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I’ve received an increasing number of emails from small business owners recently. They want to know how to get their businesses on the millions of GPS units sold across the country.  They might have a GPS of their own and have tried unsuccessfully to find their business, or it might be a new business and they assume they are not yet listed on the map. So as a business owner, how do you get yourself on the map?

First, it is important to remember that just because you can’t find your business on a GPS device doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t on the map. It just might not be on that GPS. The GPS manufacturers don’t include each and every POI due to storage space and cost limitations. But, if you want to be sure you’ve got a shot at inclusion you can report your business to the major mapping companies to make sure they have your information.

The appropriate URLs are listed below. You will enter the address of your business, and then the type of change you want to perform is to add a POI. For NAVTEQ, you will want to select the ‘POI is missing’ item under the ‘Point of Interest’ section. For Tele Atlas you will select ‘Point of Interest’ and then ‘Add Point of Interest’.

NAVTEQ:
mapreporter.navteq.com

Tele Atlas:
mapfeedback.teleatlas.com.

InfoUSA:
dbupdate.infousa.com.

If you have lots of businesses or a chain of businesses, you might not find that type of feedback form to be efficient. In that case, both NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas have programs for you to keep all of your locations up-to-date. You can check out NAVTEQ’s Direct Access program and ContentLink program from Tele Atlas.

Remember that some units, especially older ones, don’t have the ability to update their POIs, and even if the unit does have the ability, it doesn’t mean the user does.  Even if the user has the ability, many people won’t take the time to update their unit.  However, it’s never too late to get started, new units are being sold everyday!  Best of luck!