How to Add a Store Locator to Any Website (Free, No Plugin)

Every multi-location business eventually needs the same page: a customer types a postcode and sees which branch, shop, or dealer is closest, with a button that opens directions. This guide shows the fastest free way to build that page, and why it does not require a plugin, an API key, or a developer.

The whole system is a Google Sheet with your locations in it, and one line of embed code on your site. Change the sheet, the locator follows.

What a Store Locator Actually Needs

A map with pins is not a locator. Watch someone use one on their phone in a car park: they type where they are, expect the nearest locations sorted by distance, and want a directions button that opens their maps app with the destination loaded. Search, sort, directions: that is the whole job.

Most solutions to this are either heavy (WordPress plugins that want a Google Maps API key with billing enabled) or subscription tools that hold your location data in their dashboard, at $25 to $79 a month. The spreadsheet route below keeps the data in a sheet you already own.

The Five-Minute Build

Step 1. Put your locations in a Google Sheet: one row per location, a name column and an address column. If you only have addresses, paste them into the free batch geocoder and click map it, which does the sheet part for you.

Step 2. Install the free InstaMaps add-on (Extensions, then InstaMaps) and create your live map from the sheet.

Step 3. On the map, choose Share, then Store locator embed. Copy the one-line iframe snippet.

Step 4. Paste it into any page on your site. That page is now a working locator with search, find-my-nearest, and directions.

There is a live demo of the exact embed, with a working search box, on the store locator page.

Platform Notes: Where to Paste the Snippet

WordPress and WooCommerce: add a Custom HTML block to your page and paste. No plugin, no shortcode. Full walkthrough: WooCommerce store locator.

Shopify: create a Find Us page, switch to the code view, paste. No app install: Shopify store locator.

Wix: Add Elements, Embed Code, Embed HTML: Wix store locator.

Squarespace: add a Code Block (Business plan or above, which is Squarespace's rule for all embeds): Squarespace store locator.

Keeping It Updated (the Part That Usually Rots)

Locator pages die when updating them requires a developer. Here the update path is: open the sheet, edit a row. A closed store disappears from the locator, a new opening appears, an address fix relocates the pin. Whoever runs operations can own it, because it is just the spreadsheet they already use.

If your locations come from other people, every InstaMaps map also has a Collect Link: dealers or franchisees submit their own name and address and appear as pins, so onboarding a location becomes forwarding a link.

Common Questions