Wondering how to build a business directory in WordPress? We'll show you how in this step-by-step tutorial. With the right tools, it's not as hard as you think!
Many people think there’s no need to create a business directory in WordPress.
But, when 97% of people look up local companies using the internet. And that includes directories. So, business directories are still alive and well.
But that leads to how to build a business directory in WordPress. And that’s exactly what we’ll show you in this step-by-step guide.
So, let’s get started.
👉 Read more: Need a WordPress custom application plugin?
What is a WordPress business directory?
A business directory is a list of businesses visitors can search through to find the information they’re looking for.
It’s like having a Yellow Pages, only online and with more information.
Whether a list of local businesses or international, real estate, or anything in between, having a web directory is a great way to get traffic to your WordPress website.
But, how to create a directory website is a little more complicated. Do you use a WordPress directory theme? How do you set custom fields?
Luckily, you can solve this with a simple business directory plugin.
And Formidable Forms is that plugin.
How do I create a web directory for my business?
To start, you want to install and activate the Formidable directory plugin.
With Formidable’s drag-and-drop builder, you can easily create a directory website you’re proud of.
Head over to our directory plugin pricing page and grab the plugin. You’ll see a subscription, but you get a lot for that price. Not only do you get everything the Formidable directory offers, but you also get everything the Formidable plugin offers.
Plus, there’s a 14-day money-back guarantee. Try it out, and get your money back if you don’t like what you’re using. No questions asked.
Once you’re set-up, the fun begins!
Here are the steps to follow:
- Set up the directory add-on
- Follow the Directory setup wizard
- Check the auto-generated forms & pages
Step 1: Set up the directory add-on
After installing the plugin, go to your WordPress admin, Formidable → Add-Ons, and click Install on the Directory plugin.
Next, go to Formidable → Global Settings → Directory, and you’ll see the Formidable Directory setup wizard.
Follow the wizard to set up your directory.
Step 2: Follow the Directory setup wizard
So, now we’re going to start building the forms, Views, and pages you need for your business directory website.
In the setup wizard, choose the Business option. On this same page, you can add your page name and your directory page name.
Step 3: Check auto-generated forms & pages
Last, you’ll want to check your auto-generated pages before you publish them. They’ll be saved as drafts by default when using the setup wizard.
Click on the View Page button to visit your business directory listing page.
You can check your other pages if you’d like, or you can publish them, and you’re good to go!
And that’s how to create an online business directory website in WordPress.
🤔 Did you know?
You can also use our sister plugin Business Directory to easily create directories of all kinds!
Take your website up a level with Formidable Forms
As you can see, making a business directory with Formidable Forms is pretty straightforward.
And that’s because it’s one of the best WordPress plugins around. And we think 300,000+ active users proves that!
But, it’s also the features you get that take it up. Here are some of the top features:
- Views. Use form data to build websites. When a business owner fills out a form, Formidable generates their listing & profile pages.
- Free and paid listings. Whether you want to show listings for free or make a little extra income, the choice is yours.
- Top-notch support team. Having troubles on your site? Most other plugins don’t offer great support. That’s not the case with Formidable Forms. We’re here to help.
What's included with the Formidable directory plugin?
With the Formidable directory plugin, you get everything in Formidable Forms, plus the directory builder add-on.
Swing by the directory pricing page, and you'll see you can choose from two plans: Business or Elite.
Formidable Forms by itself includes a lot: every form building feature you could ask for, plus all the integrations you need to build your directory site. The directory builder add-on makes building directory listings sites a simple affair.
Although this is not a free WordPress directory plugin, as the old saying goes: you get what you pay for.
Take a look at the WordPress.org plugin directory. You'll see there are free solutions available, but none allow for paid listings.
But, how flexible Formidable is what makes it worth the price.
Create business directory websites that get visitors
We mentioned earlier that Formidable's directory builder could help you build your directory site automatically.
This is true no matter what type of directory you are building. However, Formidable includes three specific directory templates:
- Business directory
- Team directory
- User directory
Since we are learning how to create a business directory, let's see what's included if you choose that option. Here's what's included with a Formidable business directory:
- Embedded maps
- Reviews & ratings
- Listing owner contact
- Customizable forms & styles
- Front-end submissions
- Paid or free listings
- Multi-page listing submission form
The truth is there's actually a lot more included than that, but if we listed it all, we would run out of space quickly!
Other layout options for your business directory
By itself, the Formidable directory plugin makes it easy to submit listings and display them in a grid style.
But what if you’d prefer another layout? Like a table layout for your WordPress directory.
You can quickly grab the Posts Table Pro plugin and connect it with Formidable. The two work hand-in-hand to make your directory listings searchable, sortable, and filterable. For huge directories, this is essential.
Ultimately, you get complete control over what to display and how to display it.
What about a WordPress theme?
Many people opt to use a WordPress theme to solve their problems simply.
But, we think this is a bad idea. Why? Let us explain:
- Lack of support: WordPress themes don’t have great support. It’s not a big deal if you buy a well-known theme, like Astra. But smaller, more niche themes could leave you hanging.
- Plugin compatibility: Plugin conflicts are as common as the sun rising. It’s better to find something that’s stable and has broad compatibility. Fewer conflicts, fewer headaches.
- Not updated often: Themes don’t change a whole lot. Even the best ones are only updated a few times a year. Ultimately, you’re stuck with what you get, including any issues you may have.
For these reasons, if you choose a theme, choose something tried and tested.
But, to avoid all these issues, we recommend using a business directory plugin because it checks all the boxes above and more.
And the best of these is Business Directory.
Wrapping up
And that’s all it takes to create a business directory website in WordPress. Pretty simple, huh?
With this post, you learned how to build a business directory website in WordPress and why Formidable Forms is the best tool to help you get the job done.
If you enjoyed this article, let us know your thoughts in the comments.
And, if you’re on social media, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for the latest WordPress tips and tricks!
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Steve,
Thanks for posting this tutorial.
However, I think it would be great if you dig a little bit more into details and make it more advanced. For example, I miss a Payment step if directory site is paid. And how to allow users to edit their entries while in paid period without prompting users to pay again (I don't believe people will submit once and forget. They might want to fine tune, etc. How to prevent double payment when people update entries during paid period?)
If you put more details like this one, I think it will be really helpful to your customers.
Good luck,
George
Love the tutorial, I hope to see many more coming in the future. While this is a great overview of the capabilities of formidable, I'd love to see more explanatory steps of how to design the view and the detail pages with screenshots and code.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks! This post was intended to be more of an overview, but more posts in the future will detail out how to customize and style a view.
One great thing about our demos, is that you can see all the code used to create them by clicking the "view code for this page" link. Or you can even download the xml file and import all the forms and views needed to replicate the demo on your own site.
Nice demo. It would be great to see the next page (actually same page dust next data) change via Ajax rather than the whole page. I actually thought your demo went on further until I realised it was the next rows of data.
I see your point. I have changed my views to only show 5 entries without pagination to prevent this confusion.
Thanks for this! I have a spreadsheet of information to upload to my database - is it possible to do this in one go rather than filling in the form over and over?
Thanks!
Beth
you can import entries from a csv file using the import/export tool. Please post in our helpdesk if you need more help with this.
Thank you!
Can the view performm and display the result of a calculation? For example, the first entry shows that the number of classes a student has remaining is 20, then the second shows that they have 19. I really need this. Thanks.
Sorry for the delay in responding to this. Yes, you could do this in a couple ways. Please contact us in our help desk for help getting this implemented.
I should add that this is for my teaching business. I give private lessons and want students to be able to track how many classes they have taken out of their package.
Hey guys!
Keep up the awesome job with Formidable! Heard about the upcoming add ons 🙂 Would be a great thing to have. The site needs a redesign and prices should go up 🙂 Looking forward to see Formidable around for the long run
Thanks so much! We are working on a site redesign and some big new features and initiatives for our developer community.
Hello,
I tried to build a small directory, it works. Just one thing, its possible to upload a logo-file and show it on the listing page? Up to now I just see the URL to the picture after upload with the form, how I can show the picture?
thanks, Peter
Yes, this can be done. Please contact us in our HelpDesk for help getting this implemented.
Hello,
I would like to build a business directory maybe with the help of formidablepro. Because I can not find complete solution.
Can you tell me a live site where someone is running a business directory with formidablepro (up and running)?
Thank you so much for your support.
I can't think of a customer's site with a directory right now, but have you seen our demos page? The job listing demo and star rating demo might help you see the plugin in action.
We are working on a new marketplace where solutions like the one you linked to above can be built and sold, but that marketplace isn't quite ready.
Additionally, we do offer a full 30 day refund. So you should have time to check out the plugin and make sure it does what you are hoping.
Thanks a lot for your answer.
So you say that the directory website which I posted in my first posting can be replicated with formidable pro?
Do you know a developer who is very familiar with this plugin and who could create a directory with the help of formidable pro?
Are the outputs (views) responsive? Or does this depend on the theme that I use?
Thank you very much.
Yes, this can be done with Formidable. Responsiveness will depend mostly on the theme, and the code used to build the View.
Hi Steve,
thanks for your answer. Another thing that I would like to do with formidable pro is to create review system (star rating). Customer should rate their experience that they had with our service.
Is there a way to make this system support schema.org microformat, so that google will show the ratings in the SERPs together with our website?
Does formidble pro support with schema.org, if not how can make it work with schema.org (for reviews)
thank you so much for your time
best
Mathias
I am seriously thinking of buying Formidable forms, but I am not sure where to address my question...I have tried the following forms software:
GRAVITY
CONTACT 7
VISUAL FORM BUILDER
BREEZING FORMS
NINJA
FORM MAKER
and some others...
Yours seems to have everything I need, except....
The contact us, does not have an option for sales questions. I have downloaded the "free" version, but that does not answer my question because my question is with an add on.
The question is, if I use the Mail Chimp add on, am I able to create professional auto-responder emails, because the email function that the software gives us is pretty ugly looking ... not professional at all. Most of the other softwares have this problem too.
This is the thing that most of these forms software seem to be missing...
Deborah S Nelson
What would be the best way to add geolocation to the directory list? So that a visitor could search for and display a specific location and see all listed service providers nearby on a map?
Is there a demo of the business directory?
Hi John, we are working on that as we speak - we will be releasing the business directory demo next week! Stay tuned 🙂
Any update on this? I'm having a hard time finding a demo as well. Your "Business Directory" demo here https://formidableforms.com/demos/ links here: https://formidableforms.com/demos/directory/. There isn't a demo there.
Thanks!
Sorry about that! Here’s a demo: https://sandbox.formidableforms.com/business-directory-demo/
Another vote for profile schema to be added to the profile pages. That's going to be a critical component for what I am working on.
Is it possible to create a directory that can be sorted by KIND of business? Like the old Yellow Pages? Looking up plumbers or painters or developers would show all the businesses that do those things. RIght now, I've got to search, but might miss a valid busienssifi use the wrong search term.
Thanks
Yes, this sounds like a good use case for Formidable Forms + Views