SEO best practices for maps

Contents

• How map screening works
• What counts as an SEO map
• Content that is never listed
• Pro Business limits
• The "Map not listed" message
• SEO best practices
• Refunds
• If your map was blocked by mistake

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 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.

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.

SEO best practices

These help any public map rank, and they keep a legitimate business map from being treated as spam.

Show a real, clean location. Put the marker exactly on the place you are describing and open the map centered on it at a zoom level where the surroundings are readable. A map with no marker, or a marker in the ocean, tells search engines and visitors nothing.

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 description for people. 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.

Give the map content. Add the markers, routes or areas that make the map worth visiting: 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; a map people use is a 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.

If your map was blocked by mistake

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.