Using Maps to get more visibility for your website
Ever wonder how businesses get included in the local results with a map in the search results? Google bases these listings on the physical address of your business. Be sure you include it on your website! It’s surprising how many companies forget to prominently declare what city and state they are located in. Unless your target customer can be located anywhere in the world, you need to be sure your website clearly indicates - on every page - where you are and what your service area includes. And it needs to be in text, not part of a graphic or logo image.
Also do these simple things to get an edge over the competition:
- Register your site with Google Maps. It’s free and it gives you the ability to edit the information that is displayed about your business. You’ll need a Google Account, but that’s free and easy to set up. It’s simply a matter of giving them your contact info and setting a password. Go to maps.google.com and click on “Put your business on Google Maps.” Or look up your business in Google, including your city name, and click on the listing for it that is next to the Google Map. Then click on the “more info” link below your business name or the “Edit” link in the information bubble on the map. From here you can follow the screen-by-screen instructions for editing your map listing. Google will have you verify that you are the owner of that listing before you will be able to edit it.
- Edit your map listing in Yahoo. This is free of charge and easy to do. Go to maps.yahoo.com and type in your business name in the “FIND A BUSINESS ON THE MAP” text box. When you see your pin on the map, click on it and then click on “Edit as Owner”. The instructions will walk you through the process of verifying that you are the owner of the business and then you can edit your listing. If your business isn’t listed, go to listings.local.yahoo.com and select the type of listing you want and follow the screen-by-screen instructions to add your business to Yahoo Maps.
- Add the following meta tags to the <HEAD> section of your web pages (or have your web designer do it.) This geographic locator information can be helpful to your site in local results.
<meta name=”geo.region” content=”US-ST”/>
<meta name=”geo.placename” content=”city,ST”/>
<meta name=”geo.position” content=”xx.xxxxx;-xx.xxxxx”/>
<meta name=”ICBM” content=”xx.xxxxx;-xx.xxxxx”/>
Replace the US-ST in the geo.region tag with your state abbreviation
Replace the city,ST in the geo.placename tag with your city,ST
Replace the x’s with the actual latitude and longitude of your location
How to get Latitude and Longitude from Google Maps
1) Go to maps.google.com
2) Enter your address, or zip code, airport code, or city and state – whatever you’re using as your location
3) Click on the link that says ‘Link’ (It is on the right side, just above the upper right corner of the map, next to the ‘Print’ and ‘Send’ links.)
4) A box opens up with a link already selected that says “”Paste link in email or IM”". Copy this link text and paste it somewhere where you can read the whole thing.
5) The latitude and longitude are contained in those URL parameters. Look for this:
&ll=38.407263,-122.828865
6) The &ll stands for latitude and longitude.
In this example, latitude is: 38.407263
and longitude is: -122.828865
(if you don’t see lat and long in the link, zoom in on the map,
click your location point and try again)
