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October 13th 2009 by Peter · 162 comments

Adding Custom Google Maps to Your Website

Maps are often placed on a company website to help customers find their way there. For that, Google Maps is excellent. But wouldn’t it be nice to add your company logo, parking lots, train stations, etc. to the map, to help the customer even more? It is very simple, and in this article I am going to show you how.

Before we start, check out what we are going to create:

Now, here is an overview:

Overview

Google Maps API

The Google Maps API allows you to embed maps directly into your website. All it takes is a little JavaScript, and for beautifying—a little CSS. Version 3 of the Google Maps API has just been released, and of course, that is what we will be using here. You can read the entire documentation over at Google Labs, and while you are there, be sure to get an API key.

Getting the Coordinates

As I do not expect you to know the precise coordinates of your location, I will explain a very quick way Google has provided to do this. When you know the exact address, you can put it in an URL of this form:

http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=1+Infinite Liip,+Cupertino,+CA+95014,+USA&output=csv&oe=utf8&sensor=false&key=your_google_maps_api_key

When you enter this in your address bar, you will see this:

The coordinates of Apple's head quarter in Cupertino

The first number is the status code, and 200 means that everything is okay. The second number shows how accurate the address is—in this case the number is 8, which is good. The last two numbers are latitudes and longitudes, which are the numbers we need.

Adding the Map to Your Website

There’s no need to hesitate – let’s add that map to your website! Open your favorite HTML editor and create a standard HTML file with UTF-8 encoding. First of all, we have to create the viewport and tell our HTML file to get the JavaScript file from Google Code. Add these lines between <head> and </head>:

1 2	<meta name="viewport" content="initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=no" /> <script type="text/javascript" src="http://maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false"></script>

After the URL, you will notice sensor=false. As we do not use any sensor, such as a GPS, to locate the location, this is set to false.

Just below what we have just inserted, write the following:

<script type="text/javascript">
function initialize() {
var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(57.0442, 9.9116);
var settings = {
zoom: 15,
center: latlng,
mapTypeControl: true,
mapTypeControlOptions: {style: google.maps.MapTypeControlStyle.DROPDOWN_MENU},
navigationControl: true,
navigationControlOptions: {style: google.maps.NavigationControlStyle.SMALL},
mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP
};

Let’s split this up to ensure that we understand it fully. In line 2 we create the function initialize(). Inside this function we are going to define the basic settings of the map. In line 3 we create a new variable, latlng. latlng stands for latitudes and longitudes. The variable contains the coordinates we’re going to use as the center of our map.
After that, we create the variable settings. You have a lot of options here.

zoom specifies—you guessed it—how far the map will be zoomed in. Play around with the number to get it to fit your location.

center specifies our center. By writing latlng, we refer to the variable we created earlier, and the coordinate inside that will be used.

The last code changes the layout of the map to a bit more minimalistic look in my opinion. The controls in the upper right corner (Map, Satellite, Terrain) are changed to a drop down menu, and the scaling/navigation controls in the left size are changed to small controls.

mapTypeId: google.maps.MapTypeId.ROADMAP defines that our map should be of the type ROADMAP – you can change this to either SATELLITE, HYBRID or TERRAIN.

Below the previous code, write this:

1	var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), settings);

This code creates the variable map, and defines that the map should use the settings we just created.

Write

1 2	} </script>

to end the function, and move to <body>, and write this:

1
2
3

<body onload="initialize()">
<div id="map_canvas" style="width:800px; height:500px"></div>
</body>

By doing this we are telling our site to execute the initialize() function when the site is loaded, and insert a <div> with the size we want our map to be.

Try to view your site now. Cool, isn’t it?

Adding Markers

Now we have to add some markers. Let’s start by creating a standard marker—we’ll customize it in a moment.

Right below

1	var map = new google.maps.Map(document.getElementById("map_canvas"), settings);

insert the following code:

  var companyPos = new google.maps.LatLng(57.0442, 9.9116);
var companyMarker = new google.maps.Marker({
position: companyPos,
map: map,
title:"Some title"
});

Try to update your page, and watch the magic. So, what have we done?

First, we create the variable companyPos, where we specify the position of the marker. Next, we create the marker itself using the variable companyMarker. You can add more settings than these, but we will get to that later. These settings are fairly logical, so I won’t go into more depth with them.

Customizing the Markers

Even though this could be enough to show your customer how to find you, we can still make it a lot nicer. Create an image in Photoshop with the size 100×50 pixels, and create something similar to this:

Create your logo

Next, create a shadow for your image:

The logo shadow

To add these images as a marker instead of the standard marker, change the marker code to this:

var companyLogo = new google.maps.MarkerImage('images/logo.png',
new google.maps.Size(100,50),
new google.maps.Point(0,0),
new google.maps.Point(50,50)
);
var companyShadow = new google.maps.MarkerImage('images/logo_shadow.png',
new google.maps.Size(130,50),
new google.maps.Point(0,0),
new google.maps.Point(65, 50)
);
var companyPos = new google.maps.LatLng(57.0442, 9.9116);
var companyMarker = new google.maps.Marker({
position: companyPos,
map: map,
icon: companyLogo,
shadow: companyShadow,
title:"Company Title"
});

What we have done here is also really simple. The variable companyImage points to the name of the logo image. Then it defines the size of the image, the origin of the image, and the tip of the image (where the image will be attached to the coordinate). Next, we do the exact same thing for the shadow in the variable companyShadow. In our companyMarker variable we add icon and shadow, and that is basically it.

Now, if you refresh your site, you will se that the marker has changed into your own logo with an added shadow to it as well. To add more markers, you just follow the same method (remember to change the names of the variables).

If you have two markers very close to each other, you might want to add some z-index. The marker with the highest z-index, is the one on top:

Adding zIndex allows you to choose which marker should be on top

var companyMarker = new google.maps.Marker({
position: companyPos,
map: map,
icon: companyImage,
shadow: companyShadow,
title:"Høgenhaug",
zIndex: 4
});

Adding Infoboxes

To add a description of your company when the visitor clicks on the logo we can add a infobox. With the Google Maps API it’s peace of cake.

Clicking your company logo will bring up an infobox

Paste this code right after you define the map variable:

var contentString = '<div id="content">'+
'<div id="siteNotice">'+
'</div>'+
'<h1 id="firstHeading" class="firstHeading">Høgenhaug</h1>'+
'<div id="bodyContent">'+
'<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</p>'+
'</div>'+
'</div>';
 
var infowindow = new google.maps.InfoWindow({
content: contentString
});

The code here is fairly straight-forward, and you are of course not limited to headlines and paragraphs – there is room for images as well. To make the infobox appear when your logo is clicked, simply add this code right before the last } in the initialize() function:

1
2
3

google.maps.event.addListener(companyMarker, 'click', function() {
infowindow.open(map,companyMarker);
});

To make the infobox just a little more pretty, add some styles in your stylesheet file:

body {
font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
font-size:10pt;
}

And there you have it. One piece of fine-looking Google Map to include on your company website, your travel blog, etc.

Download

If you’d like to download the sample files, you can get ‘em right here. Be sure to leave a comment!

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162 comments so far

Add one yourself

Muhabbet says:

August 15, 2010 at 11:42 pm

Thank you a lot about very beneficial to my work was very useful thank you

Reply
ashleyemma says:

August 11, 2010 at 4:58 pm

Brilliant! Just what I was looking for, thanks so much!

Reply
Amit says:

August 1, 2010 at 3:57 pm

I don’t think my last comment made it through since I came with stumbleupon. I just wanted to say great tutorial! I didn’t know it was that easy to implement using Google Maps APIs. Keep it going!

Reply
Amit says:

August 1, 2010 at 3:55 pm

Great tutorial!
I didn’t know it was that easy to implement the Google Maps into your site with the Google Maps API. Learned a lot. Thanks!

Reply
Hashem E.Zahran. says:

July 26, 2010 at 10:11 am

Hello, This is a really useful tutorial, I’ve been searching on how to customize ugly looking Google maps to be integrated into a project I’m working on. and that just did the trick.. Thanks

Reply
Nasir says:

July 12, 2010 at 10:19 am

Thanks for such easy way to Put an attractive Google Map in the website. Nice Job

Reply
Jordan says:

July 8, 2010 at 11:44 pm

Has anyone else had a problem with custom Markers not showing up in Firefox or IE, but okay in Chrome and Safari?

Great tutorial by the way, this was my only problem.

Reply
Ivan says:

July 6, 2010 at 5:48 pm

i use google maps in my in one of my client website. It works great!

Reply
Binoy Anto says:

July 5, 2010 at 9:00 am

Hi Peter,
I was so excited to see your nice article with custom bookmarks and great looks i should say, I was just doing a map search for one of my sites, and found this, just trying to get this work on wordpress platform, can you suggest how to insert the head and body tags to a wordpress page,
Thanks for the info, Keep the posts coming,
Bino.

Reply
Robert says:

June 15, 2010 at 10:54 pm

Great tutorial, thank you so much, if possible can you please tell me how to manipulate the code to add a second map with different points to the same page.

Reply
Anil Valvi says:

June 11, 2010 at 7:29 am

Thanks For Great Tips. Its Really Helpful for me.

Reply
sum69 says:

June 10, 2010 at 5:21 pm

this great help u r doing to me as i always had problem with google map.
thanks a lot guys

Reply
Sergio says:

June 7, 2010 at 11:16 pm

Thanks a lot! this will be very useful for future projects!

Reply
pkanane says:

June 7, 2010 at 9:06 pm

Wow!!!.. impressive way to go.. i was up and running in less than an hour.. now i’m gonna push it to the max

Reply
ken the tech says:

June 2, 2010 at 7:12 pm

you can just google it for lat / long.

Reply
Martin Vines says:

June 2, 2010 at 2:27 pm

I found your tutorial simple enough for me and after working through got it done on my site. Now to do the same for a client. Great work and thanks.
Martin

Reply
Umar says:

June 2, 2010 at 12:47 pm

By far the best tutorial on google maps. Trust me

Reply
Nyfiken says:

May 30, 2010 at 11:57 am

Hi!

Very nice tutorial about Google Maps! I knew a lot more now! But I’m still looking for simple code how to display several markers and info windows?

Reply
nev says:

May 26, 2010 at 10:01 pm

ver good thanks

Reply
Don says:

May 18, 2010 at 4:37 pm

Hi Peter,
I’ve incorporated all of this into a clients site, including the route mapping. Is there a way to add the directions like google does so visitor could print them? Such as ‘Start here at xxxx location, go 1.2 mi, turn rt on Rt xxx.’

Here’s a link to clients directions page http://lathamauto.com/direction.php

Don

Reply
- Peter says:
  
  May 19, 2010 at 11:52 pm
  
  Hi Don,
  
  You can have a look at my article How to Use Directions with Google Maps API V3. Hope this helps.
  
  Reply
  - Don says:
    
    May 20, 2010 at 6:51 pm
    
    Thanks Peter,
    
    I’ve got this part working 4.0 already. I just wanted to know if possible to have a ‘Print Directions’ tab that would pull in the route with road directions.
    I’m using Iframe on site to pull in map page and have found that IE8 allows to print page with Iframe great. Site has black background so don’t want BG to waste peoples ink. IE8 does this fine however FF won’t print map if don’t print BG is turned on. ????
    
    Reply
    - Peter says:
      
      May 20, 2010 at 7:02 pm
      
      Hi Don,
      
      Most printers don’t even print backgrounds, so you might just want to add that. Otherwise, you can add background: transparent;, and check if FF then can print it.
      
      Reply
Thinkmedia says:

May 13, 2010 at 6:54 pm

Hi,
We use a cms and I don’t want to have on every page of the site.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Reply
- Peter says:
  
  May 14, 2010 at 8:56 am
  
  It depends pretty much on which CMS you are using? If you are able to insert HTML code in your CMS’ editor that’s the way to go.
  
  Reply