How to start an online directory website? You can build an online directory business in many ways and WordPress is by far the easiest platform to use to build your new directory website. The number of websites in the market is increasing day by day, and they continue to grow in number with the current scenario. But when people reminisce of directories, they get the first thought of Yellow Pages.
We are going to walk through the steps, one at a time, to ensure you can launch your directory website with WordPress. People require all the latest facilities at their disposal, and more or less, their wishes have been granted by these modern technologies. Depending on the site’s complexity, you can do this without consulting any programmers or designers.
Do you know how to begin? There is a step-by-step guide to give beginners and entrepreneurs a fast, foolproof guide to launch a Directory site website with WordPress without discussing it with programmers and designers. It will help you avoid all the mistakes that most people make while creating an online directory website. It satisfies the requirements of its users like a thing on a mission. So you can get started without wasting your time. Let’s know about this in detail.
It can easily turn any WordPress theme into a rocket-fast single-location business directory along with maps, user reviews and so much more. You can quickly build a Yelp or TripAdvisor clone by simple drag and drop. You’re a few clicks away from taking on the world’s biggest web directories. GeoDirectory is the only WordPress directory plugin that allows you to scale to millions of listings, thanks to our highly-optimized database structure and low queries. Step-by-step walk-through to start an Online Directory Site
We have divided the guide into a few steps. To get the ball rolling you will need a few things to be set up. Let’s start your own Business Directory Website in easy steps:-
- Find Your “Niche”
- Get domain and hosting
- Get a WordPress directory theme
- Focus on Geographical area
- Generate Content, Traffics & get paid for Listings
- Branding
- Set Your Plans & Pricing
- Promote Your Site
Since you were searching for how to START a directory website or, launch a directory site. I think you might want to get started ASAP by following the basic steps.
Table of content
1. Choose your Directory Niche
Initially you need to decide what type of directory website you want to build. You can build a yellow pages directory website. There are a few great websites that make this easy for you. Choose the best niche for your website. You can look this on Google and can easily browse competition.
2. Get Domain & Hosting
Looking for a suitable domain and reliable hosting is the second most important step. Let’s get to it. An easy way to research this is by looking at what people are searching for online. In this step you need to get a domain and set up a hosting account. If you don’t have a hosting or a domain yet – don’t worry. I’ll be going through this with you.
Make sure to get a reliable host which helps you in getting a lot of traffic & hundreds of business listings. Choose wisely as all the hosting companies do not have one-click install for WordPress.
Also Read: How Domain Name and Web Hosting Improves SEO Performance?
3. Get a WordPress Directory Theme
As we all know that a WordPress theme offers great flexibility – and is widely used all over the world. Customization is affordable and easier on WordPress as compared to any other platform. You can handle the customization by yourself if you are an advanced user.
We’ve made sure that based on your preferred niche you will be able to find the best theme for your site. That will save you time, energy and money that you might have to pay to developers for customization.
Get best WordPress Directory Theme- Reign GeoDirectory
Reign GeoDirectory is a complete commercial web directory theme containing information and offers free business listing to promote your goods and services. It is 100% Multisite compatible with an extensive new set of short codes.
You can build your listings website using our WordPress plugin and its templates, widgets and shortcode. It has eye-popping ready-made themes. Reign is updated, tested and is compatible with latest WordPress builds. Also it is fully ready for the Gutenberg content editor – now you can enjoy the latest WYSIWYG editor provided by WordPress and edit contents with ease.
This theme gives users the capability to create an Arabic, Persian or Hebrew website with Right to Left (RTL) support. Reign has inbuilt RTL feature which allows you to switch the style sheet to RTL within minutes. Moreover, this theme is compatible with the famous WPML multilingual plugin to help you create stunning multilingual websites. It also helps to create unlimited categories with ajax-loading custom markers WooCommerce support allows creating an eCommerce platform for building your online business.
4. Focus on a Geographical Area
It’s best to focus on a specific geographical area or region to start. To generate local traffic to your directory website you need to Focus on a specific town, city, county or even state which will help you start by appealing to both local consumers and local businesses.
It is the most cost-effective method and you will be able to focus all of your marketing efforts on a specific area rather than spreading yourself too thin trying to cover a large territory.
5. Generate Content, Traffic & Get Paid For Listings
A directory listing helps to attract customers. You won’t attract customers if there are no other listings there. You can use the visitor statistics with the help of your Google analytic tool to monitor traffic on your website.
You can easily define that your directory website is capable of generating traffic and getting paid for listings. And here you have created an Online Business out of WordPress Online Directory.
Also Read: Benefits and Steps of Business Listings
6. Branding
Branding helps to generate a clear message about your business. Branding creates credibility and motivates the buyer. It also creates loyalty among customers.
Branding benefits you to sell your site online is some other company is willing to purchase.
7. Set Your Plans & Pricing
Set your plan and focus on populating your directory, offering some free listings and generating traffic. As traffic increases, more businesses will be willing to pay for a premium listing. You can generate income from the businesses which are listed on your site.
Directory websites provide great opportunity to sell complimentary services such as web design, search engine marketing, print advertising, social media marketing and more. You can generate additional revenue by selling your own banner ads on the site or implementing Google AdSense.
Also Read: Steps To Add Google AdSense – Website Monetization
8. Promote Your Directory Website
Promoting your directory website is an important and never-ending process. It helps in running a successful directory website business. As the directory owner, you should always look for new ways to drive relevant traffic to your site and attract new advertisers.
Promoting your site should include both online and offline tactics including SEO, search engine marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, face-to-face selling, networking, promotional material, print advertising, blogging and much more. The more visitors you have coming to your site, the more valuable it is for businesses to advertise on your site.
Conclusion
The best part about WordPress is, it’s very simple and easy to understand. Installing themes is very easy. You can try using the above step by step theme installation guide to install WordPress directory themes for your site. It won’t take you more than 30 minutes to learn in and out about it. Hope this blog will help you out.
Interesting Read:
How To Manage An Online Community WordPress Website
