How to Use Google My Maps for Your Business

Google My Maps is a free tool within Google’s mapping suite that lets you create fully custom, shareable maps. Unlike Google Maps, which is a navigation and discovery tool, My Maps is a creation tool — you build your own map with custom markers, routes, layers, and information, then share it as a link, embed it in a website, or present it to clients.

For businesses, Google My Maps has a variety of practical uses: illustrating your service area to potential customers, plotting delivery routes, building a local resource guide, managing site visits, or creating visual proposals for clients. It’s accessible without technical skills and works directly in a browser with a Google account.

What You Can Create with Google My Maps

My Maps lets you add three types of elements to a custom map: markers (pins at specific locations), lines (routes or boundaries), and shapes (polygons covering an area). Each element can be named, given a description, and colour-coded. You can organise elements into separate layers — for example, one layer for existing customers, another for prospects, and a third for your coverage area.

You can import data directly from a Google Sheet or a CSV file, which makes it powerful for businesses that need to plot large numbers of locations quickly. A delivery business could import a list of addresses and plot them all at once. A field sales team could import their accounts and colour-code them by status. The imported data can include labels, descriptions, and custom icons.

Practical Business Uses

Service area maps are one of the most useful applications. Rather than describing your coverage area in text on your website — ‘we cover a 30-mile radius from Birmingham’ — you can create a clear visual map and embed it directly into your website’s service area or contact page. Customers can see at a glance whether they’re in your coverage zone. This reduces mismatched enquiries and builds confidence for customers in border areas.

Local resource guides are another effective use. A solicitor could create a map of local courts, land registries, and council offices. An estate agent could build a neighbourhood guide with markers for schools, transport links, restaurants, and parks, then share it with prospective buyers viewing properties in that area. A trades business could map their completed projects (with client permission) as a portfolio of local work. These maps can be embedded on your website, shared via a link, or presented in client meetings.

Sharing and Embedding Your Map

Once you’ve built your map, click the Share button to set visibility — you can keep it private, share with specific people via email, or make it publicly accessible via a link. To embed the map on your website, click the three-dot menu and select ‘Embed on my site’ — you’ll get an iframe code you can paste into your website’s HTML. The embedded map is interactive: visitors can zoom, pan, and click markers to read descriptions.

My Maps is entirely free with a Google account and has no advertising. It’s a genuinely underused tool for small businesses that work with geography in any way — whether that’s delivery, field services, property, events, or local tourism. At Xpose, we often recommend it to clients as a quick win for making location-based content more visual and useful on their websites.