How to Create a Directory Website in WordPress (Step-by-step Guide)

Are you looking to create an online platform that bridges the gap between businesses and customers? Learning how to create a business directory website might be the solution you need. Whether you are inquiring about the nature of a directory website or are set to launch one, this article has the information you require. This article will take you through the process of including all elements building a directory site using WordPress themes and plugins to devising monetization strategies.

Before packing up the requirements, we request you to cross check and finalization your niche selection. These following guides will help you to select and verify potential niche.

• How to Choose a Niche for a Business Directory Website
• The Importance of Niche Directories: Exploring the Significance of Specialized Directory Listings

Requirements to Create a Directory Website in WordPress

• Domain
• Hosting Plan
• WordPress (Free)
• Directorist Plugin (Free)
• WordPress Directory Theme (Paid or Free) – You can use any Free WordPress Theme. We will be using a paid theme named dList. Whether you use a paid theme or a free theme the process is same.

Note: You can also install or download Directoist plugin from your Directorist’s user dashboard or WordPress plugin directory that we have demonstrate before. To get all the features and more security, make sure to install the updated plugin.

Useful Guides:

• 5+ WordPress Hosting Services for Directory Websites in 2026
• WordPress Hosting Guidance for Making Faster & Safer Directory Listing Websites

Why Use WordPress to Create a Business Directory Website?

• Scalable with both free and premium or freemium plugins and themes.
• Almost 42.6% of the world’s website is built with WordPress. (Source: W3Techs)
• Open-source and customizable.
• Over 60,000 plugins in the WordPress repository for extend functionality of your websites.
• Most popular CMS on the planet and due to the large community, you will never feel stranded.
• And the list goes on.

Read this to get more insight: Why Should You Use WordPress for Your Business Directory Website

Why Choose Directorist to Create a Business Directory?

To create a business directory website, you must choose a solution that is easy to build, packed with useful features that helps to grow your business and has rich resources with good support system when you need a hand.

Well, Directorist is the most scalable and comprehensive solution to leverage your directory business and a plethora of other exclusive features that will help your business stand apart from others with zero coding know-how.

Here are a few features of Directorist to consider as WordPress Directory Plugin:

• Easy to setup and run directory website.
• Highly optimized to handle millions of listings.
• Customizable & modern design to match your brand tone.
• User-oriented development to attract more potential visitors.
• AI integrations to get more productivity with AI.
• A wide range of premium extensions to extend functionality.
• Distinctive features to grow directory and make sustainable.
• Search Engine Friendly to rank faster on SERP.
• Best coding practices to get the best output.
• Support team who cares about your concern.
• Developer Friendly to extend the plugin functionalities
• Multiple Income Streams to earn more.
• A fleet of upcoming features to keep you update with the time, trend and technology.

Related Article To Know More About Directorist:

• Why Choose Directorist as Your Directory Building Tool?
• The Future-Ready Directorist Journey: Thriving in the Age of AI
• 10+ Incredible Features You Might Have Missed in Directorist

Why We Choose Directorist’s Theme As WordPress Directory Theme?

To create a business directory website that looks professional, you must choose a good-looking and responsive theme. Directorist offers niche based WordPress directory themes that are all tailored to your preferences. Whether you want to create a business directory, Classified Listing website, Job Directory, Doctor Directory, Real Estate Directory, Membership Directory or Your own customize Directory—Directorist offer the exact and optimized solution with the right theme including the perfect combination of directorist plugin.

Aside from that, the developers worked quite hard so that you can create your own dream directory website without writing a single line of code. Here are a few exclusive features to look at:

• Fully customizable to fit your brand tone.
• Super Responsive in all devices.
• User-friendly UI and UX for better engagement.
• Constant updates to keep you ahead with the time.
• Instant support to keep you stress free.

These features are really important for a directory business-focused theme. We think it’s relevant to talk about an optimized theme as this article discusses how to create a directory website. Thus make sure the theme you are going to choose has these features.

Just explore our theme section and get a Directory theme as per your preference. You will find the theme in ZIP file format from your dashboard.

7 Easy Steps to Create a Directory Website in WordPress

Following this step-by-step guide, you can create an engaging and money making directory website in WordPress without spending a lots of time or money.

Note: Before Installing Directorist, make sure to install WordPress. If you don’t know how to install WordPress, follow this official guide on “How to install WordPress“. At present, most of hosting provider offers pre-built or easy WordPress installation feature.

Step 1: Installing Directorist

Supposing that you have your WordPress site up and running, now, navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Plugins > Add New. Now search for the keyword ‘directorist’. Then, click on the “Install Now” button.

After that, simply click on the ‘Activate’ button. 

Now, you will see the following menu item on your WordPress dashboard.

Alternative way: Getting the plugin from the WordPress directory

That’s not the end of looking up your favorite WordPress directory plugin, you can also go ahead to the official WordPress repository and search for the same keyword “directorist” and again you will find the plugin from therein. 

Here, we are selecting the plugin, ‘Directorist’:

After that, you should see the download option:

Now, you can download or get the plugin in .zip file format and install it just like any other WordPress plugin by simply uploading it from WordPress Dashboard > Add New > Upload Plugin:

Now, choose the plugin from your local storage and upload it:

Finally, activate the plugin.

And congratulations, you are all done with activating your directorist plugin.

After that, you should see a setup wizard you can configure (recommended) or skip to configure later.

Next up, the following navigation bar options on the Admin Dashboard will appear:

Step 2: Time to Install a Directory Theme

Let’s give professional vibe to your directory. Here we are using “dList” theme which is a popular to design and create a Business Directory. You can also try other popular themes as the process remain same.

Download the ZIP file of the dList theme in your local storage from your user dashboard.

Now, navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload theme > Install now.

Finally, activate the theme.

Then you will be required to install some necessary plugins.

Hit the “Begin installing” option to include the plugins and click on the “Visit Site” option to see the site from the frontend.

After selecting the “Begin Installing Plugins” option, you will find the following screen:

We recommend you install all of them.

Now, activate all the plugins:

Here are some recommend extensions that will help you to add or extend functionalities of your directory business. You can add as per your business requirement.

Beyond these extensions, there are more extensions to ease and scale up your directory business. Browse our extensions collections. You can also get clear idea from our documentation section how every extension works!

Quick Tip: You can use “wpWax Demo Importer” to save your time and get the exact design as you seen in demo. Before using the importer, make sure a keep a complete backup if you have any important data as importing demo content will overwrite your existing data.

Here is a frontend view after selecting the “visit site” option:

Since the fact that the site is all new, there are no listings submitted. After finishing some core tweaks quickly, we’ll proceed to the next step to add business listings.

Step 3: Add Required Categories

Navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Categories > Add New and add some relevant categories to your website.

It will be helpful for the business owners to select the relevant categories for their listings.

Step 4: Monetizing (Add Pricing Plan)

Monetize for free with a free theme:

If you are not using the premium dList theme, you will not be able to create the pricing plan. But that’s not the end of your hope. You can still monetize your directory website using the free ” Monetize by Featured Listing” option.

Read this brief documentation to know how you can monetize your directory website with a featured listing option for free.

Or, Monetize with dList theme’s premium pricing plan option:

If you are using the dList theme, Adding a pricing plan is necessary to charge the business owner against the directory service.

For adding a pricing plan, you need to install an extension named “Pricing Plan”.

go to the WP Admin Dashboard > Directory Listings > Themes & Extensions > Extensions > Sign in You Dashboard > Find “Pricing Plan” > Install & Activate

Now, navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Directorist > Pricing plan and then configure pricing plans. Finally, hit the publish button to publish the plans. Follow the video tutorial to grasp the full set up of pricing plan.

Step 5: Create a Pricing Plan Page

Now, you need to create a pricing plan page to show the pricing plans you have created just now.

Go to the WP Admin Dashboard > Pages > Add New.

Then copy and paste the following shortcode:

Finally, hit the Publish button. Now, let’s take a look at the Pricing plan page from the frontend. Click on the “View Page” option:

After that, you will be able to preview the frontend view of the pricing page:

This is exactly what your business owners will see while they land on the pricing page.

Step 6: Add New Listings (Front-End + Back-End)

Now, from a different browser, a business owner will be able to register or signup. The business owner should be able to see the Registration option (you can control the registration access)

Create a Submission Form For Front End Listing

To create a submission form, adhere to the following steps: Directorist → Directory Builder → Add Listing Form. Utilize the ‘Form Fields’ to personalize the form.

If moderation is turned on, you are required to review and approve the listing through Dashboard → Directorist → Listings. Following approval, the listings will be listed in your directory, accessible for users to discover.

How This Submission Form Works?

On clicking the ‘Registration’ option, a business owner (Here, John Doe) will be able to get a signup form:

Now, after hitting the Sign up button, he will be registered.

After that, he will have to log in again to be able to add listings:

After hitting the login button, he has to select the “Add Listing” option.

Then he will find the pricing plans you created.

From here, he can choose a pricing plan and submit their listings.

Suppose, John chooses the Gold pricing plan then, he has to select the Continue button to proceed:

After entering all the essential data he will then click on the Save and Preview button:

After that, he will hit the Continue button to proceed to checkout:

Now, he will see options to pay. Here, John will be paying by Bank Transfer.

After the payment, he will be able to view a welcome message:

Now, John can see his listing as pending by default (As an admin, you can change it any time though):

Add Listing Manually

This step is mainly for the business owners.

Then again, you can also manually add a business owner from WP Admin Dashboard > Directory Listings > Add New Listings too!

Once, you manually add listings, the business owners will later claim the orders in exchange for a certain charge which is a good way for you (as an admin) to make a profit.

Learn More: 10 Tips To Attract Businesses On Online Directory Website

Step 7: Accepting Orders

Now, it’s time to accept orders! Go to the WP Admin Dashboard > Directory Listings > All Listings > Publish a Pending Order:

Now, John’s order status will be changed to published from pending:

Preview of the Directory Website from the Frontend

Here we are inserting a few data on behalf of some business owners so that we can emulate a real directory site. This will give you a comprehensive idea of how a full-fledged website will look like:

Conclusion on How to Create a Business Directory Website

We hope this article on how to create a directory website in WordPress will be effective enough to guide you in building a directory site with the least effort. If you get stuck with any problem, check out our documentation section or submit your questions in the comment section below. We will be super responsive to take you to the rescue.

You can check out more helpful resources in our blog section or video tutorials on building and optimizing profitable directory niche. Get connected with other directory business owner and exchange your business insights through our Directorist Community

Last but not least, We are set to introduce Directorist Academy, a platform designed for exploring various applications of Directorist with specialized video tutorials and written transcripts. Keep an eye out for updates.

So, why’re you waiting for? Start your Directory business journey with Directorist.

FAQ About Create a Business Directory