Will Google Maps increase search engine ranking?

[Smuck]

Will the web site addition of a Google Map increase search engine ranking?

[sdhomes]

no

[Smuck]

Then what is the 'draw' to use them?

[kyle422]

design your site for user friendliness not for search engines. googlemaps for listings may help drive other people in linking to your site because you offer something useful and then your site will become more important to google.

[ConstructionWorld]

we use it on this site www.propertydeveloper.us and alot of people have said they find it very usefull instead of just directions (text) so it's definetly a bonus for the users of the site i would say.

[Boston Condo Guy]

design your site for user friendliness not for search engines. googlemaps for listings may help drive other people in linking to your site because you offer something useful and then your site will become more important to google.

This is great advice; similar advice can be said for your link strategy and any content on your site - we need to start thinking in terms of usefulness to visitors, and the search engines will respond to that in time.

[Michael Paul Eau Claire]

I have a jpg image of my Google map on the homepage. That image is the #1 search result (term = eau claire real estate) on images dot google dot com.

I realize this isn't exactly the same as ranking #1 on text searches, but:

1. It's a start!
2. Believe it or not, it does drive traffic to my site
3. I have to believe it increases my site's relevance in the Book of Google.
4. Oh yeah, and people visiting the site like it too!

[aeromit]

I have sitemap generator in one my image web sites and it gets a lot of visitors from google images.

[webmaster]

Is there a direct ranking benefit from utilizing the google map API? Absolutely not

[Eric Blackwell]

No ranking benefit.

The whole idea of "mashups" are to create map based searches as opposed to database based searching. They are purely for user friendliness.

Best;

Eric