How to create a “My Map” in Google Maps

Posted on November 23, 2009 by Mark

I came across this today while looking for something else – How to create a “My Map” in Google Maps. The purpose of MyMaps is to make it easy to create personal content related to Google Maps.  In the video, they show examples of making a walking tour of San Francisco.

In the accommodation industry there would be a lot of ways a map could be useful – walking trails, tourism features, pictures of the area, recommended restaurants, etc. The possibilities are limitless.

But, what’s the point?  Why bother doing that when you could do other things?  Is it better to create things that are made public, or keep them private for our own personal use?

  1. Better Ranking in Regular Google Maps – Recently, I uploaded a MyMap for Golden Chain Motels.  I uploaded the location of every Member with some images, links to the Member’s Page on Golden Chain Motels website and a link to make a booking with a source id to tell us when the booking came from Google Maps. The result was surprising.  We started getting bookings and we noticed the Motels seemed to show up higher in ranking for their individual search results.
  2. Interesting User Content – it seems pretty clear that we can upload some interesting material that can later be linked to our websites.  That’s always good.  While we want to rank high and sell more – we also want to create a good impression.

Have a look at the video to see how easy it is>

Let me know if you make anything with this because it would be interesting to highlight examples.

About Mark

Founder of Web Reservation Systems, focused on helping businesses in the Australian Accommodation travel sector get more value from Internet Marketing. Originally, we opened up in 2001 as a supplier of Front Office Software linked to Online Booking facilities. That allowed motels and hotels to add booking buttons to their websites as well as sell through Global Distribution Systems. You could say this was an early 'Channel Manager' because it allowed the property manager to simply control price and availability for a diverse array of wholesale and retails websites. Next, we started building websites to profile our customers (Australian Holiday Guide). That lead to building websites for customers as a favour. Now do about 80 websites a year using BurgundySky and Joomla. For small businesses I recommend using BurgundySky as it is very easy to start and manage. Joomla is also great, but harder to install and maintain for a small business. Our web design business is based in Byron Bay, NSW. Byron Bay is a great place to live and work. I have 2 kids (15 and 17) who are both born here and my wife, Shobhan Oliver) is a successful artist.
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One Response to How to create a “My Map” in Google Maps

  1. Peter Tijn says:
    December 16, 2009 at 1:15 pm

    Thanks for the tip. I have wanted to create some special maps to show off the surrounding area for my motel in Greenslopes – a suburb of Brisbane QLD.

    I have a lot of guests staying at the motel that are visiting frends or family in hospital. So, I’ve set up a special map using your techniques showing locations for Greenslopes Private Hospital, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Mater Private Hospital and Belmont Private Hospital.

    They are linked here: Accommodation near Brisbane Hospitals.

    It was pretty easy. I’ll probably add some more.

    Thanks, Peter
    Greenslopes Motor Inn – http://www.gsmi.com.au

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