Maps play a fundamental role in business. It’s often necessary to create a custom map to display specific data. Therefore this article will show you how to create a custom Google Map with data imported from a spreadsheet and how to customize this map to your specifications.
How To Create a Custom Google Map for your Business
● Start By Building a Basic Map
To begin with, you will need to go to maps.google.com.
Next, click on the menu icon on the top left-hand side of the screen and select “Your Places.” After clicking “Your Places” another menu will open. On the top right-hand side of this menu, you will need to click on the “Maps” tab. Then, navigate to the bottom of the window and select “Create a Map.” This will open a new map.
● Import Data
To create custom Google maps, you will need to import your location data through a spreadsheet. The location data can be a simple list of addresses, city, state, country information, or longitude and latitude coordinates separated by a comma.
Before you can import your data, you’ll need to make sure that your spreadsheet is organized correctly. You will want to have one column for your location data and a separate location for any other data you want to be included in the map. For example, if you want to include customer names, you need to have a separate column with their names. Every column should have a header describing the data in the column, for example, Name, City, Revenue amount.
Once your spreadsheet is set up, you’ll need to create a layer on your map. You can do this by clicking “Add layer” in the left-hand box. Then click “import” and choose the spreadsheet file from your computer or cloud storage. After you’ve imported the spreadsheet, Google will prompt you to choose the column that contains the location data. Google will use this column to place the markers on the map.
Next, Google will ask you to choose the title for your markers from the spreadsheet column. For instance, if you’re making a customer map, you might choose the name column as the title for the marker.
Click “Finish,” and Google will automatically generate your map with the appropriate markers.
● Customize Your Map
Now that your map has been created, you may want to customize it. The first way to do this is to adjust the style and color of your markers. You can easily change the style of all the markers at once by navigating to the layer you just created, hovering over “All Items,” and clicking the paint bucket on the right. A box with color and icon options will appear.
You can also attach labels to your markers. To do this, click on “Uniform Style” beneath the layer you’re working on, and you’ll see a dropdown menu called Set Labels that offers different label options to choose from.
Google has a variety of other customization options that you can explore as well. For instance, you can draw lines or shapes on your map to delineate certain areas. To do this, you’ll need to click on the “Draw a Line” tool. You will then get several options presented to you in a dropdown menu, including ones for creating driving, biking, and walking routes. However, you’ll just choose the “Add a line or shape” option in this case. Then, to create your line, you just click along with the map where you want your line to be drawn. To create your shape, click along with the map and then connect the dots to make an enclosed shape. You then have the option of adding a title and description to your line or shape. Additionally, once you save the shape or line, you can change its color, the line or border weight, and its transparency by clicking on the paint bucket icon.
Conclusion
You should now have a good idea of how to create a custom Google map for your business. The process isn’t hard, and it allows you to view your data visually. Furthermore, you can export your map to KML, print your map, or embed it on a website.