Back to web design articles

Have you achieved “landmark icon status” for your business in Google Maps?

If yes, it’s a good indicator that Google’s algorithms consider you to be a “prominent business.”

You are on the map. This is no different than being on a printed map which lists distinctive natural features and landmarks which people find and visit. Begin on Google Maps can bring traffic your way.

Example of Landmark Business Icons in Google Maps—location in Town Point Center, Virginia Beach, VA

I would guess that Google Maps is doing this to make the maps more useful and informative. We shall see if this serves a future commercial purpose or serves some altruistic mission. I would bet on the first.

How they’ve done it

Google has developed tiny icons to specifically symbolize types of businesses, such as a coffee cup for coffee shops, knife-and-fork for restaurants, car for automotive shops, purse or shopping bag or shopping cart for retail outlets, dollar sign for banks, graduation cap for colleges, bed for accommodations, martini glass for bars, envelope for postal stores, kids for schools, and many more.
These icons are linked and when clicked open a traditional info-bubble appears over a map containing a business’s street address, website and phone number. Clicking on the “more info” link takes you to the businesses place page. That’s the traffic you want.

Factors Influencing Landmark Status

Business categories
Entertainment venues, hotels, and restaurants are more likely to be displayed, although many other business categories are listed as well.

Zoom level/business density
Sometimes Google Maps cannot always display all businesses located at a particular location or else the map would be hard to read.

You are more likely to have your business appear if you’re located in a less-dense location. Malls and multi-story office buildings will have many businesses competing for room on the Google Map display, so some businesses will not get the preferred icon status.

Years in business
It’s not entirely clear, but an older business might be preferred over a newer business.

Popularity and Links
Other miscellaneous factors useful to Google Maps in ranking one business over another are page rank, back links, third party reviews, ratings, and traffic.

Summary
There is no doubt that Google wants to find you and your business.
Talk with your web master and fine tune your existing Google Maps listing in order to have a competitive advantage in this area.

If you are far behind in this area and don’t have a Google Maps listing account, then sign yourself up now! It’s easy and powerful.