At WP Go Maps, performance is a core design principle. We have already heavily optimized the plugin out-of-the-box by leveraging advanced techniques like database indexing, efficient spatial data storage, resource caching, and highly optimized database queries.
However, every website has different hosting environments, user demographics, and unique mapping needs (especially when dealing with thousands of dynamic markers). This guide outlines the key tools and settings available within the plugin to help you further dial in and maximize performance for your specific use case.
Core Performance Settings #
Core performance settings to optimize how data and resources are managed on your website.
Batch Loading #
This setting controls how large sets of markers are loaded on the map, by default all markers are always loaded when a map initializes, however you can control this for your site.
- Location: Maps > Settings > Advanced > Optimization > Batch Loading
- Function: Instead of attempting to load, for example, 2,000 markers onto the map all at once (which can cause a temporary browser hang), this feature loads the data in smaller, manageable batches (e.g., batches of 100) in the background.
- Benefit: This ensures the map remains responsive and the end-user experience feels faster, as the data loads progressively.
Defer Loading (Scripts) #
- Location: Maps > Settings > Advanced > Optimization > Defer Loading
- Function: When enabled, all non-critical mapping-related JavaScript assets are deferred (their loading is postponed) until after the primary page content has loaded.
- Benefit: This significantly improves the initial reported page load speeds (measured by tools like Google PageSpeed Insights) by ensuring mapping scripts do not block the rendering of critical content.
User Location Precision #
This setting manages the speed vs. accuracy of identifying the user’s current location.
- Location: Maps > Settings > Advanced > Behaviour > User Location Precision
- Default: High Precision (Slow)
- Produces highly accurate location data, but requires more time and resources, which can feel slow to the end user.
- Recommended for Speed: Low Precision (Fast)
- Produces an approximate location (usually accurate enough for store locators) but generally happens instantly on all devices.
Developer & Editor Optimizations #
Tools to optimize workflows or editor based actions that might impact performance, usage costs, or query modes.
Reduce Editor Geocoding #
This tool is designed to save you resources when editing markers.
- Location: Maps > Settings > Advanced > Editor > Reduce Editor Geocoding
- Function: When a marker already has Latitude and Longitude data, enabling this option tells the map editor to skip the geocoding lookup (address-to-coordinate conversion).
- Benefit: This significantly reduces the impact on your third-party geocoding service providers and allows you to quickly change the visible Address field without internally editing the stored lat/lng coordinates.
Marker Field Query Mode #
While this setting has minimal performance impact, it modifies the search logic for marker fields.
- Location: Maps > Settings > Advanced > Other Settings > Marker Field Query Mode
- Function: By default, marker field search may return partial text matches. You can adjust this setting if you prefer to enforce exact matches for search queries.
Marker Listing Performance #
Marker Listings (especially those handling thousands of entries) have dedicated settings to manage client and server load.
All of these settings are located within Maps > Settings > Marker Listings
DataTables – Only Search on Enter #
- Location: Table Settings > Only trigger DataTable search on Enter/Return key
- Function & Benefit: Only applies to Advanced Marker Listings (Datatables). Prevents the search from running on every keystroke (key up), which reduces the continuous server load and improves responsiveness.
DataTables – Performance Search Mode #
- Location: Table Settings > Enable Datatables performance search mode
- Function & Benefit: Ignores non-critical database columns and marker fields during searches, speeding up the search query execution.
DataTables – Disable #
- Location: Table Settings > Do not enqueue datatables
- Function & Benefit: Dependency Management. Disables the enqueuing of the external Datatables library. Only enable this if your theme or another plugin already loads Datatables to avoid conflicts and unnecessary resource loading.
Carousel – Dependencies #
- Location: Carousel Listings > Do not enqueue owl carousel/theme
- Function & Benefit: Dependency Management. Allows you to remove the OwlCarousel library from the listing dependencies if your site already loads an alternative carousel library.
Database & Maintenance Tools #
Performance Indexes #
- Location: Maps > Settings > Danger Zone > Performance > Add Indexes
- Function: Clicking this adds additional key indexes to critical WP Go Maps database tables.
- Benefit: While our default tables are already heavily optimized, these extra indexes can further improve query times, particularly for complex text-based searches across large datasets.
System Health – Resolve Coordinates #
This tool addresses rare data integrity issues.
- Location: Maps > Settings > Danger Zone > System Health Tools > Resolve Coordinates
- Function: This tool identifies and resolves any missing spatial data (the underlying geographical data used for fast, location-based queries).
- Benefit: Spatial data can be lost in rare cases if an import doesn’t complete properly or if a site backup/restore tool doesn’t fully support spatial data. This tool rebuilds the data from the source coordinates.
Remove Duplicate Markers #
- Location: Maps > Tools > Utilities > Duplicate Markers > Remove Duplicate Markers
- Function: This utility scans your marker database and removes any entries that have exact coordinate matches.
- Benefit: Maintaining a clean database ensures that search queries are faster and prevents redundant data from being loaded onto the map.
Hide Markers Until Search is Complete #
This is a critical feature for high-volume marker sets.
- Location: Maps > Edit your map > Settings > Store Locator > Advanced > Hide all markers until a search is done
- Function: Enabling this does more than simply hide markers; it prevents them from being loaded onto the map initially. The markers are only queried and displayed once a Store Locator search is performed by the user.
- Benefit: This is essential for websites with 10,000 markers or more, as it only loads the data relevant to the small geographical region of the search, dramatically reducing initial load time.
Find Maps #
- Location: Maps > Tools > Utilities > Find Maps > Start Search
- Function: This utility triggers a site-wide scan for all placed WP Go Maps shortcodes and blocks.
- Benefit: While not a performance tool, it’s a vital workflow tool, allowing site administrators to efficiently recall and verify where all map components are located across their site.
Marker Caching #
Our Gold Add-on includes a powerful dedicated map caching system. This feature allows the map data to be loaded from a static cache file rather than being dynamically generated via a complex database query on every page load. This process can heavily reduce initial map load times.
