Online Maps for Small Businesses

Make sure your store or office shows up when people do local search via maps
By Greg Brown 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.

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.
Try:  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.
Try:  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.
Try:  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.

Get mapped through an online yellow pages listing

Although the phone directories let the online mappers beat them to the market, they're catching up now and offer maps to your business as a feature of online yellow pages.
Try:  DexKnows.com, an online yellow pages covering markets in 14 states, includes mapping in various ad packages.

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.
Try:  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.

• 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.
• 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.