Building an Online Directory with WordPress
A few months ago I was approached by an existing client to build a 5-year old brain child of his, an online directory of user uploaded Luxury Rental Listings (exotic rental cars, yachts charters, mansions, private jet charters, limos). Click here to see my company's online web design portfolio and our work on the site. He came up with the idea of this directory solely of luxury listings a few years ago and had worked with a number of other web developers and no one could seem to get the website working properly.
Previously I built another site for this client that he absolutely loved, and when I was done, he decided to present me with the opportunity to build what I like to call a “Kobayashi Maru” of a website.
Now I know that an online directory seems like a relatively easy thing to build considering there are tons of them out there, Expedia, Online Yellow Pages, and even Craigslist.
But even though these sites come a dime a dozen, what most people don’t consider is the fact that it probably cost a pretty penny to build those sites and you can’t imagine how difficult it is to build a proper filtering system. And the additional layer of obstacles for me to build an online directory in particular was that I only build sites in WordPress.
So now that you have most of the information, you now know why this online directory was incredibly difficult to build. Before I start giving you a few of my secrets to successfully building a user-uploaded directory in WordPress, please know that I understand there are many ways to “skin a cat” and although you may think that you have a better way to do this; hear me out first.
To be frank, there is no way that I can explain all of the inner-workings and logistics of this website vs the client's needs, or we would be here all day. So just know that everything I did had a good reason (including not using any of the Premium WordPress templates for directories out there).
The WordPress Plugin I Used to Build an Online Directory
Lets talk about one of the WordPress plugins I used to build an online directory using that make the filtering system work. I'm referring to the Query Multiple Taxonomies Plugin. This plugin was a life saver.
It allows the site developer to add a widget where site users can execute live searches and filter listings (posts) by taxonomy. For instance, if someone wanted to search luxury listings of mansions for rent in Europe, they could also refine their search to properties with 10 or more bedrooms in a price range of $2,000-$3,000 per night. You can build all sorts of different query from widgets based on taxonomy values of your listings (posts).
Running a Directory in WordPress Drastically Slows Down Your Site Speed – Affecting Your Rankings
Here's How I Tackled the Site Speed Issue
Because this WordPress website was built with about 20 plugins (we needed each and every single one of them), we decided to move to a dedicated server with HostGator. Otherwise, on a shared server the plugins would crash the site every time. And besides we plan to get a lot of traffic anyway 😉 so the digital juice was necessary.
Getting Traffic to an Online Directory
Blog Engage
I signed our online directory up for Blog Engage to get more traffic and incoming links from both social media and other sites. For those of you who do not know, Blog Engage is “a social bookmarking site where people discover, share, vote and discuss interesting and remarkable content they find on the web.”
Since Blog Engage offers packages that give you Just Retweet points as well as the ability to automatically submit your blog posts (and/or listings) via your RSS feed to their site, it helps improve site rankings as well as generate traffic.
So now you have the basics you need to successfully build an online directory. I’m sorry that I couldn't give you all my secrets but this should get you off to a good start to building your online directory in WordPress.
I'd love to hear what you think about all of this, please leave a comment and share your thoughts.
If you are looking to have an online directory website built please feel free to contact my company Lidyr Creative Marketing Agency.
Hi Nikki,
This is a very interesting post indeed and i love your style. I’ve also heard of the Query Multiple Taxonomies Plugin before but, have never used it, maybe because I’ve not gotten to a point where i will need it though.
Blog engage is really one of the methods most bloggers are using to drive turns of traffic to their blog and i also love the just retweet feature.
Thanks for sharing.
BTW: Is mrs Ileane your mum? I also love my own mum and wordpress..Lol 🙂
Thanks for the comment. Hopefully these tips will come handy if you do decide to build a directory in the future. And LOL. Yes she is my mum
For the site speed issue. Aren’t there also wordpress plugins that help with speed?
Yes there are plugins that help. for instance the cache plugin. But this site is really plugin heavy and needed a more heavy duty solution.
Thanks for the comment!
To speed up wordpress, i trust CDN always. Because it will reduce my server load as well increase in performance.
This is indeed one nice tip that i have been looking for. i am also planing on creating my own directory and i am getting all the resources i need so the directory don’t fail. Thanks for the tips, i really did learn a lot.
Thanks for the comment. Good luck with your directory!
creating and having your own WordPress online directory is a very good idea indeed. But can there be any other option available for the mandatory but bulky plugins in order to maintain the site loading time?
Blog directory with WordPress? Nice, never thought that was possible. Can you share the link of the web directory.
Directory gives no advantage if we don’t know to use it properly , so it is better to know first using process of directory then make great list .
I dont understand what you are saying but thanks for the comment!
Hey Nikki,
Thanks for sharing this information and little window in your online directory wordpress project. Very interested, and I would have never used to use wordpress to create an online directory.
But couldn’t you have used a different platform that could easily be hosted on a shared server instead of dealing strictly with a dedicated server? Though, speed is very important so I guess whatever it takes.
Thanks for sharing,
Eric
Thanks for the comment. Im sure I could have used a different platform but I will be honest, I only know how to build sites in wordpress. I dont have many limitations as a human being in general (lol) but that is one of them. But it is a limitation that I dont mind having because you can build anything in wordpress.
Making an Online Directory with wordpress sound very intresting , am gonna try now
Thanx for sharing
Online Directory with Worpress? see the headline and thought it was a joke, but you’ve clearly explained how possible is this, we love to try out similar thing too.
thanks for sharing
Hey Nikki,
Nice post and Thanks for sharing this post with us. I have no knowledge about online directory with wordpress but I learned lots of good things from this post and it really seems interesting and I will surely gonna used it.
Hello Nikki, Excellent posting is one of the best ways for getting links and increase your site rank. It shows that you are not a spammer and try to provide some useful content to your users.
Hi,
I am just starting out in blogging and I love your site! Thanks for all the great tips!
Hi Nikki, I loved your writing style.
I didn’t know we could create a directory listing with WordPress. I always thought they needed other CMS platforms and sound technical knowledge to work. Since most bloggers use WordPress, it is easier to understand what you have written.
Thank you.
~ Chitra
I’m also on blogengage it’s really a great blogging community and I like it
thanks for sharing this awesome post 😀
I’m new to blogging. You gave a new idea and good idea to bloggers. Thanks for sharing
Hello Nikki,
I really want to create a online directory of luxury Mobile (with diamond and gold coated).I have search about creating an online directory on google and found your post.You have given me the best way to make my online directory.
Thanks for writing this post
This is probably the most difficult thing I have ever seen anyone try and create using WordPress, congratulations on being able accomplish it! If somebody had asked me to do a project like this I would not know where to start! Well I do now but you know what I mean. 🙂
Hi Nikki,
Great post and Thanks for sharing this post with us. I have no knowledge about online directory with wordpress but I learned lots of good things from this post and it really seems interesting and I will surely gonna used it.
I didn’t realise that such a thing was possible.
I’d imagine though that it was quite a hassle to implement and beyond the scope of most web-designers. I don’t think WordPress would be the most suitable of mediums.
Thanks for sharing this post. I was considering adding a directory to my community site. I haven’t made a final decision but this was definitely handy information.
A very interesting and helpful post…….. A nice collection of suggestions…. I was not aware of these……. Will try blogengage for sure…… Thanks again for sharing……
Hello Nikki, thanks for sharing this article. However, I have some questions to ask.
Online directories, of late, offer premium listing to businesses for better visibility and many of them insist the clients to pay using the site’s paypal integration system only. WordPress, being open source could make such websites open to risk from financial data loss. Use of third party plugins could also invite similar problems.
Even if monetary transactions don’t involve the website, the hackers can still put their hands on customer information, which might result in data theft.
Considering these possibilities, do you really think WordPress is a suitable platform for developing online director??
Hello Nikki
Great Article as a Novice SEO this is so knowledgeable Information well i am not much more aware wordpress but this article so helpful me to understand very candid Thank You for sharing this informative Article .
Good post! I’m currently planning out the process of starting a targeted online directory. I have a great niche while providing incentive on both sides. Subscribers will have certain benefits that the passer by will not have access to.
Thanks for giving such nice information about online dictionary….really I have no idea about this….thanks again for sharing….
Hi Nikki, this information is fabulous. Thanks for sharing.
I love the idea of making a directory from WordPress. In fact, I always wanted a directory but never got round to it because simply I didn’t know how to do it. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction. One question; which themes are most suitable for the directories?
Hey Nikki,
To be honest, It’s really my first time to read about this plugin of yours. But after reading your post, I thought it might be a good plugin to use. The only problem or rather the thing that bugles inside my head right now is a question about this plugin. You said its good for creating lists basing on taxonomy, so does this mean it’s only limited to that area? I may have the wrong impression of the post so please bare with me if I’m wrong.
So great to see you guest blogging here and thanks for giving away some of your secrets with the plug-ins and hosting you chose to use Nikki.
I’m more interested however in your choice of using an exact match domain name for a luxury rental directory. Too many people are too scared to use them now, for fear of penalised by Google, without realising its all about the content provided on the domain. I have a feeling this directory will do very well, good luck.
A very useful post Nikki. I will also try my hands on it. 🙂
Hi Nikki, what a beautiful directory! Of course I’m not surprised being Ms Ileane’s daughter. How nice you share something in common too. Your mom introduced me to Blog Engage though I don’t get there as often as I’d like- only so many hours in a day. But I try to get there at least weekly. Best of luck on your new directory!
What an awesome article i was searching about it last month but could not find any proper match .Thanks for sharing such a value information.
Now-a-days WordPress is the most popular site for building website.It’s a good technique of making online directory with wordpress. It’s a new information for me. Thank you for shearing it.
I’d definitely love to check out BlogEngage and Hostgator is one of the best web hosting company that everybody should use.
Looks Great but always wordpress is the top most cms among all content management system
I read this post with the thought of “I am never going to build a directory”. But after reading this, it got me to thinking of certain possibilities.
So thanks for motivating me in that direction. Will see where it takes me.
Thanks again!
To be honest, building luxury website or directory is not easy to get traffic, and come on, the target for people who can afford to pay for those stuff are relatively small, compared to majority. So building the traffic can take a long time.
Tony
Hi,
Thanks for this post. I didn’t know about this plugin. I don’t like shared servers and I dream to a dedicated server myself. Someday. It is indeed an excellent solution.
It seems that you are a powerful computer programmer or an expert in computer science. It is difficult for the average visitor to follow your posts. However, this one was carefully written, simple and clear. The essence is accessible.
Thanks
There’s also a free theme for this to implement and I used it on my blog but the idea wasn’t great so left it.
I used to build blogs, just build them and do some bookmarks and backlinks to get some traffic thats all but I never thought that there’s such thing as luxury website, but thanks to your article I may try to create one luxury website, even though they say it may not be easy.. 🙂 I’ll just keep my fingers cross. wish me luck..
Hi Nikki,
I am planning to make a directory site but most plugins in wordpress do not display user friendly URL’s.
The website static pages display user friendly URL’s but the search query of the directory plugin dont do this function.
Could you please tell me that these directory and other plugins that you have. Can they help us in getting user friendly URL’s?
Nice directory site.
It can be a tough job to get a directory site going plus to get more and more people on board to contribute to the directory.
But you have done a nice job to get it going by guest blogging here on basicblogtips 🙂
Thanks for the info.
Samuel from Internet Dreams
This is a nice content. The written skill is so good. Online directory is WordPress is an important topic. Well, actually everything that is connected with WordPress is on immediate interest right now))
nice article nikki,
it is the nice set of information about how to build the online directory listing site using WordPress.., presently i am working on my other project but in near future i will moving to this niche. thanks for giving me a good idea…:)
For the site speed issue. Aren’t there also wordpress plugins that help with speed?