Are you trying to optimize your business website? Have you thought about adding Google Maps to WordPress? There are many reasons why you should do it right away, and we are here to help you. This guide for beginners will explain to you why adding this feature to your website is important as well as how you can do it. Now, let’s take a look at how a business can benefit from adding a map to the pages and posts on their websites.
What are the advantages of adding Google Maps to WordPress?
First of all, you might be wondering why you should opt for Google Maps, among many other options for sharing your location. If you are trying to make your website as user-friendly as possible, just listing your physical address cannot be enough. After visiting your About us or Contact page, people will have to open their preferred map app and type or paste your address. It sometimes happens that there are more streets with the same name as yours, so the situation can be pretty confusing.
If you own a WordPress-based website, your goal is to keep visitors on your pages for as long as possible to improve the chance of conversion. Optimizing for conversions is a smart thing to do since it can multiply the number of your leads in no time. If visitors have to leave your website to find where you are, they are probably not coming back. And why Google Maps? Because most of your customers are familiar with it.
You will improve your SEO
Your local Search Engine Optimization will be improved if you add a map to your website. For instance, if you are running a pet shop and you have incorporated a map on your website, people searching for dogs to buy nearby would easily stumble upon your website rather than somebody else’s. That is just one of the aspects you should be familiar with when running a WP website.
People will interact with your website more
When you have an interactive map on your website, people are likely to zoom around the map, scroll and just analyze what places are near your business. They might want to find out where they can park their car when they visit you, or where they can have lunch or a drink after leaving your shop. Search engines encourage interactive websites by giving them positive evaluations.
Adding Google Maps to WordPress will improve the accessibility of your website and your business
Data like your street name and your house number do not mean much to visually-impaired people. By adding an interactive map to your website, you will make your website more accessible to them. The same goes for people who are in a car driving and relying on audio instructions. There are many more groups of people you will cover by doing this simple thing. Making your website more accessible by adding Google Maps will also help you get the top Google ranking.
This will help you highlight your reviews
If you are proud of your Google reviews, why not share that with your potential customers? Google Maps help you do that since the two apps are linked.
How to add Google Maps to your WordPress website?
Now that you know why you should add Google Maps to WordPress, let’s see how you can do it.
There are three ways you can add Google Maps to your WordPress website. Those are:
- Embedding maps manually,
- Adding maps in a Widget,
- Using a plugin
Before opting for any of the three ways, don’t forget to make your website mobile-friendly since that also adds to Google ranking. Forgetting to do that is one of the biggest mistakes when building a website. Now we can discuss each of the options more thoroughly.
Embedding maps manually
Manually adding Google Maps to WordPress provides you with the greatest flexibility. It is excellent for building a creative website. The trick is that you have to know HTML and Javascript to be able to do it.
Instructions: Go to Google Maps website and type the address that you want to display on your website. Then click on a link button in the right-hand panel to see the embedded code. Now you can copy the iframe code and paste it wherever you feel like. Before pasting, customize and preview the embedded map to see how it will appear within your content. Don’t forget that you have to paste the HTML directly into the Text tab in your WordPress editor.
Adding maps in a Widget
This is the easiest way to include a map and help your business get found in Google Maps. However, WordPress widgets are modules that can only be placed in certain areas of a website. Those places are predetermined by your chosen WP theme. That usually means that you can place your map within your footer or a sidebar instead of inserting it in your blog or a page. That is the main disadvantage of the widget. On the other hand, it is simple to use, so it might be a good starting point for beginners.
Instructions: Install the Google Maps Widget. When you activate it, go to Appearance – Widgets and drop Google Maps Widget to the sidebar. In Widget settings, enter the address. After that, you will be able to choose the zoom level, pin color, and some other features. Configure the lightbox settings and save your widget settings. That’s all!
Using a plugin
If you want to choose where to put your map, you should install a dedicated plugin. By doing so, you will be able to make custom maps and shortcodes for them. You can also include multiple markers to the map and add a store locator. Of course, there is a wide selection of themes within the plugin.
Instructions: Install the WP Google Maps plugin. The Maps section will appear on your dashboard. Then, you should locate your shortcode within Maps (you will find it in General Settings). After you copy the snippet of code, you can paste it wherever you feel like – page, post, or any other content.
Now you are familiar with the benefits of adding Google Maps to WordPress, and the only thing you have to do is choose the way to do it.
