You must have a Google Place ID and a Google Places API key in order to use this plugin properly. Do not confuse these two keys; they are different from one another.
Google Place ID #
First, you’ll need Google Places ID. This key is the identification of your business on Google Business Profile. It should look like something like this ‘ChIJrWMntBENCDsRaVhpSUMVOCI’
Method 1 #
- Navigate to https://developers.google.com/places/place-id
- Search for your company name
Sometimes this method doesn’t work and fails to show your business. In that case, use method 2 to view the place ID within the Google Map code
Method 2 #
1. Navigate to www.google.com
2. Search for your business on Google
3. Right-click “Write a review”
4. In firefox choose “Inspect Element“ and in Chrome, choose “Inspect“
5. Locate “data-pid” as indicated below. (This portion is a little tricky, but simply search for data-pid= inside the <a> tag
6. Copy the characters within the quotes (as shown above). You now have your google Places ID. Paste this somewhere you can easily find it.
Google Places API key #
1. Navigate to console.cloud.google.com/apis/dashboard and Go to your Google Console dashboard
2. Select your existing project or create new
3. Wait for the project to create and then click ‘ENABLE APIS AND SERVICES‘:
4. Type ‘Places API‘ in the search area, select the first result ‘Places API‘ and click ‘ENABLE‘ button:
5. Click “Credentials” on the sidebar and Click “CREATE CREDENTIALS”
6. Click ‘API Key’ to create a new API Key
7. Copy & paste the API key to the plugin’s settings
You may need to enable Google Billing if you’re creating a new account. It’s mandatory to use the API key. Don’t worry it won’t cost you anything, Google is currently giving $200 free credit a month and it should be enough to use the plugin for connecting several Google places without additional fees except this free $200 credits. Go to https://console.cloud.google.com/project/_/billing/enable, select your recent created project and click ‘CREATE BILLING ACCOUNT‘
