Adding Google Maps to WordPress

August 23. 2019

Being in charge of your own WordPress website means constantly trying to improve the visual experience of your site’s visitors. Luckily, WordPress gives you a chance to make almost any changes you’d like to your website, like adding social media buttons. So if an idea of embedding Google Maps seems appealing, you should have no problem doing this. Adding Google Maps to WordPress is always a good call because we all know just how important maps can be – nowadays, Google Maps can lead anyone to the front door of their wanted location. If you make an effort and add this feature to your site, you’ll get an amazing visual tool – one that will enable you to communicate all kinds of information with your website’s visitor. So what are the steps to take in order to make this happen?

Different ways of adding Google Maps to WordPress

As you might have been aware already, there are always WordPress maintenance experts you can contact who can take care of issues such as this one for you. But if you are determined to do it yourself, then you should know that there are two ways of doing this. You can either add Google maps manually or do it using a suitable plugin.

How to add Google Maps to your website manually

If you wish to try and add this feature to your website manually, you should do the following. First, you want to head to the Google Maps website.  Do you know which location you wish to show on your website? If so, you should just type in the address or search for a location. After finding the location you wish to add, simply click on the link button. You will find this button in the right-hand panel. By doing so, you will get the embed code.

So you can just copy the iframe code or if you wish you could also click on the “Customize and preview the embedded map” to begin customizing the appearance of the Google map on your WordPress website. If things have gone smoothly up to now, head to your WordPress site. Here, you’ll want to paste the code you got – in a post, page, or a template. And basically, that’s all there is to it. Just save the post or your page to which you’ve added the map and see it live on your site.

Adding Google Maps to WordPress with a plugin

Clearly, the manual method of adding Google Maps to WordPress works just fine. But it’s only useful if what you want to do is add a Google map to just one location. However, if your website could use maps on various posts and your content would benefit from having Google maps virtually all over your WordPress website, you might want to try another way of adding them. So, another way of adding Google Maps is using a plugin.

MapPress Easy Google Maps

If you are interested in doing this, you should first install the plugin called MapPress Easy Google Maps. Seem too complicated for you to handle? Dealing with plugins is often one of the reasons to hire professional website support. But if you are up for it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t do it on your own.

After successfully installing and activating the mentioned plugin, edit the post or page to which you want to add the Google map. Go to the MapPress section on the edit screen and click the New Map button. Doing this opens the MapPress editor.  Here you can allow the plugin to detect your location and also give your map a title and choose its size. After completing these alterations, you should click on the save button and then “Insert into Post”. Voila! This adds the map to your post. You will be able to see the preview after updating or publishing your post or page.

Intergeo plugin

Another plugin you can use for adding Google Maps to WordPress is Intergeo. This plugin is quite easy to use – it can all be done in just three quick steps:

• First, you should add the Google Maps API key to your WordPress.
• Next, try making a new map and configuring it.
• Finally, set this map on your WordPress website with the shortcode you’ll be given.

Using a widget might be the best option for you

Perhaps there is a bit easier way to add Google maps to your WordPress website. You can also achieve the wanted effect by installing Google Maps Widget plugin. After you activate the plugin, head to Appearance » Widgets and then drag and drop Google Maps Widget to your sidebar. Sounds easy enough, doesn’t it?

How your website might benefit from embedding Google Maps

By adding Google Maps to your website you’ll provide the users of your website with access to the kind of content that can be defined as interactive. Sharing your location gets you the kind of user engagement that very few other options might. By embedding a Google Map on your website, you’ll make it easier, as well as convenient for your potential customers to locate you.

And if you listen to WordPress experts such as WP Full Care – due to the fact that not every website visitor has the patience or the will to manually find your address on Google Maps if they like your services or the products you are trying to sell, your effort to add the Google Maps option will enable them to reach you with ease.