Step 1: Prepare your locations' listing data

At the very least a listing should include common locative information. Here is your checklist:

1. The latitude and longitude of your store's front door location. Why the front door? Many times your address might be 1500 Main Street Suite 221, and the shopping center is a small city, the parking lot is huge, and your storefront is a needle-in-the-haystack.

It is one thing to be on the property, and another to be inside your location.

Locative technologies are supposed to save you time, and knowing how to get within 10 feet of your front door is key. Your next customer could be using his/her cell phone to pinpoint your location.

2. Local phone number - If you forget the address (assuming you already supplied the latitude and longitude) a phone number is all you need. Remember - most of your customers carry a cell phone.

3. Your street address - You can try this on any PND - type in your store address, and let the PND navigate you to your store. You might be surprised to find out the address alone could be off a significant distance.

An address can be converted to coordinates by "geocoding", however this is an estimate of your location only. Double check the address by plotting your address with Google Earth.

4. Your website URL - Hopefully you have some ways to engage your customers here, but since Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs) are more connected (think cell phones) this is critical information about your business that might not be able to list on the GPS.

Supply a mobile optimized site, not your multimedia heavy regular dotcom site.

5. Description - Break down your location into discreet bites of information:
- 1 sentence for what you do (sell new and used sports equipment cheap)
- 1 for particulars on your location (far left of Park Lane Shopping Center)
- best days and time to shop (open M-F 9a-5p, closed the entire month of December, etc)

This should be enough for a good listing. Did we forget anything?