Best WordPress Directory Themes to Build an Awesome Directory Site
Posted onBuilding a directory website by coding everything from scratch can be a real struggle. Managing it and making changes would be a different issue in itself.
You can easily avoid these issues by setting up a directory website with WordPress, which would not only be incredibly faster but much easier to manage while offering a host of other benefits.
But you probably already know that, which is why you’re now looking for the best WordPress directory theme to use for your directory site. So without further ado, let us walk you through the 4 best WordPress directory themes you can choose from.
Classifieds
Classified from Templatic is arguably the best WordPress directory theme you will ever come across for building a WordPress directory site. It’s extremely functional and allows you to design a modern and sophisticated directory site literally in minutes.
It comes complete with an online ads portal system, location manager plugin, child theme, mobile view, detailed filter option for users to easily find exactly what they need, a homepage slider to quickly get exposure for your important listings or elements, ability to allow users to contact the sellers right from their listing and a lot more.
This means you won’t have to install a ton of other plugins to have all these features and functionality on your directory site. Furthermore, it’s one of the few WordPress directory themes that’s perfectly SEO-friendly and built keeping the SEO factor in mind.
It not only ticks a lot of SEO checkboxes right out of the box but also supports the popular WordPress SEO plugins out there including Yoast SEO and All in One SEO, as well as other SEO-related plugins like Google XML Sitemaps and All in One Schema.org Rich Snippets.
Classifieds is also very versatile and offers quite a bit of customization options. The ability to edit or remove the URL bases to make them exactly how you want them to be based on the topic or categories is particularly impressive, both from an SEO and user experience perspective.
This theme also supports more than a few languages, allowing you to set up a multilingual directory website with ease. Making design changes is super easy too with the intuitive Visual Composer plugin compatibility.
There are also tons of other useful features that make Classifieds one of the most complete WordPress directory themes out there, such as the reservation and booking system without installing any additional plugins.
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Listing Plus
If you’re after a light, simple, and super versatile multipurpose WordPress directory theme, you just found one! Listing Plus sports a simple but clean design and is highly functional. Be it real estate, jobs, classifieds, events, deals, this directory theme would be a great choice no matter the type or niche of your directory site.
It also makes it incredibly easy to set up a location-based directory with all the features you need, while also being very customizable and easy to use.
More importantly, it comes with some great money-making options built-in so that you can hit the ground running in terms of monetization without having to make life difficult for yourself which is often the case with other directory themes that aren’t designed with monetization in mind.
It’s mobile-friendly, it’s SEO-friendly, and it’s customizable enough to let you change pretty much everything you would ever want to for your directory site, including the color, fonts, footer credits, branding, and so on.
The listing submission system is functional but very simple and makes it a breeze for your users to use and submit their paid or free listings.
Again, as far as the monetization options are concerned, you can set up unlimited price packages, subscription packages, paid featured listings, make some specific categories paid ones, as well as easily put AdSense ads on your directory site. What more can you ask for in terms of ready-made monetization options?
Listing Plus is multilingual and supports some of the most popular WordPress plugins too, including All in One SEO, Contact Form 7, Google XML, Total Cache, and more.
Brilliant Directory
The name does a good job of describing this directory theme’s functionality. While it’s very similar to Listing Plus in terms of features and functionality, it does come in a more attractive and catchy design.
While it’s versatile enough to be used for a variety of niches as well, it’s going to be a particularly good option for location-heavy directory sites, including real estate and travel directories.
Its mobile version is very well-designed too and looks just as impressive as the desktop version while displaying a lot of information on the small screen, including pictures and highlighting features in an attractive way.
The search function is pretty advanced with lots of search options, so if you’re starting a directory in a niche that involves a lot of details, then the Brilliant WordPress directory theme would be right up your alley.
Business Directory
The Business Directory WordPress theme by Templatic is specifically designed to create a local or even global business directory site. Again, a lot of its features are similar to some of the themes by Templatic that we discussed above, but its look and feel are completely designed keeping business listings in mind.
There are many functional elements that this directory theme comes with, but without slowing down the site thanks to its clean code. There’s a large (primary) search bar at the top of the homepage, a small search box at the top left, different options that interest users as you scroll down a bit, followed by popular listings, an option to place a video explaining your directory service, and then the popular listings and other stuff.
You also have the pricing options at the end, a section for testimonials, and the brands already listed on the directory to build a trust factor. However, these elements are all customizable, though they are well-optimized by default and shouldn’t be tweaked around with much unless you’re sure what you’re doing with them.
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