Store Locator Plus® Updates: Easier Location Research, Editing, and Imports

Since the September 10 release, Store Locator Plus® has focused on making large location directories easier to build and manage. The updates span the hosted dashboard and the core and Power WordPress plugins, with a new research workflow for eligible SaaS accounts and a more consistent experience for editing and importing locations.

SaaS Updates

The Store Locator Plus® SaaS dashboard adds a Locations Research workflow for Enterprise accounts. Search for places by region and business category, review the results, and add selected places to their location list. Results already found in the account’s locations are marked, helping avoid duplicate additions. The results table supports paging through larger searches, up to 1,000 results per search; narrower searches can help when a region has more matches.

The hosted dashboard also received refinements to the way newly added research locations appear in the Locations List.

This uses the AWS Location Services Places API to search for locations to add to a directory.

WordPress Plugin Updates

The core WordPress plugin now uses a newer location editor integrated with the Manage Locations screen. The editor layout and field labels have been refined, including marker selection. The Locations List also gained improvements to filters, table controls, and bulk actions, making it easier to work through a large set of locations.

The Power add-on has a redesigned location import interface. CSV uploads and loading locations from WordPress are brought together under the Import tab. A Recent Uploads view lets administrators review previously uploaded CSV files, preview their contents, run an import from an existing upload, or remove a file they no longer need. Import feedback and performance have also been improved, particularly for larger jobs.

Admin and Interface Refinements

Across the Store Locator Plus® dashboard and WordPress admin screens, action buttons and layouts are more consistent. The Locations List refreshes after an import or after locations are added through Research, so new records are easier to find without manually reloading the page. The Contact Us form has clearer label and placeholder positioning, and location-list controls have been adjusted for better spacing and sizing.

Fixes and Stability Improvements

This round also addresses location-list filter behavior and an issue that could interrupt the Locations List script. Import processing received safeguards to keep jobs associated with the correct SaaS customer site. Behind the scenes, older location-management interface code was retired as the updated screens took its place.

What You Need To Do

SaaS customers do not need to install plugin packages; hosted dashboard updates are delivered through the service. Locations Research is intended for Enterprise accounts and requires location-administration access.

If you manage your own WordPress site, update the core Store Locator Plus® plugin and any active add-ons through your normal update process. Power users who regularly import locations should take a look at the revised Import tab and Recent Uploads view. As with any production update, test first on a staging site if you have custom location workflows or large import files.

Image by Marius from Pixabay

New Location Cards View

Location Cards Filter

Our August 2026 user experience updates continue for Store Locator Plus® with a new Cards viewing mode for Locations. The Cards view provides a vertical scrolling column of location cards. This provides a quick view of the location data alongside a map preview to help ensure the location is where you expect it to be.

This feature replaces the SaaS-only Card listing that was in need of a refresh. We opted to include this in the WordPress plugin as well, but be aware this view can use up Google API charges when viewing this mode for users of the WordPress plugin. For the SaaS users, there are no additional charges.

Location Cards Features

  • Filter Locations
    The location cards view provides a filter interface that allows for stacked filter selections to limit the cards that are displayed.
  • Search Locations
    The search feature is a multi-field text search that matches full or partial text across multiple location fields.

Both feature mimic the functionality of the new Location List table view that went into production last month.

Location Cards Fitler

Getting the Location Cards

Store Locator Plus® SaaS users will automatically see the new Cards view under the Locations page later this month.

WordPress plugin users will need to update to the latest Store Locator Plus® plugin. Look for the plugin version at or above v2608.04.XX for this new feature. If you’ve not updated the plugin recently you may need to update any associated add on plugins including Power, Experience, and Premier plugins. Keep in mind that all plugins require your WordPress server to be running PHP 8.2 or higher.

A New Location Management Interface

Our user interface overhaul of Store Locator Plus® continues with a new location management interface. We’ve finally replaced the 1980s style location management interface Store Locator Plus® inherited from WordPress. The old PHP, HTML, and JavaScript table has been replaced with a modern React alternative. The new location management interface comes with all kinds of new ways to organize, sort, and filter your existing location data.

The new location management interface is available for both our WordPress and our SaaS users. SaaS users don’t need to do anything to get the new updates, they will be available next time you login to your SaaS account. WordPress users will need to upgrade their existing plugins to the latest release to get these new features.

Filter Locations

Complex location filters coming in the August 2026 release of SLP.

Complex filters can be built on locations. All of the filters we had with the previous filters drop down menu are still available, plus dozens of additional options.

The filters apply across the entire data set with response times that are vastly improved over the prior versions. Large sets of locations can now be filtered with ease.

Built a wide variety of logic combinations for any location data field.

Data matching options include:

  • contains | does not contain
  • equals | does not equal
  • starts with
  • ends with
  • is empty | is not empty
  • is any of

All fields can be combined with AND or OR logic to display specific locatio

Improved Quick Search

The revised quick search feature.
Searching across all fields for the 2059 text (found it in the latitude field in this example).

We’ve completely retooled the quick search feature in the new location management interface..

It still searches across multiple fields, but it now searches across all text fields in the location set not only the name and primary address fields. And it is fast. Much faster than past iterations.

Change The Column Layout

A menu of new column layouts.
The name column pinned to the left, the other data scrolls under it.

A myriad of options are now available for how you see your data on the locations list.

  • Sort columns in any combination.
  • Drag columns to reorder them.
  • Pin columns to the left or right of the table.
  • Hide columns.

The best part is Store Locator Plus® remembers your customization between sessions. No more re-sorting or changing column layouts every time you log back in or visit a different page. We’ve added a notification with an easy reset button in case you ever need to quickly get back to the default 

Change The Row Density

Row density options.

While more row management options (like grouping, ordering, etc.) are coming – for now we’ve given the basic option to set the height of the display with several row density options available: Compact, Standard, and Comfortable.