WordPress Business Directory themes are amazingly popular, easy and for good reason! WordPress one of the best platforms on which you can build a dynamic business or listing directory. Therefore, Whether you want to create an ultimate Yelp rival from which to list and promote local businesses, or build a website of ‘must-visit’ tourist attractions for your travel company or even set up a classified listings business site, using a WordPress Business Directory theme is a great and recommended way to get started without having to spend thousands of dollar hiring a developer.
There are hundreds (maybe even thousands!) of WordPress Business Directory themes you can choose from, plus an extensive array of plugins that offer to list related functionality which you can use to create a business/listing directory. Some of these are free, However, many are premium products that cost you to download and activate the copy for regular updates and support.
Choosing a WordPress Business Directory Theme
There is no shortage of Business Directory or listing-based Directory themes which you can choose from.
Some key things you must consider before buying a theme are as follows:
- Cost – Is the fee for the theme a onetime payment or annual?
- Support – Can you get in touch with the theme seller for help? Are you getting supporting documents?
- Features – Does the theme have everything important you need it to? For example, can you process payments through it if you want to charge for premium content on your website?
- Longevity – How new is the theme? Does the theme owner update it regularly?
Listify WordPress Directory Theme
In this article, we’re going to discuss one of the best directory themes… The Listify Directory WordPress Theme. It is built by the team at Astoundify, the theme is available for $69 (at the time of publishing this post) from Theme Forest.
There are many things to like about this theme. It’s incredibly feature-rich but, importantly, has been in the news and actively updated for almost 5 years now. Astoundify released the original theme on the 26th November 2014!
For anyone who has developed WordPress sites using themes, you will probably appreciate the importance of this fact. Nothing is more frustrating than investing money and time into building a website using a theme only to find that the authors don’t actively support it and improve their product.
This is especially problematic as WordPress releases new versions on a regular basis and the theme doesn’t keep pace with these changes. You’ll find yourself in the unenviable position of not being able to upgrade your WordPress core through fear of breaking your site!
Not only this theme Listify is feature-rich and well maintained but also it has a great design as well as it is very easy to setup. You’ll be able to build a fully functional WordPress Business Directory using ‘Listify Directory Theme’ in no time at all!
The Features Your Get with Listify Directory Theme are:
- Reviews – Let people write reviews on listings quickly and easily.
- Style Kits – You can quickly brand your site without needing a degree in design.
- Drag and Drop – You can easily ustomize the homepage and listings page with a drag and drop editor.
- Geolocation – Listify works with geolocation technology so the users on your directory only see appropriate listings.
So, now we’ve decided on the theme let’s dive in and get this set up!
Setting up your Listify WordPress Business Directory Theme
First, download your Listify theme files from Themeforest. You need to unzip the folder that these come packaged in. Open the folder and you can see a folder called ‘Listify-Theme-Full-Package’. Now we’ve got the files we need. So, we can crack on with uploading this theme to our WordPress install.
Setting up your WordPress install
The steps you need to take for this will vary from host to host. If you’re hosting your site with Godaddy then head to the Dashboard and log in. Click on the ‘New’ button on the right-hand side and then fill out the popup that appears.
Click on ‘Create Website’ and you can provision your new install in just a couple of minutes (you will get an email when it’s ready). Open up your new WordPress website and get started in the Admin panel.
Installing the Listify Theme
You can click on ‘Appearance’ then ‘Themes’ followed by ‘Add New’. Click on ‘Upload Theme’ and then you can navigate to the unzipped Listify folder. Open this and then open the folder named ‘Listify-Theme-Full-Package’. In there you’ll find a zipped folder which will be called something like ‘Listify-0.00.0’. Click on this to upload and then you need to hit ‘Install Now’. Now, Activate the theme and you’re off!
Initial Setup Steps
Listify helpfully provides a comprehensive setup menu that runs you through the steps you need to launch your new WordPress Directory.
Let’s run through these steps one by one which is really easy:
Install a child theme
Child themes allow you to make more in-depth customizations to your website in a way that means these changes are not overwritten if you ever decide to upgrade the theme files. So, This is well worth doing and Listify makes the process of creating a child theme very easy. You need to just follow the prompts.
Enable Automatic Updates
As discussed, the theme authors, Astoundify, regularly roll-out updates to their themes (in this case Listify). Some of these updates will be a feature related while others may be security-related. By adding in a ThemeForest token you can be sure your directory-site remains up-to-date on its own. And, if you’re hosting your website with Goddy, you can sleep easy knowing that if any auto-updates cause problems you can quickly revert back to a previous version of your site before the update was applied as you always have a back up.
Install Necessary Plugins
Listify, like many other themes, requires a set of plugins to work as designed. Click on the ‘Install Plugins’ button to install the required plugins.
Choose Your Directory Site Content
I love this feature! Whilst you can dive in and build your directory from scratch easily, it is super helpful to be able to import a demo website and Listify has two options for you; a Business Directory theme or a Rentals Directory theme. Installing a demo website data means you can then work through the site and just change the things you want, rather than starting with a completely blank page. Obviously, if you’re happy working from scratch then feel free to skip this step. In this tutorial though I’m going to discuss about importing the Business Directory.
Now, click on the site design you prefer and then click ‘Import Content’. This might take some time. So, sit back and relax for a few minutes while the importer does its work.
Setup Google Maps
The mapping system in Listify is incredible but to get it to work you need a Google Maps API Key. you can generate these for free and unlock a raft of extra features within the Listify theme. Listify theme has created both a video and an article explaining how to generate a maps API key. You can go ahead and follow these instructions as I definitely recommend you complete this step before moving on.
This is the basic setup done. Now is the time to have some fun and customize the design of your directory site!
Customizing your Listify WordPress Business Directory
Pretty much all the customization functions for your new site are carried out through the very smart WordPress Customizer. To access this, you can follow the link in the setup menu or head to the homepage of the website. As you can see, thanks to the great Demo importer, your directory website already looks like a proper business directory!
To begin changing things to suit your brand you can click on the ‘Customize’ button in the Admin bar.
The Astoundify team has done an incredible job leveraging the WordPress customizer. It’s very impressive and very easy to make changes to the site. You’ll notice pencil icons across the screen – these link to areas within the Customizer that you can edit. You can click on any of these icons and you’ll quickly see how you can customize your website.
A great place where you should start is by adding a logo and changing your site name. Now, click on the pencil icon in the top left to begin doing this.
Using the Style Kit
There is a quick way to change the overall design of your site is by using the Style Kit. Click on ‘Style Kit’ from within the customizer and you can see a number of design options you can choose from. Hopefully, one of these designs gets you closer to how you want your WordPress Directory to look with almost no effort at all!
You can ontinue to work with the options in the Customizer unless you’re happy with how your site looks. Just make sure you don’t forget to click ‘Publish’ when you make changes to the design so these get saved!
JustBaazaar Top Tip:
If you are hosting your site with Godday then you have access to our amazing ‘Instant Backup’ feature. This allows you to quickly make a backup of your site that you can restore if required. It takes just a handful of clicks to take a backup. So, if you’re planning on making some big changes to your site and you’re not sure if you’ll like them, first take a backup. Then, if you decide your changes are not for you, you can restore the site in a matter of minutes back to where you left off.
Adding Listings to your Business Directory
This is great what your website is all about. Business listings! Listify, perhaps unsurprisingly has made adding Business listings incredibly easy. To start, you can click on the Listings tab from within your WordPress Admin. You can see some demo listings if you have imported them. Click on any one of these to modify or add an entirely new listing.
Now, Add the main description and title and then scroll down to the Listing Data section where you can add a variety of information about the business you are adding including contact details, website, company logo and more. On the right, you can easily upload images for a gallery and then select the location region and category (all of which are easily customizable).
Extend your Websites Functionality
Astoundify offers a range of add-ons for your website for additional money. To take a look at some of the extra’s available head to Listings from within the Admin and then select ‘Add-ons’. Their Add-on bundle at $79 offers great value and includes extra features such as Listing Payments, Products, Private messages and detailed stats.
The package comes with detailed documentation and 1 year’s support which is very useful.
Is Listify the ideal WordPress Business Directory for you?
It’s fair to say I’m also an Astoundify fan. There are a lot of so-called premium WordPress themes available today but the quality can vary immensely.
Astoundify (the owner of Listify theme) has done a great job creating a high-quality theme that is backed up by excellent support documentation as well as first-class support from the team via a support ticket portal.
If you’re looking to build a WordPress Business Directory then I’d recommend checking out Listify! View the demo theme here or purchase your copy at ThemeForest.
In case you need someone to take care of the entire setup for you, Just contact JustBaazaar and our team will do the rest. You will just be required to add and modify listings.
You can earn money by adding featured Business Listings On your Directory website.