Google Maps have developed to the point where they could be quite useful for your business.
Here’s a map I put together as an example. This map shows the locations of most of the Outdoor Warehouse stores in Johannesburg:
It took me about 10 minutes. Click on any of the markers and you’ll see a pop-up with more information. This could be the store address, phone number, web address or whatever.
You can also add a photograph or a video.
If you have a business with multiple outlets, you can see the value. But even if it’s just a map to your office, or to your favorite local meeting place, there’s tons of potential.
Why would you want to do this? Google has been integrating information from sources like YouTube and Google Maps into their search results for some time now.
Look at this page:
It doesn’t quite happen like this in South Africa… yet. But I reckon that as more SA businesses start using Google Maps, you’ll start to see them appear more often in local searches.
Having a detailed entry for your business in Google Maps can only help your search engine ranking.