Search

Everything about how a visitor finds a location: what the search box does, which filters sit next to it, and how the results are ordered and limited.

Search method

  • Geocode API (default) — the visitor types a place, the geocoding service turns it into coordinates, and locations are returned by distance from that point.
  • Name search (post / location name) — the visitor types a location name, and it is matched directly against your own database. No geocoding request is made.
Name search costs nothing in API usage, but it changes what the rest of the plugin can offer. Distance sorting disappears (there is no start point to measure from), and the API section hides its response-language and country-filtering options. Pick it when your visitors look for a branch by name rather than “near me”.

Placeholder for the search field
The grey hint text inside the empty search box. Set it to the kind of input you actually want — “Town or postcode” invites better searches than a generic prompt.

Attempt to auto-locate the user
Asks the browser’s Geolocation API for the visitor’s position and uses it as the start point.

An HTTPS connection is required. Browsers refuse the Geolocation API over plain HTTP, so on an insecure connection this silently does nothing and the start location from the Map section is used instead.

Auto-locate address format
What to put in the search box once the visitor’s position is known:

  • Zip code — most accurate.
  • City / Town
  • The full formatted address
  • Auto-locate trigger
    • Runs automatically on pageload — the browser’s permission prompt appears as soon as the page opens.
    • Request permission in a popup — the visitor is asked first, and the browser prompt only appears if they agree.

    The second option is gentler and tends to get a higher accept rate, because the prompt arrives after the visitor has chosen to share rather than before they know what the page is.

Enable autocomplete?
Suggests addresses as the visitor types. Suggestions are restricted to the regions selected in the API section.

Autocomplete fires a request per keystroke-ish, so on a busy site this is one of the largest contributors to an API bill. Set a budget alert before enabling it.

Autocomplete source (Google Maps only).

  • Autocomplete Data API (new)
  • Places Autocomplete Service (legacy)
Keys created after 1 March 2025 only work with the new Data API. Older keys work with both. If you are not sure how old your key is, choose the Data API — and if no suggestions appear, switch to the legacy service.

Automatically start a search when an autocomplete value is selected?
Runs the search the moment the visitor picks a suggestion, instead of waiting for them to press the button. Saves a click; costs the visitor the chance to change a filter first.

Force zip code only search
Tells the geocoder to treat whatever was typed as a postcode. Town and city names will no longer work.

Two things to keep in mind.

  • It works best when results are restricted to a single region.
  • The Google Geocoding API can only restrict a request to one country at a time — so when you have restricted results to several countries, the plugin tries the postcode against each country in turn until something matches, which multiplies your API usage.

Hide the map until the first search is made?
Shows only the search field on page load, and reveals the map with the first set of results. Useful when the locator sits high on a landing page and an empty world map would say nothing.

Distance unit
Kilometres or miles, used for the radius dropdown and the distance shown against each result.

Show search radius dropdown?
Lets the visitor choose how far to search. With this off, the default from Search radius options is used silently.

Show max results dropdown?
Lets the visitor choose how many results to see. With this off, the default from Max search results is used silently.

Max search results
The values offered in the max results dropdown, separated by commas. Mark the default by wrapping it in square brackets, for example 10,25,[50],75.

Search radius options
The values offered in the radius dropdown, separated by commas, in the unit chosen above. The default goes in square brackets the same way.

Sort by

  • Distance (default)
  • Store Name
  • Address
  • ID
  • City
  • Zip code
  • State or Country
Distance is only available with the Geocode API search method — with name search there is no start point to measure from, so it drops out of the list and a different option is selected for you.

Sort order

  • Ascending (default)
  • Descending

Enable category filter?
Adds a category filter to the search bar.

Default category filter selection
Pre-selects a category, so the locator opens already filtered. Leave it unset to start with everything shown.

Filter type

  • Dropdown
  • Checkboxes

Checkboxes make multi-select obvious and are worth the space when visitors routinely combine categories.

Only show locations that are in all the selected categories?
Switches multi-select from OR to AND. With this on, selecting Wheelchair access and Open Sunday returns only locations that are both — not either.

Only show the category filter?
Hides the address search and leaves the category filter.

Exclude locations from nearby countries?
Returns only locations in the same country as the search. A search for a Canadian border town returns Canadian locations, not ones a few kilometers across the US border.

Return all locations when someone searches for a whole country or state?
When a visitor searches for an entire country or state, every location in that area is returned and both the max results and the search radius are ignored. If you have 200 locations in Germany and someone searches for “Germany”, all 200 come back.

Enabling this on a large dataset may have a negative impact on the performance.

Show the number of returned results?
Puts a count above the list, such as “24 results”.

If no results are found, then show the nearest location ignoring the search radius?
Rather than an empty list, returns the single closest location however far away it is. Good for sparse networks, where “nothing within 25 km” is technically true and completely unhelpful.

Related

  • API — the keys and country filtering these options depend on
  • Map — the start location used when auto-locate is off or fails
  • Shortcodes