GIS "Pro" Tips - Getting GPS Coordinates from an Address

While working as a GIS Specialist, there were times when I needed to know the GPS locations of a lot of places based on their physical address. The fastest and easiest way I found to do this was to use Google Maps.

Here is how:

Go to maps.google.com

Type in the address that you are interested in. Here I put the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah (my alma mater).

Then if you look at the actual web address you will notice there are two GPS localities listed. The blue circle (on the left) is the GPS address of the center of the page. If you shift the map, this will change accordingly. It is not necessarily the GPS address of the point you input, if the page loads with your location off center (as often happens). The red circled address (at the end of the web address) is the actual address of the point you input. To show you where you can use that, you can take the numbers and put them in ArcMap as seen below.

In the default toolbar, there is a button called "Go to XY". Click on it.

A box will pop up with Longitude and Latitude boxes.

Type in the second number first, this is your longitude. Include the negative sign if applicable. Then type the first number in the second box. This is your latitude. When you hit "Enter", a flash will appear on the map where your point is. It also converts the Decimal Degrees of Google Maps to Degrees Minutes Seconds. You can click on the "Add Point" above the coordinates to put a green dot in that spot. Then you have to zoom in manually.

And if you put in the second GPS coordinates, you will get a dot precisely where Google Maps puts the address, which is more often than not, correct. Although there are instances where this isn't always the case.