Local Business Directory Software to Create a City Guide Website in 30 minutes

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local business directory software

With more and more people dependent on the internet to search for their requirements, the online directory websites are becoming more popular than ever.

And one of the most popular genres of online directories is a local business directory website.

What are local business directories?

As the name suggests, the local business directories are the directory websites dedicated to a certain geographical location.

Local directories can be of any niche – local hotel directory, local classified directory, a city guide directory for a city, local medicare directory, or a local contact directory website. Just that, the information in the directory website is limited to a location.

However, the scope of local directory is limited to a certain geographical area, like a city or state or province. Let’s see how you can do this:

How will your Local business directory Software will be useful for the local people?

Decide the scope of your local directory submission software

What you should be sure of before starting with your local directory is the scope of your website.

The scope is about two different things:

  • The type of listings that you will allow on your website
  • The local scope of your local directory website

Once you know what you want your website to do, and all the features that you want to include into your local business directory, you can choose from the best software tools to create local directory.

The City Guide Local Business Directory Software for WordPress

Using a WordPress theme is an easier way to start your online directory in less than 45 minutes. Or you can rely on directory software solutions to create your online city guide website. However, in this tutorial, we will use the directory template to create our website.

WordPress is one of the best CMS and is free, opensource and very easy to use. Moreover, we have the niche WordPress local business themes that we can use to create a website of our choice.

For creating a local directory, we will go for the City Guide Local business directory template. The theme is designed with all the features to let you create a fully functional online directory.

The City Guide local ads directory theme has some of the essential modules like

  • User registration and management
  • Front-end submission module
  • Payment processing and transaction management
  • Full customization options
  • Maps and location-based features
  • Blogs and SEO friendly
  • Unlimited extensibility with the compatible plugins.

Besides, there are many other useful features included in this best local directory website template. The City Guide local directory sites theme local directory listing is very easy to use.

Directory websites can have a lot of data and that might make it a little difficult to manage the website. So the City directory website template comes with easy and intuitive options to let you control your online directory easily.

City Guide WordPress template for the local directory is designed to simplify your website making task. Let’s see how you can create the best local business directory with it:

Customize your local directory script as per your taste

The first thing you would want to do when you use a pre-designed/pre-programmed local business directory script is to customize it.

The best thing about the City Guide local business directory software is its flexibility and customizability. You can change all the colors you want.

And to change the colors, you won’t have to struggle with the CSS/HTML files. Just pick a color from the color customizer and set it as the color of your site, or font color, or as a background.

You can even personalize your website by updating the logo, the site title, and the footer credits. You can do it all using simple options available at the backend of the CityGuide local Directory website template.

Create unlimited listing categories on your local directory script

A business directory generally covers many different subjects as it contains list of local businesses under various categories. For instance – A typical local business directory website can contain listings about the amusements parks, hotels, hospitals, malls and grocery stores of the city.

Therefore any user of the website can find the place of his interest from your website. There can be unlimited categories for the listings on your Directory website.

Add Location-aware listings on your local web directory

The CityGuide WordPress theme comes with integrated Google maps on

  • The homepage banner map (or you can switch to the image banner instead of maps)
  • The category page map, that shows all the listings belonging to that categories through map
  • The detail page map with navigation feature

Therefore, all the listings will be displayed on the map using customizable map markers on the above-mentioned pages.

Also, the proximity search feature of the City Guide WordPress local directory template shows you the listings that are closest to your location.

Allow Front-end listing submission on your local search directory software

Comes with a ready to use, customizable submission form that the users can fill up with the details regarding their listings.

So what you can do with this feature is let the interested business use the form and submit their listings.

Also, you can create payment package as per your requirements. The payment packages will be displayed to the front end users on the submission page. So they can select the submission package, and post their listings on your website.

Blogs for special announcements and news on your local directory site

Blogs are an amazing way to connect with people at large.

Especially blogs on a Directory website are more likely to be read and followed by more people, considering the heavy traffic.

If your city directory is for your own city or state that you can use the blog section to keep people updated with the latest news and information.

The city guide WordPress local business directory template comes with the inbuilt blog section. So you can get started with the blogs on your WordPress directory website instantly.

You can even advertise the events, festivals, parties, etc. on your local listing sites

A small events portal on your local web directory sounds great, doesn’t it?

To display events happening around in the city, you can integrate the events plugin. It is a directory addon that works with the CityGuide directory website.

So along with the directory listings, you can now allow people to add event listings on your local directory.

Furthermore, you can even sell tickets to the events through an additional plugin.

Your local directory website will be eCommerce ready

Additionally, you can even choose sell products on your online directory. If there are a few products, that you want to let people buy through your local directory, just integrate the WooCommerce plugin.

WooCommerce is a (very) popular FREE and powerful eCommerce plugin, compatible with the City Directory WordPress template, that can turn your website into a fully functional eCommerce website.

It has all the features to let you easily manage shipping, inventory, taxes, etc. So selling products through your local directory website to your people becomes easier.

Besides, you can choose the payment gateway you want and start accepting payments for the sold goods, tickets, or reservations, right away.

Also, allow reservations and bookings on your website

The listings on your local directory website can be of anything – hotels, guesthouse, restaurants, or any rental properties.

With the WooCommerce bookings plugin, you can even add the ability to let the visitors of your website make bookings through your website.

Add more features on your local business directory with these plugins

Directory websites are a massive website with a number of different features. And there’s no limit to what you can do with your local business directory one you have enough traffic.

Why would people love your local business directory?

A local directory is what every city needs, isn’t it?

What better than a single website with a list (plus details) about all the important businesses of the city. Moreover, it is easy to add classifieds, real estate, events, coupons and deals, job listings, etc on your local directory.

There’s a plugin to each of that features into your local directory. So if you wish to start a classifieds side business along with your directory website, just install a plugin. And in minutes, you can get started with classifieds listings on your website.

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Opportunity to advertise their business on

With your directory website, the business owners get a chance to advertise their local business online. The local directory is an electronic version of the local yellow pages.

No business would want to miss the opportunity to catch the eye of the visitors looking for a certain business on your website.

With their listing on a directory website, the businesses get a chance to explain themselves. They can use images, videos and provide their contact details to let the visitors directly get in touch with them.

Therefore for small and big local businesses, a local business directory is a straightforward way of direct advertising.

Your local directory website local business finder

Also for the general public of a location, such a website acts as a business finder directory.

People looking for a service, can come to your website and check the list of the best business that can help them. A business directory keeps everything well-organized and easy to find.

And if you keep the comments enabled, you can have the honest review of people who want to post their opinion about a business. This, in turn, makes your site and listings more useful for others.

It can help as a local business locator for the people of a city

Maps on your local business directory take the usability of your website to another level. The maps and other location-based features of the City guide local business theme lets people find places directly though map.

If they are looking for a place in a certain category, they can search the category page map and find the listing through the map marker. Moreover, clicking on the marker, they can also view the details of the listing or even visit the detail page directly on the map.

Either way, maps are helpful.

And not to forget the detail page maps with the navigation feature. It calculates the distance of the listing form your current location and shows you a route to reach.

Create an SEO friendly local business directory

SEO friendliness of your WordPress website is directly responsible for its visibility. Also, just like most other tasks related to website maintenance, SEO is not a one time task.

To make sure that all the efforts you make with your local directory to help people find the services they need, are actually reaching them, SEO is the must.

Thankfully, the City Guide WordPress local directory template is crafted with the best SEO standards. Also, it supports the integration of the best of industry’s SEO plugins. Using these SEO plugins you can keep a check that the content added from you is SEO optimized too.

Moreover, online directories are massive websites with loads of listings and pages. Which means more content that can fight for your website’s position of search engine rankings for different keywords.

So when it comes to SEO, you don’t have much to worry about, except for frequent SEO audits and updating site with useful content.

Ready to own a local business Directory software?

A local business directory website can be helpful for your website in more than one ways. It acts a portal for the business to advertise themselves as well as the visitors to find the business that fulfills their needs.

Therefore, it’s a platform that can be used by a wide range of people. Moreover, when the scope of your local directory is confined to certain geographical boundaries, it’s easier to promote your website.

Ultimately, a local business directory is one of the best forms of money making directory website. And the City Guide best local directory theme WordPress 2018, that can get you started with your local business directories in minutes.

Also read: How to create a real estate directory with WordPress.

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