Full postal address
The standard case for a venue with a clear street frontage. Including the postcode is what makes the resolution reliable.
Encoded as
https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=12%20Rivington%20Street%2C%20London%20EC2A%203DUGoogle Maps QR Code Generator
Send someone to your door with directions already running, not an address to retype.
Generated on your device. Nothing you type is sent anywhere.
What a Google Maps QR code does
A Google Maps QR code opens your location on the map with the search already performed, so the person scanning is one tap from turn-by-turn directions. The distinction that matters is between encoding an address and encoding coordinates. An address is human-readable and survives a business moving within the same building, but depends on Google resolving it correctly. Coordinates always land on the exact spot, which is the only thing that works for an entrance down a side street, a delivery bay, or a site with no postal address at all.
When to use one
- Event invitations and tickets where guests need directions
- Delivery instructions pointing at a loading bay rather than a shopfront
- Shop and restaurant signage for venues that are hard to spot
- Property viewings and site visits at locations with no obvious frontage
- Trade stands guiding visitors from an entrance to a specific hall position
- Rural venues where the postcode covers a wide area
Why it works well
Directions start immediately
The map opens with the search already run, so the visitor taps once to begin navigating. Compared with retyping an address into a map app while standing in the street, the difference in effort is substantial.
No address transcription
Postcodes and street numbers are easy to mistype, and a single wrong character can route someone to a different part of the city entirely without any indication that something went wrong.
Coordinates remove all ambiguity
Where an address is imprecise, latitude and longitude are not. For rural venues, delivery entrances and large sites this is often the only way to get someone to the right point.
Works from any scanner
Because the payload is an ordinary link, every scanner opens it — there is no dependency on the Maps app being installed, since the web version works as a fallback.
Worked examples
Coordinates for a delivery entrance
A rear loading bay with no postal address of its own. Coordinates place the pin exactly, rather than at the front of the building.
Encoded as
https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=51.5265%2C-0.0803Named venue with its town
A well-known venue where the name resolves cleanly. Adding the town prevents matching a similarly named place elsewhere.
Encoded as
https://www.google.com/maps/search/?api=1&query=Barbican%20Centre%2C%20LondonHow to create a Google Maps QR code
Enter the address or place
Put a full postal address in the Address or place name field, including the postcode. A complete address resolves far more reliably than a business name, which competes with every other business of a similar name in the area.
Check it resolves before encoding
Search the same text in Google Maps yourself first. Whatever pin it produces is exactly what the code will produce, so if the search is ambiguous the code inherits that ambiguity entirely.
Use coordinates for anything hard to find
For a rear entrance, a delivery bay, a car park or a rural site, enter latitude and longitude as comma-separated numbers instead of an address. This drops the pin precisely where you want it rather than where the postcode centroid happens to sit.
Test the route on a phone
Scan the code and start directions as if you were a visitor arriving. This is the only way to catch a pin that lands on the wrong side of a dual carriageway or behind a locked gate.
What goes wrong, and how to avoid it
Encoding a business name instead of an address
A name alone competes with every similarly named business in the region, and Google picks whichever it judges most relevant to the person searching — which may not be you. The pin can differ between users depending on their location and history. A full address with a postcode removes the guesswork entirely.
Trusting the postcode to be precise
In rural areas a single postcode can cover a considerable area, and the pin lands at its centroid rather than at your gate. Visitors are then directed to a point that may be some distance from the actual entrance, often down a different lane. Use coordinates wherever the postcode is broad.
Pointing at the front when deliveries go to the back
A shopfront address routes a delivery driver to a pedestrian street where they cannot stop. If the code is for deliveries, encode the loading bay coordinates, not the address that appears on your letterhead.
Copying a long share link from the Maps app
Share links from Google Maps contain lengthy identifiers and tracking parameters that produce a far denser pattern than a plain address query. They also occasionally expire. Encoding the address itself is shorter and more durable.
Never testing the arrival
A pin can be technically correct and practically useless — on the wrong side of a central reservation, inside a pedestrian zone, or at a gate that is locked outside working hours. Only following the directions yourself surfaces this.
Device and app compatibility
The payload is an ordinary https link, so every scanner handles it. On a phone with Google Maps installed the link opens directly in the app; without it, the web version loads in the browser and still offers directions. On iOS the link opens Google Maps rather than Apple Maps, which is worth knowing if your audience skews heavily toward Apple defaults — an Apple Maps code is a separate format. Desktop scanners open the map in a browser tab, which is useful for planning but not for navigation. Coordinates and addresses behave identically across platforms.
The link uses Google's documented Maps URL API with api=1, which is the stable, supported form rather than a scraped share URL. The query value is percent-encoded, so commas in an address become %2C and spaces %20 — the main reason a long address inflates the pattern more than its character count suggests.
Common questions
Should I use an address or coordinates?
Use a full postal address for a venue with a clear street frontage, since it is human-readable and survives you moving within the same building. Use coordinates for anything hard to find — a rear entrance, a delivery bay, a rural site or a large campus — because they place the pin exactly rather than relying on Google's interpretation of an address.
Will this open Apple Maps on an iPhone?
No. A Google Maps link opens Google Maps, either in the app if it is installed or in the browser if not. Apple Maps uses a different URL scheme entirely. If your audience is heavily Apple-based and you want their default map app, that needs a separate code.
Why does the pin land in the wrong place?
Usually because a business name or a broad postcode was encoded rather than a precise address. Names compete with similar businesses nearby, and rural postcodes resolve to an area centroid that can be some distance from the actual entrance. Coordinates solve both problems definitively.
Can I use a share link copied from the Maps app?
You can, but it is worse in two ways. Share links carry long identifiers and tracking parameters that make the pattern considerably denser, and they occasionally stop resolving. Encoding the plain address or the coordinates produces a shorter, more durable code.
Does the person need Google Maps installed?
No. With the app installed the link opens there; without it the web version loads in the browser and still provides directions. Because the payload is a normal link, there is no scanner or platform on which it simply fails.
Is the address I enter sent anywhere?
Not by this site. The link is assembled in your browser and the pattern drawn on your device, with nothing transmitted while you type. Google naturally receives the query at the moment someone scans the finished code and opens the map, as it would for any map search.
Read before you print
- What is a QR code?A QR code is a two-dimensional barcode that stores text as a grid of black and white squares. This guide takes one apart — the corner markers, the data area, the repair information — and explains why that structure decides how much you can encode.
- Why a QR code won't scanFailures cluster into six causes, and they are not equally likely. This guide puts them in diagnostic order so you test the cheap explanations first and stop guessing at the expensive ones.
Other QR code generators
- Event QR Code GeneratorGet the date into someone's calendar while they are still holding the invitation.
- Menu QR Code GeneratorPut the menu on the table without reprinting it every time a price changes.
- URL QR Code GeneratorThe plainest and most reliable QR code there is — a link, and nothing else.
- Google Review QR Code GeneratorOpen the review box directly instead of asking customers to go and find it.
This generator is part of location & venue QR codes — see the whole group, and what to decide before you generate one.