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Salon Directory

How to Create a Salon Directory Website Like a Pro- A Comprehensive Step by Step Guide

“If your business isn’t on the internet, then your business will be out of business.”- Bill Gates.

At the time of rapid development in technology, smarter people are tending to the online-based business platform. An online business platform is simply a market where sellers and buyers come to make deals. Here, as a smarter person, you can take this advantage. Creating a salon directory website for salon owners and customers will be a lucrative platform for you. Added on, you are going to serve your surrounding apart from making money. But, how can you make a salon directory website more effectively and effortlessly?

It’s simply a big question indeed. But, it won’t be an issue that blocks the mind. If you are going with a WordPress site, your overall task will be a breeze. In the following lines, I am going to create a tutorial that will walk you through the steps to create your new salon directory website with utmost ease. 

How to Create a Salon Directory Website?

Creating a salon directory website is nothing like fighting in a battle when you follow the right procedure. Sincerely speaking, the steps are very simple. No matter if you are a professional WordPress developer or have no knowledge of WordPress, you can easily understand the basics. Let’s see the steps below. 

Step-1. Installing a Free Theme 

You can use any theme to make your website look gorgeous. But, here we will use the free version of OneListing which is fully compatible with any directory plugin out there in the directory niche. Besides, you can use Directoria which is a free theme as well. 

To install the theme, navigate to the WP Admin dashboard>Appearance>Themes>Add new and then activate the theme. You can have a closer look at the screenshot below just for a better understanding. 

Step-2. Directory plugin installation ( Free)

The next step comes with the directory plugin installation. The fact is, you will find a number of free directory plugins online. But, we have picked Directorist for our tutorial as we believe Directorist is one of the most popular and intuitive directory plugins on the WordPress repository due to its extendability, custom fields, free directory builder, and multi-directory options. 

Assuming, you have already installed WordPress on your website, now it’s time to install the plugin. To do so, navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Search for Directorist > Install and activate the Plugin.

You can apply the alternative option. First, download the .zip file of Directorist from the official website and upload the plugin from your dashboard. To upload, navigate to the WP Admin Dashboard > Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin > Choose File > Install Now.

salon directory-directory plugin installation

Step-3. The Directorist wizard setup configuration (Optional)

After the activation of Directorist, you’ll find the following setup wizard to configure your directory website. 

salon directory- Directorist wizard setup configuration

Now you can see the two options: “ Not right now” & Let’s Go. If you want to halt the journey for a while, then press the “Not right now” button. On the other hand, hit the “ Let’s go” option for the further move to the wizard. 

Once you have done it, you will find yourself on the following page. 

Salon directory- Directorist wizard setup configuration

Here, you can see lots of recommended pages. You can either enable or disable them according to your needs. But, our tutorial keeps the settings of pages unchanged. And, hit the “Continue” icon again and see the following page.

Salon Directory-Directorist wizard setup configuration

There you can see Openstreet and Google map options on the dropdown menu. You can select either of them. Also, you can enable the monetization feature and monetize by featured listing. Besides, select the price of the monetization feature listing. Finally, hit the “ Continue” icon and go to the next step. 

Salon Directory- Directorist wizard Setup configuration

Now, import listings and images. However, this one is totally optional. Then, press the “ Continue” icon and it brings you to the following page. 

Salon Directory- Directorist wizard Setup configuration

Your directory site is almost ready to go. You can go back to the WordPress dashboard if necessary. 

Step-4. Customizing/configuring the salon directory

Navigate to the WP>Directory Listings -> Directory Builder ->Add custom fields

> Configure all listing cards and single listing layout > Configure the search form. For more info, you can head over to the documentation

Salon Directory- Customizing salon directory

Step-5. How to add  categories 

Different types of users search for different types of salon listings. As a salon directory owner, you should split your directory into different categories for the convenience of the users. For example, you want to add a “gynecologist”  category to your directory. To do that, go to Listings > Categories. Then specify the name of the category and upload the category image. Finish the process by clicking the “Add Category” button and you can see the category on the front end. In the same way, you can add as many categories as you want. 

Step-6. How to add location 

Many users search salon listings based on location. So, adding location to your directory is another important thing to do. Let’s imagine you want to add “ Florida”.  In order to do this, go to the listings > Locations and fill in the description field if necessary. You can add more locations to your salon directory following the above procedure. 

Step-7. How to extend functionalities

In the previous step, you have added the basic functionalities of a directory website. Now, it’s time to extend the functionalities using different extensions. Adding more features to your salon directory website will help you to get exposure to more audiences. 

For example, you may add the booking/reservation feature to your salon directory using the booking/reservation extension. With the booking/reservation option, you can allow the listing owners to control and steer the flow of service-seekers all day long. 

Another important feature of the salon directory website is the opening/business hour which allows the users to learn when the salons are available for patients. You can simply add this feature to your directory, using the business/opening hour extension.

One more important feature of the salon directory is the listing search with the maps. Patients can easily find their desired salons through maps. Adding this feature to your salon directory is easier with the listings with map extension

You have already got several options to extend the functionality of your salon directory and make it more user-engaging. There are still many options left to improve your directory by adding more features which you can try using these extensions

To add the extension, go to the WP-Admin Dashboard ➝ Plugins ➝ Add New ➝ Upload Plugin ➝ and upload the Extension ZIP file and Activate it.

Final Thought on How to Create a Salon Directory Website

Our tutorial on creating a salon directory website has been based on the free directory plugin and theme. Using a free plugin and theme will make your website workable but using a premium directory extension or the membership of Directorist and its themes will make your website even more scalable and productive. 

If you have already used the premium theme and plugin, then please don’t hesitate to drop us a line sharing your experience. Finally, if you want us to add any feature to a salon directory website, then let us know. We will happily consider it to add to our tutorial. 

If you liked our posts, don’t forget to subscribe to our blog so that we can notify you once any post is published. Directorist is now on FacebookTwitter, and LinkedIn! You can also join the Directorist Community for sharing your thoughts and experiences relating to the directory niche. Come and join us to see what we’re up to.

Written by

Md. Hamim Khan

Md Hamim Khan is a man of letters who puts up his hands for technical content writing at Directorist. He loves to keep himself engaged in playing cricket & chit-chatting with friends, family, and colleagues in the time when he leaves out of work.

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