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With that in mind, we understand the importance of giving visitors everything they need. This can take many different forms – and sometimes it even includes the weather forecast.
If you run outdoor events, sell seasonal products, or operate in the tourism and hospitality industry, then adding weather information to your website can be a game-changer. Instead of sending visitors to a third-party service or site, you can display the forecast directly on your own WordPress website.
The only obstacle is finding the right weather plugin.
In this Location Weather review, we’ll dive into the plugin’s features, support options, and pricing. By the end, you’ll know whether it can enhance your site with the accurate, detailed weather information that your audience needs.
That said, let’s dive into this Location Weather review.
Location Weather Review: Why Use It in WordPress?
Location Weather is a popular WordPress weather plugin that can display an unlimited number of weather forecasts on your WordPress website.
Using this plugin, you can show real-time weather information for a specific location. To do this, Location Weather uses the OpenWeatherMap API to get the latest wind speed, temperature, air pressure, visibility, humidity, and other information.
You can then create weather views for as many locations as you want, and tweak the settings for each view.
In this way, you can can create forecasts with different background colors, WordPress typography, weather icons, and other styles. You can also change the information that Location Weather shows in each view, to provide visitors with exactly the information they need.
If you’re just getting started or have a limited budget, then you can download the lite version of Location Weather from WordPress.org.
With this free plugin, you can create as many weather views as you want, simply by typing in the city’s name or ID, the ZIP code, or geographical coordinates. Location Weather will then show the real time forecast for that exact location.
The free plugin comes with a limited number of layouts and templates, so you can create a professionally-designed view, fast. However, if you upgrade to the premium plugin then you can choose between 4 layouts and over 17 templates. You can also automatically detect the visitor’s location using their IP address, and then display the weather forecast for their local area.
The premium plugin can also display additional weather data such as high and low temperature values, the UV index, dew point, air quality, the chance of snow, plus the moonrise time and moon phase.
Location Weather Review: Is It the Right Weather Plugin for You?
If you run a website in the travel, event, hotel, bed & breakfast, or similar industry, then visitors may be interested in the weather forecast.
By displaying this information directly on your website, you can improve the user experience. This can also keep people on your site for longer, since they don’t need to leave in order to get the latest weather information.
With that in mind, in this Location Weather review we’ll see if it’s the right weather plugin for you.
1. Easy to Set Up and Use
Location Weather is designed with ease of use in mind. To start, you can install and activate it just like any other WordPress plugin.
Location Weather gets its forecast information from an online service called OpenWeather. That said, it needs an OpenWeather API key before it can display up-to-date forecasts. To make things easier, Location Weather provides a link that you can follow, in order to create an API key.
Simply follow the instructions to create your key and then add it to the plugin’s settings.
With that done, you can add a weather forecast to WordPress simply by typing in the location you want to use, such as a city, ZIP code, or even geographical coordinates.
After entering this information, just work your way through the display settings.
When you’re happy with how the view is set up, you can add it to any page, post, or widget-ready area using a shortcode that OpenWeather creates automatically.
2. Mobile Responsive Forecasts
According to our internet usage statistics, mobile internet traffic accounts for almost 55% of total web traffic. With that in mind, your forecasts should look just as good on smartphones and tablets, as they do on desktop computers.
The good news is that Location Weather is mobile-friendly by default. That said, all your weather views will look great and function correctly, no matter what device the visitor is using. In fact, if you use a horizontal layout then Location Weather will automatically switch to a vertical layout on smartphones and tablets.
3. Boost Conversions and Engagement
Location Weather’s forecasts can improve important metrics, including the average time spent on your website.
Some layouts and templates even have interactive elements, such as tabbed content and buttons that visitors can click to show more information. For example, if you accept online appointments, then people can explore the forecast for different days, in order to find the best time to visit.
Immediately, this increase the average time visitors spend on your site and may also reduce the bounce rate.
4. Create Unlimited Forecasts
Sometimes, you may want to display the forecast for multiple locations. For example, if you own a chain of outdoor adventure centers, then you can show the local weather on each center’s booking page.
In that case, you can create an unlimited number of views in the Location Weather plugin.
Each forecast has its own unique settings, so you can control how each view looks and the information it shows to visitors.
5. Supports Countless Locations
With Location Weather, you can set the forecast location by typing in the city name, ZIP code, or geographical coordinates.
Location Weather supports 200,000 cities from more than 230 countries and territories worldwide. That said, you can often simply type in the city you want to use.
If Location Weather doesn’t recognize the city name, then you can enter the coordinates instead.
No matter how you enter the location, you can add a custom location name. This will override the OpenWeatherMap location title, and will appear above the forecast on your WordPress blog.
Alternatively, you can completely hide the city or location name.
6. Auto Detect Visitor Location
Instead of displaying the forecast for the same area, Location Weather can figure out where visitors are using their IP address and then display the weather for their local area. This is particularly useful if you have an international audience or run a multilingual WordPress website that targets people all over the world.
After enabling this feature, Location Weather will trigger a browser popup asking visitors to share their location. If they agree, then Location Weather will automatically display the forecast for their local area.
7. Multiple Weather Layouts and Templates
With the lite version, you can display forecasts in a vertical or horizontal layout.
However, if you upgrade to the premium plugin then you’ll get access to 4 additional layouts: Tabs, Table, and Map.
No matter which layout you select, Location Weather will suggest multiple ready-made templates for your chosen layout.
In this way, you can quickly and easily style your weather forecasts, and display that information in a nice layout.
8. Additional Data Carousel
Do you want to display lots of information in a small amount of space? Then you’ll be happy to learn that Location Weather has a carousel view.
You can either add navigation icons so visitors can scroll through the forecast data manually, or set it to autoplay.
If you choose autoplay, then you can change the speed and add an optional display, to control exactly how fast the carousel scrolls. You can also enable stop on hover, so visitors can pause the carousel if they need to examine the forecast in more detail.
9. Customizable Forecast
With Location Wearher, you can fine-tune how the forecast view looks including changing the background color and text color. You can also add a customizable border or change the radius to create curved corners.
Do you use custom fonts on your WordPress website? Location Weather supports over 1500 Google Fonts, so you’ll have no problems styling the text to suit your company or personal branding, and WordPress theme.
You can also choose what information to include in the view. For example, you can hide or show the view title, location name, and weather icons.
You can also remove entire measurements from the forecast view, if visitors don’t need to know that information.
For example, if your visitors only care about the temperature and whether it’s likely to rain, then you might hide the UV index, dew point, and wind speed so you don’t overwhelm them with unnecessary information.
10. Color, Image, and Video Backgrounds
Location Weather gives you full control over the forecast background. To start, you can change the background color or create a gradient effect.
Alternatively, you can use a HTML5 or YouTube video as the background. This can help grab the visitor’s attention and make your forecasts really stand out.
Going further, Location Weather can change the background image automatically, to reflect the current conditions.
This will help visitors understand the current forecast at a glance. It’s also a simple way to make your content more dynamic and interesting, even for regular visitors.
11. Display Detailed Weather Information
Location Weather can display a range of data including the current temperature, humidity, wind speed and direction, precipitation, visibility, atmospheric pressure, UV index, sunrise and sunset times, and even moon phase.
It can also show national weather alerts.
Even better, you can choose exactly what information to include. When creating the view, simply click any switch to add or remove that information.
12. Daily or Hourly Forecast
Location Weather can display the daily weather forecast for up to 16 days. This is perfect if you offer bookings over several days, as customers can check the weather and pick the best time to book their event.
Alternatively, Location Weather can show a 3-hour forecast for up to 5 days (120 hours) or an hourly weather forecast for up to 4 days. For example, if you run a fitness blog then showing a detailed, hour-by-hour forecast can help readers plan their daily outdoor workout. They can avoid peak heat or rain times, dress appropriately, and even choose outdoor or indoor activities based on the predicted weather conditions.
Do you want to show as much information as possible? Then you can add the hourly and daily forecast to a tabbed layout, so visitors can choose their preferred view.
13. Multiple Animation Packs
Location Weather uses icons to represent various weather conditions. This helps visitors understand the forecast at a glance.
When creating a Location Weather view, you can choose between several built-in icon packs.
No matter which pack you choose, you can change the icon size and color, so it perfectly suits your WordPress theme.
14. Choose Between Multiple Units
People use different units of measurement around the world. To provide a good visitor experience, it’s important to use the units your audience are most familiar with. For example, you’ll typically want to use Fahrenheit for US visitors.
With that said, you can easily change the units that Location Weather uses for temperature, pressure, and wind speed.
Going further, you can display the temperature unit in both celsius and Fahrenheit, or Location Weather can try and auto-detect the visitor’s preferred temperature unit.
15. Multiple Time Formats
With Location Weather, you can choose between 12 and 24 hour formats when displaying your data. Alternatively, you can create a custom date format.
By default, Location Weather will attempt to auto-detect the time zone from your WordPress settings. However, you can override this and select a different time zone instead.
16. Display Forecasts Anywhere
When you’re happy with how the weather view is configured, you can add it to any page, post, or widget-ready area using the Location Weather block. For example, you can add it to the WordPress sidebar so it appears across your entire site.
If you’re using one of the newer, block-enabled WordPress themes, then you can add the weather forecast to any area of your site using the full-site editor.
This includes areas you can’t edit using the standard WordPress content editor, such as your site’s 404 page template.
Alternatively, you can use a shortcode that Location Weather creates automatically.
17. Remove OpenWeatherMap Disclaimer
By default, Weather Location will show a ‘Weather from OpenWeatherMap’ message below each forecast. However, you can easily remove this attribution if you’re worried it makes your site appear less professional.
You can also add an optional link to the OpenWeatherMap website, so visitors can learn more about the service that provides your weather information.
18. Support For Custom Fields
Do you use custom fields on your WordPress website?
Location Weather can display information from these custom fields. This allows you to create specific weather-related data points and then link them to different content such as posts, pages, or custom post types.
When creating a weather view, simply enable this feature and then type in the custom field keys you want to use.
19. Import/Export Tools
Do you run multiple WordPress websites, blogs, or online marketplaces? Then you may want to re-use the same view across multiple sites.
Instead of recreating each weather view manually, you can simply export them as a JSON file.
With that done, you can import the JSON file into any other website that has Location Weather installed. This can save you a ton of time and effort, compared to recreating all those weather views manually.
20. WordPress Multisite Compatible
Do you run a WordPress multisite network?
Then you’ll be happy to learn that Location Weather fully supports WordPress multisite.
21. Community and Professional Support
Location Weather is designed to be easy to use, with no coding needed. However, sometimes you might need extra help to get the most from this plugin.
If you prefer to find answers yourself, then Location Weather has detailed documentation on how to set up and use this popular plugin.
Here, you’ll also find in-depth guides on how to use Location Weather with other must have WordPress plugins such as WPML and Loco Translate, plus various page builders.
There’s also a blog with tips, advice, and best practices on how to use weather forecasts to grow your online business.
Beyond that, the Location Weather website has a ton of video tutorials, FAQs, and a detailed changelog, making it the perfect one-stop-shop for WordPress users.
If you want one-on-one help, then all the Location Weather plans come with professional support. Simply submit a ticket and the support team will get back to you as quickly as possible. Just be aware that Location Weather’s official hours are Monday-Friday, 9am-6pm (CST).
If you’re using the lite version of Location Weather, then you can post to the plugin’s forum on WordPress.org, and get answers to basic questions.
When posting to public support forums, it’s always a good idea to include as much information as possible, so the experts can understand your problem fully and post a helpful response. For more on this topic, please see our guide on how to properly ask for WordPress support.
Location Weather Review: Pricing and Plans
If you’re just getting started or have a limited budget, then you can download the lite version of Location Weather from WordPress.org.
With this free plugin, you can create as many views as you want. You can also display key information including the humidity, air pressure, and visibility, plus the sunrise and sunset times.
However, if you want to show more information, access the complete library of templates and layouts, and use other advanced features, then you’ll need to upgrade to a premium plan.
There are 3 plans to choose from. Unlike some other weather plugins, all 3 plans include the full set of features including hourly forecasts, a carousel layout, extra icon packs, and over 1500 Google Fonts.
These plans also come with 1 year of professional support and updates. The major difference, is the number of websites where you can use Location Weather:
- Personal. For $49 per year, you can install Location Weather on a single website.
- Business. For $99 annually, you can use Location Weather on up to 5 websites. That said, it’s a good choice if you run multiple sites such as several related blogs in an affiliate marketing network.
- Agency. Do you run a WordPress development agency? For $249 per year, you can install Location Weather on an unlimited number of websites.
Location Weather Review: Is It the Right Weather Plugin for You?
To sum up this Location Weather review, we’re confident that it’s a great weather plugin for WordPress. With this plugin, you can add real time forecasts to WordPress without any complicated set up or configuration.
You can create as many weather views as you want with the lite version of Location Weather.
However, with the premium version you can display additional weather data, access extra icon sets, unlock more templates and layouts, and access other advanced features. It also has a carousel layout that’s perfect for showing lots of information in a small amount of space.
We hope this Location Weather review helped you decide whether it’s the right weather plugin for you. Next, you may want to see our guide on how to create an email newsletter, or see our expert pick of the best web push notification software.
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