On a dating site, distance beats almost everything else. People will forgive a shorter profile and a worse photo, but not a two-hour drive. A map that shows who is nearby is the feature members use first and come back to most.

The platform gives members a search page with an interactive map. They set a radius around themselves and see who is inside it.

Admin panel: Services > Find date > Nearest users (/admin/nearest_users/index/).

Two settings matter here: the maximum radius a member may choose, and whether they can move the centre point away from their own location.

Set the maximum radius to match your audience, not the map. If your members are in one city, a radius of twenty kilometres is generous. If they are spread across a country, twenty kilometres shows an empty map and the member concludes your site is dead. Look at where people actually are before you fix this number.

Moving the centre point is worth allowing. People search where they are going, not only where they are: a business trip next week, a city they are moving to. Members who plan ahead are among your most active.

The search area is a circle by default. If you need another shape, ask the Experts team for a free estimate.

Admin panel: Services > Find date > Geo maps (/admin/geomap/index).

Two providers are available: Google Maps and Yandex Maps.

Yandex Maps works without registration. Nothing to sign up for, nothing to pay, no card to attach. If you are launching and want the map working today, start here.

Google Maps needs a key, and the key needs a payment card. More detail below.

The Get key button opens the developer console of the chosen provider. Paste the key into the Map key field.

Setup in the dropdown opens the map configuration — zoom, default view, starting coordinates and more. The preview below the settings updates as you change them.

1. Sign in to the Google Developers Console and set up a billing account. Google requires a payment card even for free usage.

2. Go to API Manager > Library and enable two of them: Maps JavaScript API and Geocoding API. Both are needed — with only the first, the map shows but nobody is placed on it.

3. Create a project if prompted, then go to Credentials and generate the key.

4. Paste the key into Geo maps in your admin panel.

This is the part people discover too late, so read it before you connect.

Google gives a monthly allowance of free map loads. Above it, every load is billed to the card on your account. On a dating site the map is opened constantly — it is one of the most used pages — so a site that grows fast can move from free to a real monthly bill without anyone noticing.

Two things to do straight away: set a spending limit in the Google console, and restrict the key to your own domain so nobody else can use it at your expense.

Current allowances and rates, from Google:

If the bill worries you, use Yandex Maps. No card, no limit to watch, and for a member looking for people within five kilometres the difference between the two is invisible.

The map loads but shows nobody.
Usually the Geocoding API is not enabled — the map draws, but member addresses are never turned into points on it. Check that both APIs are on.

Members appear in the wrong place.
Location comes from what the member entered in their profile. If your list of cities is incomplete, people pick the nearest one they can find. See countries, regions and cities.

Can members hide from the map?
Yes, through the paid stealth mode — they browse without being findable. See paid services.

Can I use another map provider?
Google and Yandex are built in. For anything else, ask the Experts team.