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It might be hard to get an exact figure as to how many businesses make use of Google Maps on their websites, but one estimate from BuiltWith suggests that almost 800,000 websites are currently making use of the feature. Millions more individuals make use of the service too, and the growing popularity of the feature just goes to show how significant it is – and it can have a big impact on web design, too.

With this in mind, we’ve put together a few ideas for how maps can be integrated into website design in ways that are innovative and fun as well as serving a practical purpose.

Contact Us

Of course, if we’re talking about maps on business websites, we can’t ignore the very practical purpose that they play: helping your customers find where you are based. Often, simple works best, so embedding a clear and easy to read map on your ‘contact’ or other relevant webpage is one of the best ways to go.

If you want to make your map look more interesting and make it stand out a bit more then if you are using Google Maps, there are some customisation features that you can make use of. For example, the marker that highlights the destination on the map can be altered to an icon of your choosing – your company logo or a variation of it could be a good choice.

Points of Visual Interest

It isn’t just the basic map feature that you can make use of on your sites, either. Google Streetview may have caused a bit of controversy in some places, but it still offers a good way to provide more information to the people who use your website.

Let’s say you run a travel website and you want to write about an attraction on the other side of the world. You could just use static images for this – and they will always have their place – but a feature such as Streetview can add interactivity and interest very quickly, allowing people to explore different places.

Creating local networks

Map features can also be incorporated into your web design to help create local networks. For instance, if you run networking events, you could create a map highlighting the location of not just the events you run but also the participating businesses.

An alternative could be if, as an example, you run a hotel. A map could be created to pinpoint local areas of interest and attractions that people could explore when they come to stay with you. Maps help to make things more tangible and allow people to see exactly where things are, which can be much more persuasive than simply saying ‘there are lots of nearby attractions’.

Make your website more relevant

One of the best reasons to consider using maps on your website - as well as the other practical uses they have - is that they can help to boost site traffic and keep people on your website for longer. After all, if a web user has to leave your site and go and visit Google Maps in order to find something you’ve written about, that’s taking the traffic away from your site.

Maps on your website can help to make the site more relevant to the people who use it; if they are able to find everything they need on your site without having to look up extra details elsewhere, it is more likely to create a favourable impression and hopefully keep them coming back to more.

Add your own flare to it

Also, if you are thinking about putting maps on your website, you might want to think about the possibility of designing your own so that they really stand out and work for your brand. This is something that your web designer will be able to help you with.

There are some good design tools that can be used to create colour schemes for maps and also make sure that only the relevant content is emphasised, so not only are the maps as useful as possible for the people who look at them, but they also look great. Of course, you should never let the style completely take over the utility of a map, but there’s no reason you can’t put your own twist on it to make maps really work for your web design.

By Chelsey Evans

Follow @AmpheonLtd