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Greg Brown

Guide to Online Maps for Small Businesses

Make sure your store or office shows up when people do local search via maps


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Think your yellow pages listing matters? Then get ready to worry about a whole new category of business directories -- online maps. Theoretically, these flashy new interactive maps can bring you new business. But, they can be notoriously incomplete or just plain wrong.

That doesn't mean you have to live with bad data. It's important to be proactive. Chances are, most people under, say, 30, will look here before cracking open a phone book, if they even have one around. If they're under 20, if it's not on their cellular phone, it's not real. Maps and listing make the difference.


Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Get to the know biggest services and how they work


If you are new to online maps, it would be a good thing to just go to a few and try to find your business. Who knows? Maybe it's listed just fine.

I recommend: Some of the better known mapping sites include Google, Yahoo!, MSN, MapQuest and Multimap. Software that includes 3D versions of cities is put out by Google Earth and Windows Live Local.

Tell the map services where you are


Some of the big ones allow small businesses to identify themselves directly with the business database.

I recommend: You can upload your data directly with Google, and you even add a printable coupon next to your list for free. Strangely, Yahoo! maps presumes you cannot type, but offers a feedback form in case your business isn't listed. It's easier to edit a business listing or claim you own the listed company via Yahoo! Local, free or for a fee with enhanced features. MapQuest does it with a complex process called geocoding, which basically means that if it's wrong, you have to tell them. Window Live uses a third-party vendor called Localeze.

Be found through your own Web site


Online maps are making it easier to tell customers where you are, with sometimes only minimal or no programming skills necessary.

I recommend: Google Maps allows you to use its own code to embed maps into your site. Yahoo! suggests you link out to their site. MapQuest goes both ways, link out or embed in. For Windows Live, go to Help and search for "link" for suggestions. Yes, it's that hard to find out how.

Increasingly, the data is on the move


The eventual goal of most mapping services online is to be the killer app when it comes to smartphones, those big-screen, broadband versions of cell phones. They've come down in price drastically, so being online will matter a lot more, sooner.

I recommend: Google's mobile service is up and running. Yahoo!, too, has been in this for a while. MapQuest expects users to pay a monthly fee. The Windows Live offering seems to focus on listings more than maps, but that matters.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

  • Don't assume that because you' ve been on the same corner for decades that online maps will find you. Big national chains seem easy to find, single location businesses less so.
  • Take advantage of maps and listings to drive business your way. It's a yellow pages model, but the actual phone company directories dropped the ball and let online mappers beat them to the market.
  • If you want keep people on your site, make sure online map link opens in a new screen. Any basic HTML geek can show you how. Or, print out clear address and map location once in color, save it as a PDF file, and just post that on your site.

The official source of Online Maps for Small Businesses is
the Mapping Services page at Business.com

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