Embed an Interactive Map on Your Website

Your event website is where exhibitors, sponsors and attendees already go. Sending them to a separate site for the floor plan, and then back again, loses some of them along the way. When you embed a map on your website, the floor plan, the exhibitor list and even booth sales stay inside your own pages.

The difference from a PDF or a static image is that an embedded interactive map is live. In Map D, the published floor plan feeds your public registration page, your Homebase floor plan, checkout and order pages, and the floor plan embed on your own website. When you publish a change, every one of them updates, so the version on your site never falls behind the one your team is working from.

• Visitors search exhibitors and booth numbers instead of scanning an image
• Booth availability on the booth sales map updates by itself every few seconds
• Find a place lists restrooms, rooms, entrances and elevators on every level
• Visitors can print the whole published map on one page with Print map

An embed profile decides which Homebase pages appear in the embed and which one opens first. Pages turned off in your Homebase settings can't be turned on in a profile. If you only want the map, turn on Floor Plan and make it the landing page. You can make several profiles, for example one for your main site and one for a sponsor page.

The booth sales embed opens on the first map in your order. If your show has more than one map, the Booth Sales tab lists them, and the link icon beside each one copies a link that opens on that map.

1. 1

   Publish the Floor Plan

   Select Publish in the map editor. The embed shows the published map; draft changes stay hidden until you publish.

2. 2

   Publish Your Homebase

   For a Homebase embed, publish your Homebase first from Setup & Settings > Homebase. See event website builder.

3. 3

   Open Embed & API

   Open Embed & API in the show sidebar and choose the Homebase or Booth Sales tab.

4. 4

   Create a Profile

   On the Homebase tab, select Create profile. Name it, for example Main Website Embed, turn each page on or off, and pick one Landing page.

5. 5

   Preview It

   Use Preview saved profile, or Preview Booth Sales, to see exactly what visitors will get.

6. 6

   Copy and Paste the Code

   Select Copy code and paste it into your website's HTML wherever the map should appear.

The code is a standard iframe, 100% wide and 900 pixels tall. Because it fills the width of whatever it sits in, place it in a full-width section rather than a narrow column. Your web team can change the height to suit your page, for example taller on a page that holds nothing but the map.

Website builders and content management systems typically offer an HTML or embed block where iframe code can go. If your site restricts custom code, ask whoever manages it to add the code for you.

Find a place appears on the floor plan embed as well as on your Homebase and in the app. It searches every published level at once, works with a keyboard and screen readers, and finds only what your map names. A little preparation before you publish makes the embedded map far more useful.

• Name every room, hall and lounge by drawing an area over it. Area names aren't drawn on the map, so they don't clutter it.
• Use the same room names on the map as on your sessions, so each session's room can be shown.
• Place icons for restrooms, entrances, exits, first aid and information desks, and turn on Accessible where it applies.
• Label stairs and elevators with names visitors recognize, such as South elevator.
• Open the published map and select Browse all places to see everything a visitor can find.

For more on getting value from the map itself, read interactive map best practices for trade shows.

• Does the embed show the live, published map, or a copy you have to upload again after every change?
• Can you choose which pages appear and which one opens first?
• Can buyers reserve and pay for a booth inside the embed?
• Can you link straight to a specific hall or level?
• Is the map searchable by keyboard and screen reader, not just visually?
• Can your web team resize the frame?

A free Map D account gives you the map editor for one show, so you can draw and number booths before you commit. Publishing, which the embed depends on, needs a paid plan; published plans start at $1,500 per event, see pricing. Start with a free interactive floor plan, or see what the full interactive floor plan software includes.