Running searches

A search is one query plus two filters. The query works exactly like a Google Maps search: a service and a place, such as custom cabinetry Palo Alto or dentists in Austin. The more specific the trade and the location, the more usable the list.

Results land on a page of their own, sorted by Opportunity score; click any column header to re-sort. Audits run in the background and scores fill in live, so the table is usable immediately and gets sharper as the audits complete.

A search returns a fixed number of qualifying businesses: up to 20 on the free trial and Freelance, up to 60 on Agency. Sifter keeps scanning the market until it has that many that clear your filters, or the market runs out. The count is a promise about usable prospects, not a raw cap: a search never comes back padded with businesses that miss your bar.

If a market genuinely runs dry before the target is reached, you simply get fewer results. Widen the area or lower the filters to reach deeper into it.

Google Maps data for a market changes slowly, so Sifter keeps a snapshot of each market it has scanned. Searching the same query again within two weeks reuses the snapshot: the results are instant, and the repeat does not re-query Google. After two weeks the snapshot expires and the next run fetches fresh data.

Ratings and review counts shown in results are from the snapshot, which is at most two weeks old; scores are refreshed separately by the audits (see re-running below).

The Find leads page keeps two lists under the form. Recent searches holds your latest eight runs, newest first; older ones fall off the end. Saved searches is the permanent list: save a search you plan to work repeatedly (a market you are actively prospecting) and it stays until you unsave it, with a one-click re-run.

Save from either place: the bookmark icon next to a recent search, or the Save this search button on its results page.

Re-running a saved search repeats it with the same query and filters: it refreshes the result list (from the snapshot if one is still fresh, from Google otherwise) and queues audits for any site whose last audit is more than a week old. Sites audited within the last seven days keep their existing scores instead of being re-audited.

Re-running is also safe from an outreach point of view: businesses already in your pipeline come back flagged with their lead status and can be hidden with one toggle, so you never cold-email a business you are mid-conversation with. See Leads in search results.

Your plan includes a monthly allowance of searches and website audits (the free trial has a one-time allowance instead). Both counters, with usage bars, live under Settings; paid allowances reset at the start of each calendar month.

If the audit allowance runs short mid-search, the results still appear and as many audits as the allowance covers are queued; the rest stay unaudited until you upgrade or the month rolls over.