Whether you're a local hotel, a discount travel website, or a company offering tours of your city, you want to be "on the map." Google Maps can help you reach and engage customers in a variety of different ways: enabling them to find you while searching online, helping them find the physical location of your business, and allowing them to interact with a customized map containing your travel offerings.

Online maps are one of the most influential website features for active shoppers.² Here are some ways to integrate maps into your web presence:

Route 1: Local business ads

If your business has a physical location, you can help people find it by creating a local business ad – a customizable, targeted ad that appears in Google Maps results and other Google properties. Each local business ad is associated with your Google Maps listing, and can include a picture or logo for your business. Users searching on Google Maps for your keywords may see your local business ad, allowing them to find you on the web and on the street. Learn how to add your business to Google Maps, and then explore how to create a local business ad.

Route 2: Google Maps on your site

They've found your website, now help them get to your door. Solve the mystery of whether it was a left turn at Maple Street or a right turn at Elm by including a Google Map of your location on your website. Learn how to embed a map on your site.

Route 3: Maps API for custom maps

Keep would-be customers and visitors interested in your website by handing them the information they're looking for. The Google Maps API is an application that allows you to embed a customized map in your site, meaning you can create a map that's unique to your business.

If you offer cruises, you can create a map of your different cruise routes and the highlights at each port. If you offer lodging in a city, create a map with various tourist sites and nearby public transit stops.

For more inspiration, see how travel search engine Kayak.com used the Maps API to display businesses near the hotels they were connecting users to.

Using the Google Maps API requires some technical knowledge, so if you don't have experience with website coding, you may want to ask a web developer for assistance. Visit the Google Maps API homepage for more information.

[2] PhoCusWright, Travel 2.0 Consumer Technology Survey, December 2007