If you’re a WordPress site administrator whose company also has brick and mortar establishments, you have to be presenting your visitors with a map on your site. While this certainly sounds ambitious and noble, there are solutions out there that can make it easy. Tijmen Smit published the free plugin WP Store Locator and has accumulated more than 70,000 active installations. 

The plugin has been translated into 14 different languages and has over 200 five-star reviews. The companies that are competing for pieces of this market share are WP Experts, Plain Ware, and Bullseye Locations.

The Map  

The mapping solution offered in WP Store Locator is a hyper-communicative map, meaning you can showcase the best features of you and your brand within the map. The best part of the plugin is that it relies on shortcode, so no coding is required, and the site admin can place the map anywhere. Now building out any quality map requires some elbow grease, however, this plugin allows you to do just that, but you get to do it all hassle-free within the plugins dashboard. 

You’ll need your unrestricted server key and your browser key. You’ll be able to access these keys from Google API within your Google account. Once you have input the keys in their corresponding locations, you can start exploring your map. 

When it comes to identifying the locations you want to display on your map, users have several features available to them. The obligatory name, address, and phone number are available, but users can also display business hours, email, photos, and tags for categories. 

The UX

The plugin allows users to set an initial view starting point. For example, if you are a chain based in Dallas, Texas, with additional locations throughout Texas, you can specify that as your starting point for DFW or Dallas. Sites written in HTTPS protocol can geolocate their visitors and have the map's initial view starting at their location. That means visitors can utilize street view from your website. 

This plugin integrates Google Maps into your site with minimal effort. The Premium version offers widget capability, explorable statistics of high traffic locations, and more. WP Store Locator does not leave users wanting. 

Locating an online store

The internet is spreading further across the globe to more difficult locations, and in no time flat, the entire planet will have access to wireless internet. The speed will take time, but accessibility will be there. 

For those who have spent our whole lives immersed in the web, not a day goes by when Google Maps doesn't make an appearance. When you step back and examine the capabilities we have in our pockets, it's still awe-inspiring.