Are you looking for the best WordPress directory plugin?
This is not a review but gives our opinion on the most flexible business directory plugin for WordPress. We run a few directory WordPress sites and started with pure coded solutions but as the level of maintenance started to become a big overhead we had a choice. Either to turn our code into a product and sell it to others or look for an affordable option already out on the market. After trying a selection of plugins Business Directory Plugin, GeoDirectory Plugin and Advanced Classifieds & Directory plugin to name a few, we settled on GeoDirectory.
This articles goes through our requirements that directed us to the GeoDirectory decision.
A directory can mean many things to many people but in our mind, it is simply a way to deliver useful information based on location. Note we say information here and not business information as it can mean anything as long as the information relates to a single point on a map.
What to look for in a WordPress Directory Plugin
We are not going to discuss how to make money from a directory but look at the features needed as any plugin needs to grow with you, for example, even if you don’t want to take paid listings at the start it should be possible in the future. Here’s what a good directory plugin needs to support:
- Options for businesses to add and manage their own listings.
- Divide the directory into different listing categories with custom formats for each category.
- Advanced search features allowing search by text and locations including current location.
- Support event listings including search by dates.
- Support for showing opening hours.
- Payment options to allow you to monetize the directory.
- Support ratings and reviews including the ability to moderate.
- Analytics options for businesses to see how many times a listing has been viewed.
- The ability for a listing to be created and a business can claim it to manage going forwards.
- Flexibility to link directory into a bigger WordPress site with the same look and feel.
- Selection of widgets, shortcodes and blocks to help page design.
- Ability to easily add custom code to listings through shortcodes.
- Responsive design working on any device; desktop, tablet or mobile.
- Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) friendly allowing good permalink structure, working well with popular plugins like Yoast and RankMath SEO.
As well as all the above points it needs to be flexible, performant and scalable and with Google’s preference for unique and fast sites you need to be able to get top marks when Google measures the user experience through Web Vitals.
WordPress GeoDirectory Plugin
GeoDirectory does offer a core free version but this is limited to one city and to get most of the features mentioned earlier you need to purchase addons and so for most serious directories you will need the full membership bundle as this includes all addons, all themes, support and installation on unlimited domains at a 90% saving to buying individually.
GeoDirectory is an actively managed plugin and the team at AyeCode are constantly pushing the boundaries and over the years we have worked with the plugin it has kept pace with the changes in WordPress and in particular the site builders like Gutenberg and Elementor Pro.
For our two biggest sites Coast Radar and Nearest Brewery we have kept to the supplied Supreme Directory theme as this tends to provide the basics of what you need. We did experiment with other options but just ended up creating something pretty close to the provided theme and so find it easier to customise the Supreme Directory theme.
Although we are affiliates of GeoDirectory it is only because we use it and believe it is the best WordPress directory plugin. GeoDirectory does what it says on the box based on our real sites mentioned above, and the GeoDirectory website has a number of demos and customer showcases if you want to look at how others make use of this WordPress Directory plugin.
If you are interested in GeoDirectory then just reach out to us in the contact form below and we can have a chat.