Your Business In Google Maps

In August Google quietly began incorporating small, clickable areas within maps, for parks, landmarks—and yes, even some businesses. These clickable “landmark icons” appear for any kinds of searches, even simple address searches. For a business, what does it take to achieve “landmark” status?

Online mapping providers have long offered add-on features beyond the basics of streets, cities and address pinpointing. Additional features have included things like county boundary lines, lakes, rivers, creeks, parks, major local landmarks and historical or cultural places.

When you think about it, inclusion of distinctive natural features and landmarks makes a lot of sense in maps. Not only are they things which people may frequently try to find, but landmarks by their nature also help people to further orient themselves when trying to give directions or recognize where they are in relation to the environment.

Example of Landmark Business Icons in Google Maps—location in Oak Park, IL

However, treatment of businesses as iconic map landmarks is a bit unusual, and it doesn’t take long for people to recognize that any business which shows up on a mapped area for all kinds of searches will be getting a lot more exposure and promotional benefit. These businesses will appear every time users are browsing maps in that area, and they could get more clickthroughs and conversions than the rest of the businesses which must be specifically invoked through name/category/keyword searches for which they’re relevant.

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