Locator Upgrade - Wordpress CMS Steps
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Store finder pages on WordPress
Search engines and AI assistants often cannot see your store finder. When they visit the page, your stores are not on it yet: they only appear later, on the visitor's screen. So your stores can be missing from search results and from the answers AI assistants give.
After these steps, every store finder page arrives with its stores already on it, with names, addresses and opening hours. Search engines and AI assistants can find each of your stores and show it. Your visitors see the store finder as usual.
It works for a store finder already on your site and for a new one. It takes four steps, all in your WordPress admin.
What you need
- WordPress 6.0 or newer, on PHP 7.4 or newer
- Administrator access to your WordPress admin
- The Uberall Store Finder plugin, a zip file from Uberall. Zip file here
- Your render token, from Uberall
Your locator key, from Uberall. If the store finder is already on your site, it is the data-key of its snippet:
<div id="store-finder-widget" data-key="YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY"></div>Step 1: Install the plugin
In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins, Add New Plugin, Upload Plugin. Choose the zip file, click Install Now, then Activate.
Step 2: Add your render token
Go to Settings, Uberall Store Finder, paste your token and click Save Changes.
The token stays on your server. Visitors never see it.
To keep the token out of the database, you can put it in wp-config.php instead, above the line /* That's all, stop editing! */:
define( 'UBERALL_RENDER_TOKEN', 'YOUR_RENDER_TOKEN' );One of the two is enough.
Step 3: Put the store finder on its page
Open the page for your store finder in the editor, add a Shortcode block with this, and replace YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY with your locator key:
[uberall_store_finder key="YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY"]Click Update. Each store gets its own address under the page, such as /store-locator/l/berlin/....
If the store finder is already on your site, remove its snippet, the store-finder-widget div and its storeFinderWidget-v2.js script. It is usually in a Custom HTML block on the page, or sometimes in your theme. The shortcode puts the store finder there itself. If its addresses have #! in them today, this removes it.
If your snippet has data-language or data-widgetoriginurl
Add the same values to the shortcode:
| Your snippet has | Add to the shortcode |
data-language="de" |
language="de" |
data-widgetoriginurl="https://www.example.com/store-locator" |
widgetoriginurl="https://www.example.com/store-locator" |
With both, it reads:
[uberall_store_finder key="YOUR_LOCATOR_KEY" language="de" widgetoriginurl="https://www.example.com/store-locator"]Without widgetoriginurl, the store finder uses the page's own address.
If you added a rewrite rule for the store finder to your theme's functions.php, to remove #! from its addresses, you can remove it. The plugin does the same.
Step 4: Check
Open your store finder in the browser, right click, and choose View page source. Search the source for __ubSfSsr. If you find it, it works.
Then open one of your stores and copy its address into a new tab. The store's page should open, with the store's name as the page title.
If it does not work
| What you see | What to do |
| The admin says the plugin "needs a permalink structure other than Plain" | In Settings, Permalinks, choose Post name and save |
| The admin says the plugin "has no render token yet" | Add the token, as in step 2 |
A store's page, such as /store-locator/l/berlin/..., says "Not Found" |
In Settings, Permalinks, click Save Changes once, and check that the page is published |
The source ends with no server render (no token)
|
Add the token, as in step 2 |
The source ends with no server render (declined: unauthorised)
|
The token is not the one Uberall gave you. Paste it again |
The source ends with no server render (request failed)
|
Your server cannot reach Uberall. Ask your host to allow outgoing HTTPS to uberall.com
|
The source ends with another no server render (...), or __ubSfSsr is not there |
Contact Uberall, with that line |
An old link with #! in it opens the store finder's main page |
The store's page is at the same address without #!
|
The store finder keeps working in every case. If Uberall cannot send the content, because it cannot be reached, does not answer in time or answers with an error, the page loads without it, and the store finder appears on the visitor's screen as usual. The next visit tries again.
Page caches work as usual: a page with its stores on it is cached like any other page, and one without them is never cached.
FAQ
What is the zip file?
A standard WordPress plugin built by Uberall. Inside are three small files: the plugin itself, a readme, and an uninstall script that removes the plugin's saved settings if the customer deletes it.
What problem does it solve?
Today the store finder is built in the visitor's browser by JavaScript. When Google or an AI assistant visits the page, the stores often aren't there yet, so individual locations can't be indexed, ranked or cited.
What does it actually do?
When someone opens a store finder page, the plugin asks Uberall for that page already filled in and inserts it before WordPress sends the page out. The page arrives with each store's name, address and opening hours, plus a proper title, description, canonical link, social sharing tags and structured data (schema).
Why does it matter for the customer?
Locations that search engines and AI assistants can't see can't show up in search results or AI answers. The plugin delivers that visibility on WordPress without the customer needing a developer.
Does the customer enter their token in the file?
No. This is the most common misunderstanding. The customer installs the zip unchanged, then enters their values in the WordPress admin. The token is provided separately.
What do you need before starting?
The following:
- WordPress 6.0 or newer, on PHP 7.4 or newer
- Administrator access to their WordPress admin
- A permalink structure other than Plain (Post name works)
- The zip, their render token and their locator key
Do you need a developer?
Usually not. Every step happens in the WordPress admin. A developer or host may be needed only to edit wp-config.php, remove a snippet from a theme, or allow outgoing connections to uberall.com.
What is the extra check?
After the switch, only the settings saved at Uberall apply. Settings set on the page itself stop working, specifically:
- data- attributes on the store finder div, other than data-key, data-language, data-countries and data-widgetoriginurl
- window.ub_ settings in the page or theme, such as window.ub_components or window.ub_messages
- settings passed to UberallStorefinderMount or UberallStorefinderRestart, other than withoutMap
If the customer has any of these, they send them to Uberall to be saved first. Until then, they leave the page as it is; the store finder keeps working as today.
How quickly do changes show?
A change at Uberall, to stores or store finder settings, takes a few minutes to show. If the site uses a page cache, it shows once the cache refreshes that page.
Does it work with page caching?
Yes. Pages with stores are cached normally. Pages that came back without stores are kept out of caches that respect WordPress's no-cache signals, so the next visit tries again. If a host or CDN cache ignores those signals, exclude the store finder's addresses, such as /store-locator/*.