Whether you're a wanderlust who is planning their next vacation or a business owner needing to provide location context, embedding Google Maps into your Notion workspace allows you to bring in geographic context.
It obviates the need to switch between disparate apps and brings everything into one centralized view. This guide covers the steps to embedding Google Maps into Notion.
Here are the seven steps to do that:
1. Search the location in Google Maps
Head over to Google Maps and search for the location you want to embed. For this example, we'll use the iconic Mount Rushmore.
Start by clicking the Share option, as indicated in the image below.
A window will pop up asking how you'd like to share this location.
2. Customize Google Maps embed
Click the Embed a map option and select the size of the embed. It's set to Medium by default but you can change it to Small, Large, or set a custom size. The embed code changes based on your selection. Copy the code after customizing it.
While you can resize the map after adding it to Notion, specifying the size in Google Maps allows you to set standard dimensions.
3. Open the Notion page
Jump into Notion and create a new page to embed the Google Maps. In this guide, we will add it to an existing page displayed in the image below.
4. Create a Google Maps block
Type /map where you want to add the map and click the Google Maps block.
5. Paste the embed code
And click the Embed Map button to insert the map.
6. Resize and drag the embedded Google map (Optional)
You can resize the map and drag it around the page just like any other block.
To resize, pull along the edge-lines demonstrated in the image below.
To drag the map to another location, click the six-dots icon that appears when you hover over it and drag the cursor to where you intend to drop the map.
We moved the Google map to another column within the same page and resized it to make it blend with the aesthetics, as demonstrated in the image below.
7. Customize the map
Zoom in and out of the embedded Google map or scroll to explore locations within the block, just like you would in the Google Maps app.
Switch to the Google Earth view if it fits with the design of the page or meets your requirements better.
Faster method of embedding a Google map in Notion
The fastest way to embed a Google map in Notion is by pasting the link to the map and selecting the Create embed option.
Let's elaborate with an example - we will embed a route instead of a location.
1. Paste the link to the Google Map
And select the Create embed option.
2. Your map is embedded
This method works because you can resize the map after embedding it in your page - you do not need the embed code.
How to use the Notion Google Maps embed feature
1. Embed Google maps in the footer of Notion website
Local businesses can embed Google Maps in the footer of their Notion website to inform potential customers of their location. This feature builds trust as the customers can see that the business actually exists as a physical entity - a Google Street View session would further confirm that.
Additionally, when made easily accessible, the customers can use the map to calculate how far a business is located, and decide if the travel is worth it.
2. Travel planning
Embedding a Google Maps route can help you visualize your itinerary better and optimize it.
Say you're planning a road trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, with stops in Monterey and Santa Barbara along the way. By embedding the route map in your Notion travel doc, you can see at a glance which cities are closest together for planning overnight stops. You may realize Santa Barbara and LA are quite close, so you could adjust to spend more time in SF and Monterey instead.
3. Event planning
Let's say you're organizing a multi-day conference in Chicago using Notion to coordinate all the logistics. You could embed a Google Map showing the main event venue location.
But you could go further and also embed maps highlighting:
- Hotels you've booked rooms at, with routes/distances from the venue
- Recommended restaurants/bars in the vicinity
Having all these location maps embedded right in your conference planning Notion page allows attendees to get the geographic context. Instead of having to provide separate PDFs or links out to maps, it's all integrated into one page.
4. Real estate management
Real estate businesses could use a Notion page as a sharable property listings portfolio.
For each listing, along with photos, descriptions and details, they can embed a Google Map showing the precise location of that property.
This allows prospective buyers to get an immediate sense of the neighborhood surroundings, proximity to schools, parks, commuter routes, and other location context that is crucial when evaluating a home.
They can even embed a route map that shows the paths between all of their current listings in a particular city or area. That way, buyers can plan out a self-guided tour and efficiently visit multiple properties they're interested in, without having to constantly re-map addresses.
In this guide, we detailed the process of embedding a Google Map in a Notion page. Embedding maps directly into the plans allows for tighter integration of geographic/location context.
This experience can help with faster decision making in scenarios where location is a key factor, like when planning travel routes, company office locations, customer visit maps for sales teams, and more.
