It is easier than you think, try this
landareas=shaperead('landareas.shp','UseGeoCoords',true);
axesm ('mercator','Frame','on','Grid','on',...;
'FLatLimit',[-90 90],...
'FLonLimit',[-180 180])
gridm('on');axis off;mlabel on;plabel on
geoshow(landareas,'FaceColor',[1 1 .5],'EdgeColor',[.6 .6 .6]);
set(gca,'position',[0 0 1 1])


