jobs. Contact Support if you see blank locations on live jobs as this may indicate a configuration issue.
Q12: How do base locations work and should I configure them?
Answer: Base locations restrict the available location dataset to specific countries or regions where you actively recruit. This reduces irrelevant location suggestions and improves search accuracy. If you recruit globally or in multiple countries with similar city names, base locations can significantly improve the user experience. Contact Support to discuss whether base location configuration would benefit your site.
Q13: What happens when I edit a job's location that came from an integration?
Answer: When you manually edit a job location in the Access Volcanic CMS, it overrides the location sent from your ATS or CRM integration system. However, if the job updates again from your ATS or CRM, it may revert to the original location depending on your integration settings. For persistent location issues from integrations, work with Support to adjust the integration configuration rather than making manual edits.
Q14: Are you currently adding new locations to the global dataset?
Answer: Access Volcanic is currently focusing development efforts on Locations Service V2 rather than expanding the existing location dataset. However, if there is a major location missing that meets all the GeoNames requirements (exists in GeoNames, has a supported feature code, and has a population above 10,000), this may be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Q15: Why doesn't the location I'm typing appear in autosuggest?
Answer: The location may not exist in the global dataset, may be below the population threshold, or your site may be configured to show only locations with active jobs. Try typing more specific information like City, Country format, check that the location meets GeoNames requirements, or verify your Job Search Settings configuration for location autosuggest and scoping options.