Wikipedia:How to add geocodes to articles

Welcome to the geocoding how-to for WikiProject members! If you're reading this, it's probably because you've received a message regarding missing coordinates on Wikipedia article pages.

By adding coordinates, you can help Wikipedia's readers find articles about geographical locations, and help other editors find and verify new information to improve the articles further.

Most commonly, a {{coord missing}} tag has been added to the article's source text: by replacing it with a {{coord}} tag with suitable data, you can easily add geographical coordinates to the article.

Quick how-to

To add 57°18′22″N 4°27′32″W to the top of an article, use {{Coord}}, thus:

{{Coord|57|18|22|N|4|27|32|W|display=title}}

These coordinates are in degrees, minutes, and seconds of arc.

"title" means that the coordinates will be displayed next to the article's title at the top of the page (in desktop view only; title coordinates do not display in mobile view) and before any other text or images. It also records the coordinates as the primary location of the page's subject in Wikipedia's geosearch API.

To add 44.1124°N 87.9130°W / 44.1124; -87.9130 to the top of an article, use either

{{Coord|44.1124|N|87.9130|W|display=title}}

(which does not require minutes or seconds but does require the user to specify north/ south and east/west) or

{{Coord|44.1124|-87.9130|display=title}}

(in which the north and east are presumed by positive values while the south and west are negative ones). These coordinates are in decimal degrees.

• Degrees, minutes and seconds, when used, must each be separated by a pipe ("|").
• Map datum must be WGS84 if possible (except for off-Earth bodies).
• Avoid excessive precision (0.0001° is <11 m, 1″ is <31 m).
• Maintain consistency of decimal places or minutes/seconds between latitude and longitude.
• Latitude (N/S) must appear before longitude (E/W).

Optional coordinate parameters follow the longitude and are separated by an underscore ("_"):

• dim: dim:N (viewing diameter in metres)
• region: region:R (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 or ISO 3166-2 code)
• type: type:T (landmark or city(30,000), for example)

Other optional parameters are separated by a pipe ("|"):

• display
  • |display=inline (the default) to display in the body of the article only,
  • |display=title to display at the top of the article only (in desktop view only; title coordinates do not display in mobile view), or
  • |display=inline,title to display in both places.
• name: name=X to label the place on maps (default is PAGENAME)

Thus: {{Coord|44.1172|-87.9135|dim:30_region:US-WI_type:event|display=inline,title|name=accident site}}

Use |display=title (or |display=inline,title) once per article, for the subject of the article, where appropriate.

• Per WP:ORDER, the template is placed at the bottom of the article in the 'end matter', after any navigation templates, but before all categories, including the {{DEFAULTSORT}} template. The {{coord}} template may also be placed within an infobox, instead of at the bottom of the article.
• For full details, refer to {{Coord/doc}}.
• Additional guidance is available at obtaining coordinates and converting coordinates.

• For a village- use the centre of the current village, where this is difficult choose the earliest known settlement of that name.
• For military and industrial establishments use the main gate. (Castles, barracks, dockyards, car plants) See here: for further help
• For administrative districts- the head office.

For linear features See here: for further help.