How we made our geocoding faster. This will also avoid the daily rate limit for Google Maps

check_zipcode.rb

#This goes as a before_filter on your controller.
#Requires 'geocoder' gem

  def check_zipcode
		if params[:zipcode].nil?
			return
		end
		if !Zipcode.where('zip = ?', params[:zipcode]).empty?
			zip = Zipcode.where('zip = ?', params[:zipcode]).first
			return [zip.lat, zip.lng]
		else
			search = Geocoder.search(params[:zipcode]).first.geometry["location"]
			lat = search["lat"]
			lng = search["lng"]
			zip = Zipcode.new(zip: params[:zipcode], lat: lat, lng: lng)
			zip.save
			return [lat, lng]
		end
	end