About OpenStreetMap for SEO mappers

Being "on the map" is desirable for a business, and having businesses correctly mapped is desirable for a good map. One would therefore think that there should be common ground between OSM and those who seek to improve business visibility. Sadly, however, there are many examples of SEO mappers adding low-quality data to OpenStreetMap and ignoring our mapping standards. This wiki page serves as a resource to inform SEO mappers about what exactly the OpenStreetMap project is about and what is expected of them.

About OpenStreetMap

SEO mappers seeking to import business data into OSM should understand that before anything else OpenStreetMap is an ideological open-source community-driven mapping project. It is driven by the volunteer mappers offering their time and expertise to make a better map. Either directly through mapping, or by creating and maintaining the numerous tools and applications we make use of.

The goal of OpenStreetMap is not to make a profit. All our data is available for free, we do not offer any paid services, and we do not have any sort of business POI layer. We are more akin to Wikipedia in map form than anything else. We are not just a place designed for companies to dump their business data.

The interests of SEO mappers tend to not align well with what the OSM community wants. The goal of SEO mapping is to promote a business, which often conflicts with the standards we as the OSM community have set. It is therefore very important for SEO mappers to understand that while they are more than welcome to add data to our project, they are also held to the same standards and expectations as everyone else. Ignoring this can often lead to the low-quality data being deleted.

Imports and automated edits

Most data added to OSM has been manually added by individual users, but we also have data that was either imported or has gone through automated edits.

An import is any activity that takes data from an external source and copies it into OpenStreetMap. Automated edits are edits that perform mechanical or rule-based changes on existing data without looking in detail the data being changed.

Imports and automated edits can be very powerful. At their best, they greatly improve the amount of good high-quality data OSM has. At their worst, they leave us with a mess of low-quality data that people will have to deal with for years to come.

All imports are required to follow the Import/Guidelines.

All automated edits are required to follow the Automated Edits code of conduct.

Common mistakes

Below is a list of common mistakes we often see SEO mappers make:

• Creating an account for every single client or edit — Please use only one account for all editing activities.
• Not responding to changeset comments — When someone comments on one of your edits, please respond to their comments.
• Adding marketing text — We want to create an accurate representation of the world. Marketing fluff such as 'We are passionate about' or 'The best [X] in town' should not be added.
• Adding places in the wrong location — Businesses should not be added to nearby roads or parking lots, but rather to/in the actual building where they are located. Such errors frequently derive from sloppy geocoding, where the SEO mapper only knows the address and not the coordinates of a business, then uses a third-party geocoding service and blindly trusts its output.
• Duplicating businesses — where a new object is created for a business even if the business was already present in OpenStreetMap.
• Creating notes at the wrong location or with marketing text — Notes are intended as a way to communicate with mappers about missing or outdated features. Adding marketing text or not placing notes at the correct location oftentimes leads to them being ignored.
• Adding online-only businesses — We do not want to map businesses that are online-only. If a place doesn't have a physical location, it should not be added.
• Adding incorrectly structured data — OSM uses specific tags to describe what a business is; it is the contributor's responsibility to find the correct tags to use for a business. A name and description alone are not sufficient, and OSM does not have a concept of "keywords".
• Adding incorrectly formatted data — Several tags such as the Key:phone or Key:opening hours demand very specific formatting. When unsure, it is always best to check the OSM wiki.
• Using custom-made tools to bulk import data — OpenStreetMap already has a myriad of well tested tools capable of importing common geodata formats. Creating a custom tool without being intimately familiar with how OSM data works is oftentimes a recipe for disaster. It is best to just stick to existing tools.