Reading out an address in Thailand is a small ordeal. Soi numbers, alley names, buildings that search engines have never heard of, and a delivery driver who ends up 400 metres away on the wrong side of a canal.
A QR code that opens your exact pin removes all of it. One scan and the phone knows where you are.
Getting the right link
Open Google Maps, find your place, and use Share → Copy link. That gives you something like maps.app.goo.gl/... which works fine.
If your business has a Google Business Profile, use the listing rather than a dropped pin. Customers then get your name, hours, photos and reviews along with the location, which is more useful than a bare marker.
If your place is not findable by name — a market pitch, a construction site, a house on an unnamed soi — long-press on the map at the exact spot to drop a pin, then share that.
Show the pin, or start navigation?
Two different behaviours, and it is worth choosing deliberately.
| You want | Use this |
|---|---|
| Show where it is | The normal share link, or google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=LAT,LNG |
| Start directions immediately | google.com/maps/dir/?api=1&destination=LAT,LNG |
The directions version opens with routing already started from wherever the person is. That is right for a delivery driver or a guest arriving at an event. It is slightly aggressive for a shop window, where somebody browsing just wants to see whether you are nearby.
To get your coordinates, right-click your pin in Maps on a computer — the latitude and longitude appear at the top of the menu, ready to copy.
The short link problem
Maps share links are short links on a Google domain. They work, and they are convenient, but they are a redirect owned by somebody else — and Google has retired short link services before.
For something printed once and left up for years, that is a small risk worth avoiding. Two better options:
- Use the full coordinate URL. It is longer, which makes a denser code, but it depends on nothing except Maps existing.
- Point the code at a short path on your own domain that redirects to Maps.
yourshop.com/mapnever changes, and you can repoint it if you move premises — which is the same principle as pointing a menu code at a page you control.
The second is the right answer if you have a domain. It also means moving shop does not mean reprinting every sign.
Where it earns its place
- On delivery packaging — for the driver, and for the customer who wants to visit
- On an invoice or quotation — for the client coming to see you
- In a wedding or event invitation — see the invitation guide
- On a market stall card — so people can find you at the next market
- In a shop window — for people checking whether you are the branch they meant
- On a business card — one scan, no address to type
What to write next to it
Say where it goes: Find us, Directions to the shop, Tap for navigation. Not just a bare code.
And print the address as text as well, in short form. A code is a shortcut, not a replacement — some people want to read where you are before deciding to go, and some phones will not scan.
Sizing
The usual rules. 2 cm on a business card, 4 cm on packaging, 10 cm or more in a window read from the pavement. The print size guide has the full table.
One thing specific to this use: coordinate URLs are long, which makes a denser pattern. If your code looks busy, either shorten the link using your own domain or print it a size larger than you first planned.
Before printing
Scan it with a phone that is not signed into your Google account, and check it lands on the right pin — not a similarly named place two provinces away. Then check it on Android as well as iPhone, since the two open Maps slightly differently.
Full routine in the pre-print checklist.
Make a location code — paste your Maps link and download.