Step 3: Add A Location Map To Your Site

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Add a location map to your site by putting the SaaS embed code or WordPress shortcode on any page. You’ll need to have an active Store Locator Plus® SaaS subscription or have the Store Locator Plus® for WordPress plugin installed and activated.

Make sure you’ve completed the initial configuration and setup steps outline in the Store Locator Plus® Getting Started article.

When a visitor goes to a page with the Store Locator Plus® map code embedded, it will show a default search form and a map centered in your country or on the “Center Map At” address you entered when configuring Store Locator Plus®. When someone searches for a zip code that is close enough to a location you entered it will show those locations on the map.

Location Results Report

Location Results reports are included with the Professional or Enterprise plan. This report is designed to show the locations that were returned by users entering addresses on the search form when looking for locations. This can be useful for determining which locations are appearing most frequently for your site visitors.

To view this report you’ll need to turn on reporting features as outlined in the Reports documentation.

Location Results Report 2208.15+

This report will show up to the top 500 locations returned within the date range selected.

Location Search Report

Location Search reports are included with the Professional or Enterprise plan. This report is designed to show what addresses users are entering on the search form when looking for locations. This can be useful for determining areas where your site visitors are looking for your product or service.

To view this report you’ll need to turn on reporting features as outlined in the Reports documentation.

Location Search Report v2208.15+

This report will show up to the top 500 searches within the date range selected.

How To : Location Categories

Assumptions

WordPress environment is setup and configured including activation of the following plugins

  • Store Locator Plus®
  • SLP Power add on

In addition map service (Google API keys) should be in place and some locations should be added to the system.

A page has been created with the [slplus] shortcode present and the map is rendering properly.

Users are logged in as a WordPress administrator (the process will be slightly different for SaaS users).

Adding Categories To Locations

Objective

Create a location category and attach it to an existing location.

User Action: Add A Location Category

  1. Click on Store Locator Plus® | Categories in the WordPress sidebar menu.
  2. In the left “Add New Category Form”…
    1. Type a category name. (Restaurant)
    2. Click Add New Category
Result

The new category should appear on the category list on the page.

Category list after adding the restaurant category.

User Action: Attach Category To Location

  1. Click on Store Locator Plus® | Locations in the WordPress sidebar menu.
  2. Click the Edit action icon on the first location.
  3. Check off the box next to “Restaurants” in the Power | Categories section of the form.
  4. Click Save.
Result

The category is assigned to the location and appears on the location table.

The location with an assigned restaurant category. This view is showing fewer columns as the Screen Options was updated to removed unused columns from the table view.

User Action: Show Category Select On Front End

  1. Click on Store Locator Plus® | Settings in the WordPress sidebar menu.
  2. Change the Category Selector setting to “Single Drop Down”.
  3. Click Save
  4. On the front end, go to the page that has the [slplus] shortcode.
Result

The search form for the map should show a category drop down.

The front end page with the [slplus] shortcode, showing the category selection filter.

User Action : Filtering Locations With Category

  1. On the front end, go to the page that has the [slplus] shortcode.
  2. Enter an address, choose a category.
  3. Click “Find Locations”.

Upgrading Store Locator Plus

The base Store Locator Plus plugin and add ons are updated on a regular basis.  Often the updates include security and bug fixes or fundamental changes that are designed to improve performance by reducing the memory and/or disk request load when your visitors are interacting with the map.

The most common reason your legacy add on stopped working is because it is no longer supported with the latest version of Store Locator Plus  or vice versa

You may wish to choose to stay with your WPSLP Self Managed plugin and upgrade to the replacement bundled  add-ons or switch to  the managed MySLP.

Make sure you have a backup copy of the current version of SLP you have installed that IS working with your  add on packs. We ALWAYS recommend that your site uses VaultPress or JetPack

Whenever you update the base plugin make sure ALL of  your SLP add-on packs are updated to the latest version.

Where to find the Store Locator Plus for WordPress Plug-in versions and updates

WordPress Plug-in Log-in

For the WordPress SLP stand alone (do it yourself) plug-in , the latest update to the Word Press base plugin normally appears in your WordPress site Plugin menu for auto update

To check your version against what is currently available  please see the site home page under Support/Versions

The WordPress Store Locator Plus base plug-in is again available in the WordPress plug-in directory.    If you purchased an add-on  you will  need to log into your WPSLP account and download it manually the first time you use it.

ALWAYS BACK-UP your site immediately  before updating any Plug-ins.

How to manually update.

Most Common “What Should I Buy” Questions

Some of the most common features requested are included with either the Plug-in for WordPress using add-ons OR a higher level plan if you use the all inclusive (but separate from the plug-in) Store Locator Plus Software as a Service (SaaS)

MySLP to WPSLP Comparison

Advanced is comparable to the basic Store Locator Plus plugin.

Professional is the Power level (excluding SEO Pages) plus the Experience add on.

Enterprise is the Professional level plan plus the Premier subscription features, functionality  and  support services.

Read below for answers to these questions and check out our other “What To Buy” articles.