Slick Google Map vs WP Google Street View (with 360° virtual tour) & Google maps + Local SEO

A simple, intuitive Google Map / OpenStreetMap plugin that installs as a Gutenberg block and a shortcode. Packed with useful features — geo-mashup of posts, KML overlays, marker icons, address geocoding — and fully free and open source. No subscriptions, no SaaS, no telemetry. Slick Google Map lets you embed maps using either: Google Maps — requires your own API key (configurable per-site). Leaflet / OpenStreetMap — no key required, free tile service. Features: Insert maps via the Slick Google Map Gutenberg block (with a multi-marker repeater) or the [slick_map] shortcode. Classic Editor users get a Slick Map media button above the editor that opens a dialog with the same repeater. Marker geo-mashup — aggregate every post/page that has lat/lng custom fields onto a single map. KML and GPX overlays — drop a track or boundary onto any map. KML works on both providers; GPX is Leaflet-only. Address geocoding — write address="Vienna, Austria" instead of coordinates. Geocoded once per address and cached for 30 days. Uses your Google Geocoding API key if set, falls back to Nominatim/OSM otherwise. Coordinate formats — accepts decimal (48.2082) and DMS (48°12'29.5"N) in any marker. Marker icons — bundled set of 13 modern SVG pins (default, restaurant, lodging, cafe, bar, museum, airport, rail, shop, camera, mountain, castle, religious), plus your own URL. Legacy filenames from the 2014-era plugin are auto-aliased. Map controls — toggle the zoom / map-type / street-view / scroll-wheel / drag controls per map. Layers — Google bicycling and traffic overlays on demand. 45° aerial tilt — passed through to Google as tilt: 45. Only takes visible effect on vector Map IDs, or on satellite/hybrid view over the specific cities where Google has 45° aerial imagery. No effect on raster maps or on Leaflet. Custom Google styles JSON — for branded maps without cloud-styled Map IDs. Wiki-style links in marker titles: [[https://example.com|Display text]] becomes a real link. Compatible with WordPress page caches — no per-visitor state in the rendered HTML, no AJAX side-effects. No fixed-cost dependencies — Leaflet / OSM is free; Google Maps is pay-as-you-go with a generous monthly free tier (≈28k map loads/month at no charge). History: Slick Google Map 1.0 is a rewrite of the original plugin version 0.3, which was itself a fork of the Comprehensive Google Map Plugin by Alexander Zagniotov (2011–2014). Version 1.0.0 is a complete rewrite for WordPress 6.4+ and PHP 8.1+ — see the “Parity & rewrite” section below for what changed. Insert a map via the Slick Google Map Gutenberg block, the Slick Map media button in the Classic Editor, or the [slick_map] shortcode. Optionally aggregate posts/pages that have lat/lng custom fields onto a single map (“geo-mashup”), and overlay a KML or GPX file. Shortcode [slick_map lat="48.2082" lng="16.3738" zoom="13" height="400px" provider="leaflet"] Geo-mashup of posts and pages: [slick_map mashup="post,page"] KML or GPX overlay: [slick_map kml="https://example.com/track.kml"] [slick_map provider="leaflet" gpx="https://example.com/hike.gpx"] KML works with both providers; GPX requires the Leaflet provider (Google’s Maps JS API does not natively render GPX). Markers with addresses and custom icons (nested [marker] children): [slick_map zoom="6"] [marker address="Vienna, Austria" title="Home"] [marker lat="52.5" lng="13.4" title="Berlin" icon="https://example.com/star.png"] [/slick_map] Each [marker] accepts address (geocoded once and cached) or explicit lat/lng, plus optional title and icon. The icon attribute accepts either an https://… URL pointing to your own image, or one of the bundled short names: default, restaurant, lodging, cafe, bar, museum, airport, rail, shop, camera, mountain, castle, religious. Legacy filenames from the 2014-era plugin (1-default.png, museum_naval.png, hotel_0star.png, …) are auto-aliased to the nearest modern equivalent. For geo-mashup markers, set a marker_icon custom field on each post to override the default pin for just that post. Map controls and layers Toggle Google’s built-in UI: zoomcontrol, maptypecontrol, streetviewcontrol, scrollwheel, draggable (all default true). Google-only overlays: showbike="true", showtraffic="true". 45° aerial tilt: tilt="45". Only takes visible effect on a Google vector Map ID, or in satellite/hybrid view over cities where Google has 45° imagery. Ignored elsewhere. Custom Google map styles JSON: styles='[{"featureType":"poi","stylers":[{"visibility":"off"}]}]' (ignored when a Map ID is configured — cloud styling takes precedence). DMS coordinates Marker lat / lng values accept either decimal (48.2082) or DMS form (48°12'29.5"N). Wiki-style links Marker titles support [[https://example.com|Display text]] to embed real links, or [[Plain Page]] for unlinked highlighted text. Geocoding When a Google Maps API key is configured the plugin uses the Google Geocoding API (same Cloud project as Maps; enable Geocoding API alongside Maps JavaScript). Otherwise it falls back to Nominatim/OpenStreetMap. Results are cached in a 30-day transient per address, so each unique address is geocoded at most once. Privacy Using the Google provider loads scripts and tiles from maps.googleapis.com. Using the Leaflet/OSM provider loads tiles from tile.openstreetmap.org and the Leaflet library from unpkg.com. Choose the provider that matches your site’s privacy posture. Parity & rewrite Version 1.0.0 is a complete rewrite of the 2015 codebase. The old plugin’s PHP and JavaScript were written against WordPress 3.6 and PHP 5, used the long-retired Google JSAPI loader, geocoded addresses on every page view, shipped 300+ marker PNGs of mixed provenance, and had several unauthenticated AJAX write paths in wp-admin. Re-issuing it as-is on a modern stack was not viable, so the codebase was rewritten from scratch around the same shortcode vocabulary. What you keep. Posts written against the very old [google-map-v3 ...] shortcode still render. The plugin registers google-map-v3 as a back-compatibility alias that maps the still-useful attributes (width, height, zoom, kml, maptype, addmarkermashup, addmarkerlist, maptypecontrol, zoomcontrol, streetviewcontrol, scrollwheel, draggable, showbike, showtraffic, tiltfourtyfive, styles) onto the new renderer. The Google provider is selected by default for these legacy shortcodes, the old addmarkerlist="addr{}icon{}desc|..." packed format is parsed transparently, and the most-used legacy icon filenames (1-default.png, museum_naval.png, hotel_0star.png, …) are aliased to the bundled modern SVG set. What’s gone for good. Some features can’t come back because the upstream services or APIs disappeared: panoramio — Google shut Panoramio down in November 2016. pancontrol — Google removed panControl from the Maps API in 2017; there is no flag to set anymore. google.maps.KmlLayer — deprecated April 2026; replaced internally with a fetch + KML→GeoJSON renderer. The old https://www.google.com/jsapi loader — retired by Google in 2017; the modern loader requires a user-supplied API key. What’s not yet back. Marker clustering, directions/routing, geolocation marker, and marker drop/bounce animations are reachable from the rewrite but not yet wired up. See PARITY.md on GitHub for the full, categorised list (restored / new / missing-but-doable / deprecated-by-upstream / deliberately-dropped) plus a migration cheat-sheet. What was dropped on purpose. The sidebar widget (Classic Widgets is in long-term legacy mode), the saved-shortcodes admin library (it was the largest single security surface in the old plugin), and the 300+ marker PNG library (replaced with 13 modern SVGs plus a legacy-filename alias map) — see PARITY.md for the rationale on each. Contributors Current maintainer Norbert Preining Original author of the upstream “Comprehensive Google Map Plugin” (2011–2014) Alexander Zagniotov — thanks for the original work, released under GPL. Additional contributors Honza Rameš

The WP Google Street View is a WordPress map plugin that allows you to embed custom Google street View (with 360 ° virtual tour), Google Maps and synchronized Google Street View and Google maps … maps with high quality markers containing locations, descriptions, images, categories, links and more. These last years, digital marketing surveys taught us that that buyers are extremely visual, more than 50% engage in thorough online research before visiting a physical store to make a purchase, and buyers look for personalization and reasons to trust a retailer. That’s why Google Street View (with Google Maps) is also an exceptional way to humanize your brand and amp up the trust factor with your customers. Google Street View allows buyers to put a face to the business name while lending familiarity when they enter the physical location. Google maps street view is doing more than helping with the research process. It’s building trust with customers by offering highly attractive panoramic views from street level positions and by allowing users to browse interior views (Google Street View’s platform allows customers to take a virtual tour in your business, which is a great incentive to convince them to come visit your establishment later). How to use WP Google Street View plugin? After installing Wp Google Street View plugin, you will be asked to create a Google API Key to make it work (see below at About your Google Maps API). Then, you can select between different map types: Google Street View only Google maps only Synchronized Google Street View & Google maps (PRO version) Enter an address to be displayed with your map. Google autocomplete will help you provide an accurate location. You can also use your Geolocalisation Tool to identify where you are currently located. Longitude & latitude will be detected instantly. About Google Street View, make sure to adjust/correct the view (Zoom in/ou, point of view) to be displayed to your visitors (in case of 360 ° virtual tour) and save these parameters (in order to show your visitors exactly what you want them to see). You can define other parameters as height, width, .. Markers, infobox, map styles, layers are also available for Google Maps and synchronized Google Street View & Google Maps feature. Click on”Preview tool” to check your map, then click Publish or Update. A shortcode will be generated instantly, to copy-paste wherever needed. Once your map is created and your shortsoce added to your website, you can always modify all details (style, address, etc.) by editing this shortcode on Wp Google Street View / All items. They will apply automatically on your page/post. If not, clear your cache. Check our DEMO Here About your Google Maps API 3 steps to get your Google MAPS API in 3 steps First, you need a Google Account (Gsuite, Gmail, …) Then, you have to enable 4 APIs :”Places API, Maps Javascript API, Geocoding API and Directions API”. Click HERE. You will have to “Select” or “Create” a project (If it’s a new project, then give it a name). You should see this (screenshot). If not, then it means that you are not connected to your Google account). Give a name to your API KEY and define KEY (screenshot) and API (screenshot) restrictions. Copy your API KEY (here) and paste it to Wp Google Street View setting page. Not sure? Check HERE (video) or HERE for more details. Final step; you have to enable “billing” HERE. But don’t panic! Google provides a Free TRIAL credit of 300$, by default, which is enough (by far) for any website (again, to prevent abuses). Check HERE for more details. We understand that creating a Google Maps API key (or all these steps) could be frustrating but it’s absolutely required by Google to keep using their features. Local SEO booster Wp Google Street View plugin allows you to add a Local business schema to make it easier for search engines to identify what type of organization you are and what you do. Adding Local Business markup to your website translates your human-readable content into the machine-readable language of JSON-LD, which is a helpful way to help optimize your website for local SEO, as it’s a major ranking factor. Give your visitors a high-quality experience on your website The WP Google Street View plugin helps bridge better connections between businesses and customers and there is a lot businesses can offer their buyers by embracing this technology on their website. Super easy to use, no coding required! Responsive maps Create or add your own map theme Full screen map functionality Define your own width, height and zoom level for your map Add animations to your map markers! Google Maps Autocomplete Google Maps Transport, traffic, and bicycle Layers Compatible with caching plugins Compatible with Cloudfare Latest Google Maps API (Maps Javascript API, Places API, Geocoding API, Directions API) Add descriptions, links and images to your map markers. Add different marker icons, or your own icons to make your map really stand out! Show your visitor’s location on the Map About the publisher WP Google Street View is developed by Pagup, a digital readability firm based in Quebec, Canada. Embedding a verifiable physical location on your website is a concrete signal that helps both humans and AI systems establish trust and disambiguate your organization from others with similar names. This is particularly relevant for local businesses, professional firms, and organizations where brand disambiguation is a structural concern. Part of the Pagup ecosystem pagup.com — Digital readability firm. Diagnostic, semantic architecture, AI governance. gautierdorval.com — Doctrine, canonical definitions, interpretive governance research. interpretive-governance.org — Formal versioned standard for interpretive governance. wpstreetview.com — Documentation and resources for WP Google Street View.