Best Practice: Find the right zoom level

[JanVanHaver]

[As an experienced Local Guide, I now sometimes come across inconsistencies or notice that errors have been made that I used to make myself when I started out. So I am publishing a few 'best practice' posts, in the hope it can help others.]

This is one I struggled with myself quite a bit when I started out as local guide. When you're walking around in a neighborhood, or explore one on the desktop version of Google Maps, the number of existing points of interest (POI) you get to see heavily depends on the zoom level you are at. Especially in urban areas, where there are obviously much more POIs than in rural areas, it can be quite important to zoom in an out at the appropriate locations.

I have no idea exactly how many different zoom levels there are, but I have experienced that carefully zooming in - even to the level where the maps gets heavily pixelated - can reveal additional places. But being zoomed it in at those extreme levels can make it hard to keep the overview of the area, so it's really a matter of learning to use this correctly. Also: try zooming it as much as you can on crossroads. That will sometimes reveal one or more POIs that have only a streetname but no house number entered - which is of course a great opportunity to score additional points by suggesting edits. Check the screenshots below to see an actual example.


Nothing to see on the crossroad

 When zooming in 2 POIs appear

At the highest possible zoom level a 3rd POI appears

Other posts in this series:
Best Practice: Entering Opening hours
Best Practice: ALL CAPS / all lowercase
Best Practice: Correcting pin location
Best Practice: Choosing a more specific category
Best Practice: Submit changes one by one

Best Practice: Reporting duplicates

Best Practice: Adding places without house number

Best Practice: Correcting errors you accidentally made

Best Practice: Filtering 'Check the facts'

Best Practice: Find the right category

Best Practice: Create on mobile / Complete on desktop

Best Practice: Improve your reputation

Best Practice: The best order for suggesting edits

Best Practice: Get rid of legal names

Best Practice: Attempts to add bus stop or train station

Disclaimer: the practices described here as best practice are my personal interpretation, and I don't claim any level of official endorsement.

[ErmesT]

Thanks for sharing, @JanVanHaver.

Sometimes, for better understanding the position of a POI, I also suggest (after zooming) to switch to satellite view. It can help

Ermes

[JanVanHaver]

You're absolutely right @ErmesT. Especially to position the pin in the correct location, satellite view is indispensable!

Also here it's a matter of gaining some experience to find the best way of handling this.

[JanVanHaver]

As I came across a wonderful example of the topic I was discussing in this post I published last Saturday, I have now included some screenshots to illustrate my point.

[aka_Rὁn]

@JanVanHaver

The zoom factor and its ambuigities is something I deal with everyday since most of my time on Google Maps is devoted to locations on a particular avenue.

I have noticed immediately that some of the sites do not appear until you zoom in quite closely and that even then their labels can be obscured by badly placed tags close by and so I have been editing some of the pins so that the map is much more easily readable.

If there is a logic behind the way that some POI labels only appear when the map is zoomed in to its maximum then I wish someone would explain how it works.

As it stands it can give both a false impression and an unfair advantage of some shops over others.

In an effort to improve matters I have been zooming into the maximum dimension and then moving the local pins so that they are more accurately located on their respective locations and this has already made parts of the map easier to read and has reduced the number of labels which are hidden by others.

On a obliquely related topic, is there any way to add missing places that are currently vacant by their addresses and postcodes ?

It would certainly help in our area to encourage other businesses to more easily gain some idea of available premises in the context of the area.

...

[JanVanHaver]

No @aka_Rὁn, if the place is vacant, it is not supposed to be on the map - a POI is always linked to a business owner (which is also why the advise is given that, if a place changes owner, you should mark the current POI as 'Permanently closed' and create a new POI).

[aka_Rὁn]

Thank you for the clarification of this point.

In the meantime I have begun to create my own list of vacant shops (with simple PIN locations) so that I can systematically check that all the details of the avenue are correct and up-to-date block-by-block.

I might try to share that list online at some point in the future once the details of the entire area have been completed.

At some point I will investigate the Pros and Cons of the GMB programme so that  I can recommend it to some of the local businesses in the future if it is seems to be of real benefit.

I am also trying to encourage some of the shops that have been on this street for over 3 decades to have more of a web presence so that their Google Maps listing can point to some form of  link to make them a lot more accessible.

Our local area has a vibrant online presence in terms of social networks and this can help to bring prosperity to the area and increase the sense of community.

...

[aka_Rὁn]

@JanVanHaver

If I have marked the former business at a given address as permanently closed but this edit is still pending will Google Maps automatically reject any new business at this same address ?

If so then there could be a considerable time-lag befween the first pending process and the one that is likely to follow on from that with the creation of a new POI for the current business at the same location.

The damage that this must be doing to smaller shops and cafés must be considerable.

😞

[JanVanHaver]

Hey @aka_Rὁn, that is actually a great idea: make a personal list on maps  of vacant places around your neighborhood to easily be able to check afterwards where new POIs could be added.

About your comment "At some point I will investigate the Pros and Cons of the GMB programme so that  I can recommend it to some of the local businesses in the future if it is seems to be of real benefit.": In my view it is beneficial to all businesses to claim their business on Maps and use GMB to gain more control over their data.

[JanVanHaver]

In my experience you often get the option to add a new place even if the algorithm suggests if might already exist ("Did you mean...?"). But then again, that suggested add might go pending too... (Nothing new there)