Any business requires professional promotion and proper targeting. No matter what product or service you sell, you need to use a great bunch of marketing methods to win trust, make your brand recognizable, and find your numerous target clients in your specific location.
If you’re about to launch an online business, then creating a directory and listing website is a good idea. This type of business is considered to be a B2B one, you provide services for other businesses and you help them promote their brands and products on the Web.
What is a directory website?
A listing and directory website is a resource which includes advanced search functionality that users utilize to look for a definite place, product or service. The search form can include sorting by categories, location, etc. Such websites are normally dedicated to a certain subject or region.
Such a website can include different types of listings filtered by categories, tags or location. And of course, a user will be able to find a map which makes the search easier. A directory website also includes the front-end submission functionality which allows business owners to add their hotels, pubs, cafes, or other places into the directory.
Adding a listing is a paid-for option for a business owner, so you can earn money by selling the sign-up plans with different amount of features and possibilities for a buyer.
How to launch a directory website?
If you’ve resolved to build a directory website and help entrepreneurs create their business listings online, it’s time to think about some of the key tasks:
- Determine the niche and nature of the business to work with;
- Think of a structure and basic requirements for your directory website;
- Choose promotional methods for your website.
So, let’s speak on every task in detail.
1. At the very beginning, think what niche of business you’d like to work with. For instance, decide whether to work with offline businesses like cafes, restaurants, hotels, sightseeing or create a listing website for online stores, virtual assistants, online coaches, etc. Research and analyze your idea and your market, to make its peculiarities clear.
If you’ve made up your mind to work with businesses like hotels and restaurants, then the next step should be defining the territory your website will cover. Just decide whether you will list only local establishments or global ones as well.
The best solution here would be to choose a single industry and start from listing only local places of rest. After that, you gradually start to promote your directory website, gain trust and become recognizable in your niche, and then you can geographically expand to other areas and widen the directory type by transforming it into a global one.
2. When you distinguish the features that should be available for your directory website, it’s important to understand what ones are compulsory and what are additional. The following features should better be available:
- Front-end listing submission;
- Multiple payment gateways;
- Monetization plans;
- Advanced search functionality;
- Customization features.
When choosing a readymade design for your future directory website, pay attention at feature-rich, fully responsive, SEO-friendly and easy to customize ones which come with some useful plugins integrated into it.
For instance, ListingEasy Directory WordPress Theme is a worthy representative of the directory and listing templates and it comes with advanced search as well as a comprehensive theme options panel which will help you easily change the look and feel of your website.
This theme includes WPBakery page builder plugin that has an intuitive drag-and-drop interface, so changing the structure of pages is not a problem. It has a backend and front-end editor and includes all the features required for a full-fledged directory website you need for your business. Please check out the full list of its features here.
3. The essential aspect to think about is your directory website promotion. There is a number of modern promotional methods which include:
- Social media campaign;
- Blogging and vlogging;
- Putting your website in another directory;
- Professional SEO optimization;
- Collaborating with your competitors and cross-promotion;
- Ad banners on multiple websites;
- Emailing your subscribers.
Depending on your initial aims, you can select the most suitable method of advertising your directory, and then use additional ones as your website grows, though each method requires a systematic approach.
It won’t be quick and easy to promote your website and get a lot of business owners to submit listings on your website on a paid-for basis. By launching your directory website today, you will grow your business step by step, and as a result, you will make your website a trustworthy and successful one, just start today!
