How can you build the Directory site with WordPress (Full Guide)

Jun 30, 2022
The Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Directory Website on WordPress

Some of them are among the most well-known directories. eBay, Yahoo, Facebook, Bing, Foursquare, and Yelp are just some websites that provide specific information on the many products and services available to our attention. A simple method of creating directories web sites that list nearly anything. There are many examples of residential real estate, local business, along with vehicles. Any way, there is a method to incorporate to it.

What exactly is a directory site?

Directory sites are website that present products and other products and services that are available to browse. To create one, it is necessary to utilize WordPress:

  1. Choose a niche
  2. Discover a method to earn money from your work
  3. You must be aware of the image your company has helped create.
  4. Design your directory's web site
  5. Use the main attributes to help

But as with any complex project, it is important to be sure that you're taking the proper path to ensure a smooth experience. This blog will walk you through the essential steps to take to create the perfect directories website:

Finding the best niche for you to create Your Directory Website

If you've decided to create a site, one of the things you should consider is:

What do you plan to include in the directories you create?

The steps below are what you must follow to determine the field that the directories you are recommending is specialist in.

Imagine what you'd want to advertise:

It is essential to determine which kinds of goods and services you're looking for as well as sectors and services you're looking for. If you start by thinking about this prior to the moment, it's easier to be more excited regarding this task. It will eventually be much easier to identify at least about four to five companies and verticals to use as the foundation for your research.

For instance, if you like dining out, or having dinner out with your loved ones, you'll be equipped to gain an understanding of the most well-known restaurants in your town or city as well as the varieties of foods they provide and their most well-known dishes.

This gives you all the information you need to use to begin with specific restaurants that you've got an excellent idea of instead of wasting time in other places.

Find out what else is looking for:

That's precisely what I'm talking about. You might be thinking about creating an online directory which allows clients to look for local builders. I've used Ahrefs to discover the keywords most frequently searched for (above 200 times each month) however they aren't the most popular (a difficult rating is given to keywords which have scores below 50). Below is a list of keywords that are used frequently:

Ahrefs result page for a given query
Ahrefs result page for a given query
  • Builders in my area
  • Fence builders have been around my community.
  • My area has builders who build homes.
  • Homes of builders to be sold in my neighborhood
  • Custom built home builders
  • Construction of homes by builders
  • Garage Builders
  • The Christmas builders season
  • Builders of pools in my area

You'll be aware of which keywords you should concentrate on to rank your site better. Furthermore, when you conduct this research and analysis, you'll be able to determine what types of builders being searched for by users. As an example it is possible to use the phrase "pool builders close to me" is among the most searched-for searches, and could be a good idea to incorporate into an entire section of your directory site.

Find out if there are websites which cater to your particular niche.

The first place on the list of longer-tail keyword is a fact. However, it will be ineffective if there are directories that provide the same. Search engine optimization tools can help you determine which terms are the best performing for these kinds of searches. Also, you can determine how popular each term is. If your term isn't overshadowed by numerous competitors, you've found the perfect market.

According to the Builders Directory  For instance, the builders directory. These are websites that rank very high in Google search results in the phrase "fence building."

Serp overview for directory website
Ahrefs serp overview

It's clear that there isn't a lot of builders' directory websites. In addition, the sites that appear among the top 10 do not offer a stunning Ahrefs score, which means we'll be able to beat them to the post. Sites, as long as we're attentive with regards to SEO.

Find companies that are capable of Use Your Directory Website:

When you've realized that there's a need for your services in the particular area you're specialized in, you should contact companies to find out if they're willing to pay for the services you offer. If you're developing an online database of properties for sale within New York, will real companies that are interested in real estate use the benefits of your site to market their properties?

It will be possible to get in touch with them later on, once your directory website is running well, but it's a good idea to keep them in mind in order to make sure they're aware whom you're from in case you have to reach them.

How to make money with Your Directory Website

Two strategies to make profits through your directory website within a matter of minutes

1. Pricing are applicable to Listings

The moment you do this is when you can make a charge for the privilege. The Premium Listings are listings that are in the top positions of results from searches (similar to Google results) and will never expire.

You can set the annual cost to those who consistently upload their material, or pay one-time costs for those who do not plan to publish large volumes of material.

2. Sell Advertising Space

Due to the (hopefully) many visitors to your site and your website, you'll have the opportunity to boost the amount income you make by offering relevant ads.

3. A subscription or a membership-based website

If your directory site is well-known for its data sources in the field that you're looking for , it's possible for the users and listers to gain access to your information.

Listers would like to have access to the huge amount of potential customers that go to your site. Therefore, they'll provide features like listings with dates to show expiry dates, or listings on the results on the page first.

In the same way, your customers might opt to subscribe for the most current deals on your website. It is also possible to allow visitors to browse your entire catalog, but only provide access to contact information to those who are a subscribed member.

Branding

When you are beginning to design your website , you need to create the strategy of branding.

It is your goal to attract the attention to the two kinds of clients seeking listing, and people who want marketplace listings. Thus, you should think of ways that you can attract the two types of customers.

The branding is the primary aspect of every company. It should include:

Install Your Directory Website

Before you start developing features or adding details to your directory website There are four main elements you'll need to set in your website.

1. Selecting the best site platform

There are many motives for why WordPress.org is the most suitable option for directory sites.

  • Numerous well-known sites like CNN utilize WordPress
  • Because of its growth due to its fame, you can enjoy the most extensive Open Source communities of developers editors writers, designers and authors of content.
  • WordPress has hundreds of themes and plug-ins that let you personalize your directory site
  • There are a variety of methods of integrating complicated functions that require no PHP code (we'll go over the steps in a moment)

2. Choose a reliable web host

As you're operating your own directory site that attempts to earn money and is seeing a continuous increase in visitors You'll require a reliable web host to ensure your site's security.

Web hosting is the real website's property, which websites are able to claim. In this "house," your web hosting service will host the entire website's data.

If you opt to choose the hosting company to host your directory site, it is essential to choose a hosting provider that will handle the high amount of visitors. Additionally, it will increase the speed of your website as well as have a demonstrated performance record in the event of downtimes.

My dashboard
My dashboard
  • The service is available all hours throughout the day, with an average response time of less than five minutes.
  • Faster loading of pages
 load time comparison
Comparative load-time comparison

3. Customize Your Website's Look with a beautiful theme

After you've got your WordPress site up and up and running, you need to decide the way it's going to look. The first thing to decide on is the design you want to use.

  • How often is it when the theme will be kept current?
  • Is it multi-lingual?
  • Can it bring you at the top of Google search results?
  • Are you sure it will be able to integrate with plugins?
WordPress plugins directory website
WordPress plugins directory homepage

4. Pick the right plugin to use Your Directory Website

The internet search engine for directory plugins will be sure to offer you an array of options. What is the most effective? The software you pick must be able to help with the development of the features you will need quickly and efficiently , helping your site shine.

I utilized Toolset Directory to create the directory on my site to showcase vehicles of the past, to serve as an example to follow for the remainder of the piece. I chose Astra for the main theme.

Example of a directory website built on WordPress
A directory site sample which was built using WordPress

I chose Toolset due to:

  • It comes with all of the options I need to create a directory, without the need for additional plugins
  • It's not necessary to utilize PHP to add these functions.
  • It could be utilized together with other plugins, like WooCommerce, Elementor, and WPML
  • This is an excellent method to deal with the most crucial subjects.

Before going over the various options be sure to follow the steps in installing the Toolset plugins as well in creating the directory website.

When we design the website, during the design process it is necessary to define the components that should be included for Directory Websites. Directory Website

The following is a listing of features I'll to look over that I created to my old websites about cars:

  • Posts that are custom-designed to meet your needs
  • Custom fields
  • Custom taxonomies
  • An excellent way to display your collection of items (classic automobiles in our example)
  • Find people to browse the cars of our guests.
  • The form on the front end allows customers to include their own listings.

There are many options you can incorporate into your directory, but as per the views of other people I've talked to I'm convinced that these are the top choices to get your website up and running.

Let's get started!

Design and customize Post Types

Custom post types let you design different sections on your website. WordPress includes two pre-defined sections: pages and posts. Naturally, we'll need to add a section specifically for cars with a vintage theme, and we'll have it available in the near future.

I've created a new posting type that I've named Listings it is where I showcase all my classic automobiles.

Custom post types in Toolset
Post types that are custom-designed are available in Toolset

1. If you're on the administrator page for WordPress Go to your Toolset page after which click to add a new kind of blog.

2. Incorporate these details into the Name and Description section:

Adding new post type in WorPress Toolset settings
The types of posts have been changed to Toolset

3. Click on "Save The Type Of Post" and the type of post you want to save is available.

Design Fields that include Custom Fields

Custom fields are used to preserve all the details about our listings. In the example above in the event that we list vintage cars and we'd love to provide our clients with every detail they'd like to learn about every single one.

It's crucial to be aware of the manufacturing year, the cost and the model, mileage and lots of other information. For the purpose of filling each piece of information it's necessary to create the areas that are distinct. So, we'll be required to fill out every line once we've updated our list and it'll appear at the top right area of the screen (once you've made your template, this is exactly that's what we'll do in the next few days).

Here are the steps to follow to use to design a field custom The Year of the Production:

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Production year as an example of custom field in Toolset
The year of manufacture is a visual representation of the Custom Fields within Toolset

1. From the Toolset dashboard, choose "Create" Field Group in the middle of your listings. Create a Custom Type for Posts.

2. The subsequent page needs to include an appropriate name for the area you are working in , as well as a a short explanation if it's necessary. The field I'm in is mine. field group that is used to list.

How to edit post field group in Toolset
What can I make to edit my Post field on the Toolset

3. Select the Add New Field Option. There are many kinds of fields you can add. For instance for instance, if you want to add the URL of the website you are on then you could select URL or to add an address, you'll use Address as well. If you want to add a telephone number, choose the phone. To show the year that was the year that the event took place. It is always displayed in order that it's optimal to choose the number.

How to add a new field in Toolset
What could I do to begin a completely new industry within Toolset

4. Enter the information required to the field you have made, including the field's name along with the Field Slug. The field I created is called the year of Production. The other fields aren't have any significance for this field.

How to add details to custom fields
What information can I add to fields I've created

5. Select to save the whole field and the customized field will show after you edit your blog post , in line with the post's type.

How custom fields are displayed on backend
Custom fields that are displayed in the backend

Create Custom Taxonomies

In my old car directories I've created taxonomies that represent all the types of vehicles I am listing. Below are the categories which will be displayed when I make changes to an existing listing page:

Custom taxonomies
Custom taxonomies

The way I came up with it:

1. Then, on dashboard on the toolbar Select the Add Custom Taxonomy button.

2. The Taxonomy's name in the title as well as in it's description:

How to add custom taxonomy
What should I do in order to include my taxonomy to my list that is distinctive?

3. The other part concerns taxonomy types. decide if you'd prefer to employ the taxonomy that's hierarchical or one-sided. one-sided taxonomy. Hierarchical taxonomy can be described as a kind of taxonomy, which could be Hierarchical taxonomy is an all-inclusive taxonomy that is used by parents (such as Italian food) as well as a set of taxonomies that children can use in addition with the taxonomy utilized by the parents (such like pizza, pasta and pizza and ice cream other such things). ).). However, the Flat taxonomy which is the title of a range of classes.

4. Pick the post type that you'd like to classify into taxonomies. This is an example where I've assigned these taxonomies to the who post content that is custom.

Taxonomy settings
Taxonomy set-up

5. Use the button to save your taxonomy

6. Then you can return to the post's kinds of post. If you alter the format of posts or design a new one, then you're able to start with the taxonomy related definitions.

7. In the Taxonomy Name category, click on the Taxonomy Name category, Select the option to create a New Taxonomy name] category.

8. You can input your name in the newly-created category. It is possible to select which category that you would like to use as a parent should the taxonomies you select for use aren't the hierarchical.

Taxonomy terms assigned to listings
Taxonomy terms are those used to identify listings

Use the checkboxes in order to add taxonomy words in your list.

The Example for Displaying All of our Products

When we've come up with our unique design, the next step is how to present it in the front end? For this, we'll develop templates for each of our listings.

That's how my car ranks at the top of all my lists of antique automobiles:

Website listings template example
Website listings template example

1. To access the Toolset Dashboard Click the Toolset Dashboard. Make a Template in the middle of your article you've written. The drag-and drop editor for Toolset for Layouts which lets us decide how we'd prefer to present the data.

Before moving on to the next step, we'll describe the Layouts System and also what are certain cell types that are needed.

Toolset Layout is based on the Grid created by Bootstrap which displays your site's pages with twelve columns and rows. For pages that need to show images in the left portion of your website it is necessary to choose the first six columns from the left.

How to set up layouts
How can you create designs?

The + symbol is used to add rows to the template.

In the event that you pick those cells you want to display content in There are two kinds of cells that can be employed for this specific purpose.

  • Your blog article for any additional content that is included in the article's body. For my blog entry I wrote about my previous automobiles, I'll include this section that will display the specifics of each vehicle which I have included in the editing screen.
Layout cells types
Types of cells, Layout cells, and Layout

We can now restart. We will continue to show how I designed the custom field for the year of production as shown in the image below from my template.

How to display custom fields with the Visual Editor
Custom fields are displayed with the Visual Editor

2. Choose the column your cell would like to to fill. In my case , I picked four columns.

3. After that, you'll be able to see the Layout cell types that you already know how to use. Choose to open the visually editor.

4. Click on the view and the field that you'll be taken to the list of shortcodes that we could use. Locate the field's title in the custom field list (in my example, Field Group for listing) and click Year of production.

Fields and views shortcodes
Shortcodes that allow access to fields and views

5. Click to insert a shortcode.

6. The editor's editor is a shortcode inside the cell. The user now can see the year that was the produced of the car they've selected. But now we need to include a brief description of the year to ensure that users know of the year that it is referring to. I've entered the year for the production and a little HTML to make it appear. I've put the shortcode on the picture below to let you know what is it:

Production year being added with shortcode and some HTML
The year of production is included in the shortcode, along with HTML

7. Simply press for the button to insert and the cell is completed.

The way it looks on the front, following some CSS layout:

How the custom field is displayed on the frontend
The way in which the custom field will be shown on the frontend

Find a way to look at

You can create an online tool that incorporates multiple filters to help users in finding exactly the information they're seeking.

The search is one I have included on my website for directories of classic cars. I've added six filters which you can see above in the search bar.

Search feature with filters
The search function has filters and

The first question is What is the most appropriate spot where your results can be displayed? This can be done in a widget that could be placed either on your homepage, or to the site of your business as an embedded widget or perhaps as an archive.

I've added my own personal search feature on the home page. This is how I accomplished it:

1. In the Toolset tab, select the Layouts tab. Create a new layout and then press the button to allow you to place cells.

2. Choose one cell in view cell. cell view cell

Search results page layout
Layout of the page for displaying the results of a web search

3. Select the option to show your results as your own Search option. Then, click Create.

4. On the selector for content Choose the website you'd like to browse through. In my example I'll choose to browse through the sorting kind of blog posts.

5. Within the Custom Search settings Custom Search settings Select the option that you want to utilize to update your search results. For example, you could select AJAX Update (update the result of your search without the necessity to refresh your website) as well as other choices.

Custom search settings
Custom search settings

6. The area that is called "Search tab" together with Pagination beneath Search and Pagination in the area referred to as Search tab, you have the ability to add filtering options to the search. These users may use to limit their outcomes. This could be customized fields, taxonomies or post-relationships. One example is a customized field which I used onto my price custom field to create an minimum price and the most expensive price choice for my study. Select the filter you want to include and search for the field you'd like select (in my example the Price field is). In this case, it's the price).

Add new custom search filters as shortcodes
Create new search filters that are specific to your specific needs using shortcodes

7. The next page will change to the following page after which the choices will be similar to those in the image below and click to add your shortcode. The image below shows how Search as well as the Pagination will appear after having applied my filters. They look great right out of the box, but I've added CSS and HTML to modify the look of the page.

Search and pagination with filters and HTML
Filters, filters, and search as well as HTML

8. Enter into the submit button to create the button people can be in a position to click for result.

9. Click Reset to enable an option to allow users to reset their filter settings.

Our research will begin soon. Only thing left to do now is plan the research results.

Create the Search Results

It's possible that we have made our own personalized search. However, it's still essential to select how results of the search will be displayed. This can be done this on the web page which you have designed to support your results.

Below the search function as well as pagination It is possible to discover an area called Loop Editor which lets us design an output from the result.

The loop editor
The loop editor

1. Use to use to use the Loop Wizard. Utilize the Loop Wizard and select how you want to display the loop. For the Classic Cars Directory website, I made the decision to utilize my personal Grid created using Bootstrap with four columns as what I would like to display as the end product.

The loop wizard window
The window that shows the loop wizard

2. In the next section we will be able to apply filters in the output as an element of the result. The following are filters that I added on my vintage automotive directory site.

Setting up filters for the search results
Results of a search that are sortable

3. Click to close. Then, you'll be visible to the area within the edit loop.

How the loop editor looks with fields
The person who edits the loop seems to be similar to the fields

4. Make sure to click to save the view towards the bottom of this page.

5. Just click Save the Layout. It's accessible on the front-end.

Here's how mine appears:

Search layout example
A search layout example

Make a Front-End form

Front-end forms are an excellent method for users to post their listing in the format and style they would like. The only thing users need to do is fill out the form, and then display their listings at the front-end.

Here's a sample design that I designed to build my classic car directory website:

Front-end form example
Front-end Form Example

In the event that an application user is able to submit their application successfully, here is the method displayed on the front end:

Cars listing template example
Template for listing cars

This is how I accomplished this:

1. Click Toolset, then click Add Formulas. Click "Add New".

2. A Toolset Wizard appears. A Toolset Wizard appears. to continue after which you can select a name for the arrangement.

3. In the settings section, users will be allowed to enter the required information to submit the form. It is possible to choose which listing visitors see after they've completed the form. It is also possible to select whether your listing will be fast-published or published in the form of an incomplete draft. You can also choose when your listing is scheduled to expire. That's what I picked to be my default selection:

Display options for your front-end form
Display option for front-end Form
Form editor fields
Formula editor fields

5. The final step allows users modify the email messages that users and administrators who register at the directory's website get upon registration. This is an example that I designed to inform the administrator of the directory about the fact that the post has been examined and is now active.

Email notifications settings page
Email notifications settings page

You can also forward an email to multiple recipients If you wish.

6. The next thing to do is display your form on the front end. As with other pages it will display the form in the cell of one of my Layouts. Go to the tab Layouts within Toolset to design the Layout completely from scratch following the link to insert cells.

7. Pick the Formula cell and then click on Start. Formula cell, then click to start a cell..

Save your layout and then you'll be able to look at your layouts on the front end.

Summary

There are a variety of features, including areas for membership, maps as well as similar listings that you can add in your directory site. They are, however, those you should begin with in the shortest amount of time that you have the ability to.

What do you think is the best way to build directories? We'd love to hear from you. Tweet us at @ @We'll send you ideas that will be insightful! You can also send us your ideas by leaving comments.

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