Working in the area of online business directory websites always has an important step and it is finding the engine that you want to use in order to set up your own business directory. In this article, we are going to introduce Listdom which is a business directory WordPress Plugin and explain how to set up this amazing plugin in WordPress to set up an amazing online business directory with that.
Why WordPress and Listdom?
When you want to establish an online platform, WordPress is one of the best options as 70 percent of online platforms use this CMS as their main website engine. Working with this CMS is easy and there are thousands of different types of tutorials and whatever you want to can find a video or online document that explains how to set up that.
With WordPress, you can set up pages and blog posts, in order to extend the functionalities of it you need to install Plugins. Also if you want to change how your website is looking you need to install a WordPress theme. As WordPress does not have any built-in feature to set up a Business Directory website you can install Listdom and have the features that you need in your business directory. Also Listdomer is a theme that has been designed exactly for the category of listing and directory and you can use it in order to make your business directory in the best professional way.
Listdom Lite: The Best Free Business Directory WordPressPlugin
With Listdom Lite you can set up a fully functional business directory website and in this section we are going to explain how to do it. It is a free business directory WordPress Plugin and you can install and activate it from the WordPress plugins repository. You need to go to the WordPress admin area and then the plugins page, after that click on Add New and search for Listdom and finally install and activate this amazing plugin.
As soon as you install Listdom 2 new menus will be added to the WordPress admin area. Listings menu allows you to add the categorized options and add/manage the listings. AListdom menu will allow you to show listings in the website, create search forms, change settings, and change notifications. In this section we will explain each menu option in detail.
Listings Menu Options:
As the first step we will add the categorize option in the Listings menu, these options allow you to classify the listings in different types like categories, locations, tags, features and labels. Bank is a great example for a business directory website and “Must See” is a great example for labels. You can add all these categorized options easily and then when adding listings using them.
After that you can go to the Add Listing menu and add your listings. When adding a listing you need to specify title, description, working hours, price options, contact information, Map address, location address, category, labels, tags, features, remark, featured images, and gallery images. You need to add some samples or real listings to go to the next step.
Listdom Menu Options
As we mentioned in the previous section, it is the time to show the listings on the website. Please head over to the Shortcodes menu and then click on Add Shortcode and create a shortode which is one of 90 different skins and styles that Listdom already has. At this time Listdom support single map, haf map, grid, list, list+grid, masonry, slider, cover and mix of map and other skins. The good point about Listdom is that each main skin provides different styles for you and you can use them when creating shortcodes. As soon as you create a shortcode you can add it to a WordPress normal page and the listings will show and that is it.
Now it is the time to create a search form to give the ability to users to find the listings that they want with some filters. You can create forms with the Search Builder option of the Listdom. It is very easy and you can create a search form and then drag-drop the fields that you want to the search form. When you publish the search form a new shortcode will be available and you can add it to any page that you want.
Listdom Notifications menu has been considered to define the email notifications that you want to have. At this time it is supporting so many different notification types which you can see them in the Notifications menu of Listdom.
The Settings menu if Listdom is a place to configure Listdom options. We are going to mention just some of them but when you see you can see the full list on the Settings menu. You can add Google Map Api key, select date format, define the currency position, set the default currency, define the main and secondary colors, define main font-family, disable/enable font-awesome package, Recaptcha, archive pages style, slugs, social icons, details page style, and add custom styles there.
Listdom Pro: The Best Paid Business Directory WordPressPlugin
Listdom Pro provides so many advanced and modern features to Listdom Lite and with this amazing paid business directory WordPress plugin you can have a more professional website. In this section we are going to explain some of these amazing features and you can see the full list on Listdom Pro official website.
The features that we are going to talk about are front-end add/manage listings, attributes or custom fields, OpenStreetMap, radius search, import/export, embed codes, and interactive Google Map searches. You can see the full list of features on Listdom Pro official website and these items are just some of the most important items that we are going to explain about them.
Front-end add/manage listings will allow you to give your users the ability to add their listings from the front-end and without accessing the backend. It is a great feature and helps you extend your business faster. Having this feature is so easy, you just need to add Listdom dashboard shortcode to a WordPress normal page and then have it.
If you want to extend items of the add listing form the attributes or custom fields feature of Listdom Pro will help you a lot. When you install Listdom Pro, the Attributes menu will add to the back-end Listing menu and you can define your custom fields there. The custom fields can be for all categories or for some categories. So the fields that you see for the bank category can be different from the restaurant category.
Nowadays some online business owners prefer to use a free map instead of the paid maps that need an api key. Listdom Pro supports OpenStreetMap which is a free map provider and works without any api key. When you install this version LeafletJS will add to map providers of Listdom and you can use it instead of Google maps.
Radius search is another amazing feature that helps your visitors find listings in specific areas. They enter an address and then see the listing in that area which is the radius amount that you specified. In order to have this functionality you just need to add an address field to the search form and the select radius search as a method of that.
Import/export functionality of Listdom Pro allows you to export the listings from a Listdom website and then import them to another Listdom Pro website. This feature of Listdom is working with JSON file technology and you can use it in order to take backup from listings as well.
Some businesses have videos on YouTube and those videos introduce themselves. Listdom Pro allows you to add those YouTube videos as embed code to their listings. So the listings will be more attractive for the website visitors.
The last item which we will explain is Google Map Interactive search functionality. With this amazing feature when visitors of a website drag and drop the map location they will see the listings of the area that they want.
There are so many other features that Listdom Pro provides and you can see the full list on Listdom Pro official website.
Listdom Add-ons
Listdom has more than 25 different addons and each addon can make a big difference between your online business and competitors. For example, Listdom Android/IOS mobile apps will help you to provide service on user smartphones. Another addon which is so useful is Listdom Subscriptions Addon that you can charge users when they want to add listings on your platform.
You can see a list of all Listdom Addons with their functionalities in the Listdom official addons page.
Listdomer: Business Directory WordPress Theme
Listdomer is a business directory WordPress theme which has been developed specially in the category of listing and directory and fully integrated with Listdom Lite, Listdom Pro and Listdom Addons. It is a great WordPress that covers whatever you need in order to have a business directory. You can see the demo of this amazing theme in the Listdomer official demo website.
Conclusion
Listdom Lite, Listdom Pro, Listdom Add-ons, and Listdomer Theme have been developed in the category of Listing and Directory and you can set up a great online website with them in the business directory category. Also there is a solution to have Android/IOS mobile apps at the same time as you have a website. If you have any question regarding the setting up a business directory with these amazing WordPress solutions you can contact their support and they are there to help you and answer your questions with their high tech support team.