Computerized methods and systems for performing a search utilizing a spatial index are provided. Upon receiving a search query having a zoom level component (e.g., “Italian Restaurants in Seattle”), a search is initially conducted of the zoom level tags associated with the content items in the spatial index to determine if any of the content items include a zoom level tag indicative of the zoom level component of the search query (e.g., zoom level of city for Seattle). Subsequently, only those content items satisfying the zoom level search are grouped into a primary subset, whereby the primary subset may be filtered by selecting those returned content items with location-based tags that match a location-based component of the query (e.g., Seattle, Wash.). Next, the those content items satisfying the location-based filter are grouped into a location-based subset, which are filtered according to the parsed query components (e.g., category component Italian Restaurants).