Traveling without knowing how to use Google Maps is challenging by itself, navigating without knowledge of utilizing coordinates is harder.
Exact coordinates are essential for accurate navigation as they allow travelers to pinpoint absolute locations on the Earth’s surface and go after it.
Today, with this kind of coordinates, you can determine a location’s latitude and longitude, providing a precise reference point for any destination.
Table of Contents
- What is latitude and longitude in Google Maps?
- Usage of coordinates in Google Maps
- How to enter coordinates in Google Search
- How to enter longitude and latitude in Google Maps
- Where to find coordinates of locations?
What is latitude and longitude in Google Maps?
In maps, latitude and longitude are coordinate values that help us pinpoint and identify any location worldwide.
In simple words, latitude’s value tells how far north or south a point is from the equator. The longitude’s value means how far east or west the point is from the Prime Meridian (PM is the imaginary line at 0° longitude, Greenwich Observatory reference).
Usage of coordinates in Google Maps
You can navigate using coordinates in Google Maps. And for doing that, you must first understand what the coordinates represent.
What do latitude and longitude values represent?
There are different formats: Decimal Degrees (DD), Degrees, Minutes and seconds (DMS), and Degrees and Decimal Minutes (DDM). These values represent specific locations on Earth.
Note: Generally, you won’t need to understand these values if you already have the coordinates. You’ll just need to put these coordinates into Google Maps to navigate to the required location.
If you don’t want to understand these values, skip to the “How to Enter Latitude and Longitude into Google Maps?” section.

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Decimal Degrees (DD)
This is the most common format used for placing coordinates in Google Maps. This format shows latitude and longitude as decimal numbers with a degree sign at the end.
For example, New York City Hall coordinates are approximately 40.7128° N (latitude) and -74.0060° W (longitude). The positive sign indicates north for latitude and west for longitude.
Understand what it represents
40.7128° N shows latitude. It is how far north a place is from the Equator. From the above example, the latitude marks New York City’s location, meaning it’s a bit more than 40 degrees north of the Equator.
-74.0060° W shows longitude. It is how far west a place is from the Prime Meridian. In this case, it’s the longitude of New York City, which means it’s a bit more than 74 degrees west of the Prime Meridian in Greenwich, England.
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds (DMS)
Using DMS is another way of doing the same thing, but in a different and perhaps more understandable way.
For the exact location as above, the DMS format is written below. The order and signs in DMS are degrees (°), minutes (‘), and seconds (“).
DMS coordinates of New York City Hall are:
Latitude: 40° 42′ 46″ N
Longitude: 74° 0′ 21″ W
40° 42′ 46″ N indicates that the given location is approximately 40 degrees, 42 minutes, and 46 seconds north of the Equator.
74° 0′ 21″ W signifies that the given location is approximately 74 degrees, 0 minutes, and 21 seconds west of the Prime Meridian.
Degrees and Decimal Minutes (DMM)
We discourage you from using this format, as this is not widely used, and you may find yourself puzzled when Google Maps shows you a different site from what you might expect (probably because you won’t find DMM for your required location easily).
DMM is another way of denoting coordinates. In this method, we use a part of both Decimal Degrees and Degrees, Minutes and Seconds. Latitude and longitude are degrees (°) and decimal minutes (‘).
The DMM coordinates of C/ de Mallorca, 401, 08013 Barcelona, Spain are:
Latitude: 41 24.2028
Longitude: 2 10.4418
How to enter coordinates in Google Search
The first approach is to enter the coordinates directly into Google. Doing so will show you an embedded map that’ll take you to the exact location if you click it.
From there, you can open maps online on a web application or the Google Maps app on a mobile phone.

How to enter longitude and latitude in Google Maps
In Google Maps, you can quickly enter the coordinates and pinpoint the location you want to navigate.
For this, follow the following steps:
Open Google Maps
You can open maps on either your mobile phone or your personal computer.
Access the Search Bar
You’ll need to enter the coordinates in the search bar to search for the location to navigate to it.
Choose the appropriate format for coordinates
Once you’ve reached the search bar, you must decide which of the three formats you want to enter. Below are working formats of coordinates you can enter in Google Maps:

Decimal degrees (DD):
- 40.7128° -74.0060°
- 40.7128, -74.0060

Degrees, minutes, and seconds (DMS):
- 40° 42′ 46″ N, 74° 0′ 21″ W
- 40°42’46″N, 74°0’21″W
- 40°42’46″N 74°0’21″W

Degrees and decimal minutes (DMM):
- 41 24.2028, 2 10.4418
Common mistakes in using coordinates
Ensure you are not using a comma “,” sign instead of the period “.” sign in the search bar as mentioned below.
Correct: 41 24.2028, 2 10.4418
Incorrect: 41 24,2028, 2 10,4418
Also, make sure to verify the rules of thumb below:
- Latitude coordinates must be listed before longitude coordinates.
- The first number in your latitude coordinate must be between -90 and 90.
- The first number in your longitude coordinate must be between -180 and 180.
Verifying the location
Once you have entered the coordinates, double-check if the appeared location is the one you want to navigate. Sometimes, you may get a different place because of an incorrect format.
Double-checking will root out the possibility of wrong destinations.
Where to find coordinates of locations?
You can find location coordinates directly from Google Maps or websites like Wikipedia.
Wikipedia
Below is an example of Wikipedia:

Google Maps
Here is an example of getting coordinates directly from Google Maps:

Right-click on the landmark:

The marked area has your coordinates in Decimal degrees (DD) format.
That’s everything you need to know when using location coordinates like Latitude and Longitude in Google Maps. Have any questions? Let us know in the comments section below and we’ll try to help you out.