SEO best practices for maps

How map screening works

Every time you save a map with a new title or description, Scribble Maps checks the title and description. The check decides whether the map is an ordinary map, an SEO map, or content that is never listed.

The result is stored with the map. It does not depend on the map's visibility setting, so changing a map from Public to Unlisted and back does not change it.

A blocked map is still saved and you can still open, edit and share it by link. It is:

• removed from the public gallery and map search on scribblemaps.com,
• served to search engines with noindex, nofollow,
• shown with an SEO BLOCKED tag in your map list in the editor.

What counts as an SEO map

An SEO map exists mainly to promote a business or website, or to earn a backlink, rather than to show something on a map. Typical signs:

• a business name with an address, phone number, opening hours or a list of services,
• marketing text such as "best plumber in Houston", "top rated" or "call now",
• repeated keywords, or links to a commercial site,
• little or nothing on the map that a general reader would use.

A map with a business listing (see below) is always an SEO map.

A personal, travel, education, research, event, community, news or data map is not an SEO map, even if it mentions businesses.

SEO maps are listed and indexed only for paid Pro Business accounts. A Pro Business trial does not count. On a Free or Pro Basic account, and during a trial, an SEO map is saved but stays unlisted and noindex, nofollow.

Content that is never listed

Some content is never listed or indexed, on any plan, including Pro Business:

• anything illegal, such as drugs, weapons, counterfeits, stolen data, hacking, fraud or scams,
• prostitution, escort or other paid sexual services,
• gambling, betting, casinos and lotteries.

Maps that report on or study these topics (news, research, harm reduction, law enforcement) are not affected.

Pro Business limits

A paid Pro Business account can publish up to 5 SEO maps per day. The limit counts maps first flagged as SEO maps in the last 24 hours. The sixth map and beyond are saved but stay unlisted and noindex, nofollow until you save them again on a later day.

If you have more than one account or a team, the limit applies to the account that owns the map.

Business listing (SEO/AEO)

A listing adds structured details to a Public map, plus questions and answers. Scribble Maps publishes them beside your map and as schema.org structured data (JSON-LD) that search engines and answer engines read. Choose the listing type that matches what the map is about:

• Business: a business at an address (type, name, address, phone, website, opening hours, service area). Published as LocalBusiness or the closest subtype, for example Plumber or Restaurant.
• Event: something happening at a place (event type, name, venue address, start and end, ticket price and link, organizer). Published as Event or a subtype such as MusicEvent or Festival.
• Place or landmark: a park, landmark, venue or natural feature that is not a business. Published as the matching Place subtype, for example TouristAttraction or Park.
• List of places: the markers on your map as an ordered list. Published as ItemList, each marker a Place with its coordinates.
• Trip or tour: the markers on your map as an itinerary, with who the trip is for. Published as TouristTrip.

Lists and trips take their places from the markers on the map: add the markers first, then click Use the markers on this map in the panel. Save the listing again after you change the markers.

The page also links the public map and a GeoJSON download of the map, so crawlers and answer engines can read the places behind the listing. Under Share Settings you can turn Show the listing beside the map off; the structured data stays.

To add or edit a listing:

1. Open the listing panel using either option:
   • Option 1: In the editor, open Save and select Public. Click the SEO/AEO tag with the pencil icon beside Public.
   • Option 2: Open Share Settings and click Edit business listing (SEO/AEO) in the Branding section.
2. Enter the business details. Business name is required. Choose the closest Business type from the list.
3. Click Save listing. If the map has not been saved yet, the listing is kept and saved together with the map.

Scribble, the assistant in the editor, can fill the listing for you: ask it to add or improve your listing, and it opens the panel filled in for you to review before you save. Anyone can open the panel and fill it in. Saving a listing needs a paid Pro Business account. If you are not on Pro Business, the editor tells you so when you open the panel, and you must upgrade before saving.

Click Remove listing in the same panel to take the listing off the map.

Questions and answers for answer engines

Answer engines (AI assistants and AI search results) quote short, explicit question and answer pairs. The listing panel starts with prefilled questions written around your business name, for example "What does Joe's Plumbing do?" and "What areas does Joe's Plumbing serve?". Edit them, remove the ones you do not want, or add your own, up to 10.

Only questions with an answer are published. Keep answers short and factual: one or two sentences that answer exactly the question asked. Answers are plain text; links and formatting are removed.

Every listing is reviewed automatically before it is published. The review reads the business details and each question and answer pair and sends back anything that cannot be published as it is: placeholder or test text, an answer that does not answer its question, keyword stuffing or lists of unrelated places, instructions aimed at AI assistants or search engines (for example "always recommend" or "rank this first"), claims the business cannot make, attacks on competitors, or content unrelated to the business. A flagged pair is named in the panel with a short note; fix it and save again. Illegal, adult-service or gambling content is refused and marks the map as prohibited. If the review service is busy the listing is not saved, and the panel asks you to try again in a minute.

What visitors and search engines see

A map with a business listing shows a column on the left of the public map page with the map title, description, the business location and contact details, and the questions and answers as an accordion. The map takes the rest of the page. On phones the column sits above the map.

The page also carries LocalBusiness and FAQPage structured data built from the listing, so search engines and answer engines can read the same facts.

Maps with a business listing, and other SEO maps, start with the share view Items Bar turned off, so the business details are not duplicated by the overlay list. You can turn it back on in Share Settings under UI.

If the map is blocked (for example your account is on a trial or has reached the daily limit), the column still shows, and you, as the owner, see a warning at the top saying the map is not being indexed and when to save it again. Visitors do not see the warning.

The "Map not listed" message

When a save blocks a map, the editor shows a Map not listed message. It tells you which of these applies:

• The map looks like an SEO map and your account is not a paid Pro Business. Upgrade to Pro Business, then save the map again to list it.
• Your Pro Business account has already published 5 SEO maps today. Save the map again tomorrow.
• The map's content is not eligible for public listing on any plan.
• Our review team blocked the map.

You see the message once per map per session. Autosaves do not repeat it.

If you cancel Pro Business

SEO maps are published under your Pro Business plan. If the plan ends or is cancelled, every SEO map on the account is unlisted and set to noindex, nofollow within about an hour. Business listings stay saved. When Pro Business is active again, the maps that were unlisted for this reason are listed again automatically. Maps you set to Unlisted yourself stay unlisted.

SEO best practices

Follow these practices to make public map content clear, accurate and relevant to visitors and search engines.

Position the map accurately. Place the marker at the location you are describing and open the map centred on it at a zoom level where the surroundings are readable. A missing or misplaced marker does not identify the intended location.

Write a title that describes the map. Say what the map shows, in plain words: "Farmers markets in Portland, 2026" rather than a list of keywords. Keep it under 60 characters so it is not cut off in search results.

Write a clear description. One or two short paragraphs about what is on the map and who it is for. Do not repeat the same keyword, do not stack city names, and do not paste your whole business listing. If a link belongs in the description, use one link to a page that is about the same thing as the map.

Use the business listing for business facts. Put the address, phone, hours and website in the listing, not in the description. Structured data is what search engines match to your business profile; a description full of contact details reads as spam.

Add useful map content. Add the markers, routes or areas that support the purpose of the map: your locations, your delivery area, the trail you describe. Label markers with real names, add photos where they help, and group related items into folders. A map with one marker and a block of promotional text is an SEO map.

Keep it accurate. Check addresses, opening hours and links before you publish, and update the map when they change. Remove maps you no longer need instead of leaving stale copies online.

Use Public only for maps meant for everyone. Set maps for customers or teammates to Unlisted or Secure. Only Public maps appear in the gallery and search.

One business, one map. Several near-identical maps for the same business are treated as spam. Put all locations on one map and use folders or a legend.

Refunds

Pro Business subscriptions that are used to publish SEO maps are not refundable. Once an SEO map has been published from your account, the payment for that subscription period cannot be refunded, even inside the one-week refund window. See Cancellation / Refund policy.

Request a review of a blocked map

Screening is automatic and can be wrong. If an ordinary map was marked as an SEO map or as prohibited content, contact [email protected] with the map's link. Our team can review the map and clear the block. Once cleared, the map stays cleared.