Business Directory Community Add-On for WordPress by CreativeMinds

Business Directory Community Add-On for WordPress by CreativeMinds

The Business Directory Community Add-On allows users, both logged in and guests, to add a new business, claim existing ones, and manage their listings.

Requires Business Directory Pro.

VIDEO DEMO
WordPress Version
5.4.0 or Higher
Tested up to
WordPress 6.7.X
LAST UPDATED
June 8, 2024
PHP
5.7 - 8.2.X
VERSION
2.0.4

Business Directory Community Add-On Description

The WordPress Business Directory Community AddOn by CreativeMinds allows users to add a new listing to the business directory, claim an existing business which was already listed and manage their listings.

This AddOn is a supplement for the Business Directory Plugin and empowers it by letting the users submit and manage their own listings within the business directory.


Managing New Business Listings

When a user submits a new business listing, the admin will receive a notification. Moderate the new listing and approve or reject it. Once approved, the business owner will receive a notification and a password for managing the business page.

With the email and password the business owner can manage the business listing without being logged in to the WordPress site or be defined as a WordPress user. This allows a complete separation between business owners and WordPress users.

In cases when the business owner forgets his password, near each business page which is assigned to a business owner, a forgot password link will appear allowing business owner to receive a new password to a registered email.

Showing part of the new business submission form
Showing part of the new business submission form

Creating Community Directory

Business Directory
Business Directory
Business Community gives you full control on how your visitors can submit their business info for approval.

Learn how to create a directory where users suggest businesses.


Moderation and Notification

The plugin provides the admin with several ways to manage listings. Moderate all listing submitted by users and approve them before they appear in the directory.

Assign an email and send a password for an existing business listing to the owner, Allowing him to manage the business page.

Setting screen showing part of the moderation and notification settings
Setting screen showing part of the moderation and notification settings

Modifying the Business Submission Form

Setting screen showing part of the business form settings
Setting screen showing part of the business form settings
Plugin settings includes many options for the admin to manage the business submission form.

Define which fields should appear. Which fields will be mandatory and what is the label which will be shown beside each field.


User Dashboard for the Business Submissions

The plugin support a user dashboard for logged-in users which let them see all their existing listings and manage them.

Since business owners are not necessarily defined as WordPress users this dashboard will be usable just in cases where new business submission is made by logged-in users.

User Dashboard
User Dashboard

Claiming Existing Business

Claim existing business form
Claim existing business form
Let users claim existing business. When the feature is enabled, a small link will appear in all business pages which are currently not assigned to a business owner.

Users can fill up their email and name and submit a claim request. if approved this business will be assigned to the user and a password will be sent to him to manage the business page.


Business Claim Dashboard

Manage all claims from a single, informative dashboards.

Accept, reject or delete each submission with a click.

Easily resend the email about the process to the claimers.

Online Demo: ListWP.com

Managing all claim requests
Managing all claim requests

Using the Business Directory Community

  • Submit Business Listing – Allow users to submit a new business listing Preview
  • Update Your Business Page – Allow users to edit and update an existing business listing Preview
  • Claim an Existing Business – Allow users to claim an existing business listing already in the directory Preview


Business Directory Community Use Case Examples

  • Business Listings – A quick way to list investment, career, real estate and consulting services with user-generated content
  • City Listings – Make a website directory of your city plumber, law professionals and cleaning service listings, purely generated by user inputs. Encourage users through marketing campaigns and let the content generate itself
  • Niche Listings – The plugin concept can be used for any listing imaginable, from tech companies to beauty practicians, and the best part it is powered by user content generation. All you have to do is market your website and give users a reason to submit listings


Business Directory Community Related Use Cases


Business Directory Community Prerequisite Plugin

You need to have CM Business Directory plugin installed before using the community addon

Business Directory Community Plugin Features

  • Shortcode support a form with Captcha for submitting and managing businesses
  • Define what fields are mandatory in the new business form
  • Turn On/off business claim feature
  • Turn On/off forgot password feature
  • Let users attach documents of any extension to their page/li>
  • Manage users username and password for managing their business
  • Send notifications to the business owner
  • Change all labels related to the business form
  • Moderate new business postings
  • Let logged-in users manage listings via a dashboard

Business Directory Community Features in Details

Please check the user guide to learn more about this plugin.

Add a Business form – Using a shortcode admin can place a form where business owners can post new businesses and edit existing. The form mandatory fields are controlled from the admin settings.

Terms of Service – Require users to accept a TOS prompt before suggesting a business. Imprescindible for following GDPR rules
Claim your Business – Each business page which is not already assigned to a business owner can show claim your business form. Once posted admin can moderate and assign a business owner to this business page.

Password Recovery – Once business is claims, business owner can ask to recover password. An email notification will be sent to the business owner registered email address.

AddOn Settings – AddOn settings includes Moderation settings of who can moderate new businesses added and notifications settings.

Business Owner Email – Once claimed business owner email appear in the business edit page from the admin dashboard. Admin can update email and also send password recovery notification.

AddOn Labels – All labels related to the business details and form are editable. Admin can also define which field is mandatory.

Claims Dashboard – Manage all claim requests from a single dashboard

Business Directory Community Image Gallery

Back-end Gallery

Business Directory Online Demo

Business Directory Community Demo

Business Directory Community Frequently Asked Questions

Please check the user guide to learn more about this plugin.

What is the benefit of this add-on?

The Community add-on for the Business Directory plugin allows visitors to your site to Create new business listings or to Claim existing listings.

This can allow you to outsource some of the work of creating and managing content on your site to your users. It also means that business owners can have the creative control over their listings and who knows a business better than those who set it up in the first place?

To learn more about this feature see this Help article.

Can I create listings and reach out to the business owners to see if they would like to manage them?

Yes, there is a Business Claim feature built into the add-on. You can also hide the Add new Business form from users, leaving them with only the option to Claim business that you have added.

To learn more about this feature see this Help article.

Is there any sort of User dashboard for managing directory listings that have been submitted or claimed?

Yes. Once a user logs into your WordPress site they can go to the Dashboard page which you can create on any page or post on the site with the insertion of the included dashboard shortcode.

From here they can View their previously added or claimed listings, edit them or delete them if they choose (still pending admin moderation if you have this feature enabled.

They can also suggest new business listings from here.

To learn more about this feature see this Help article.

Is there any way to charge my site users for adding or claiming business listings on my directory?

Yes, you can charge for both adding new businesses to the directory and claiming existing ones. For this you will require the Business Directory Payments add-on.

To learn more about this feature see this Help article.

Would you recommend this for adding a directory of professional individuals? (E.g. a Carpenders Directory or other tradespersons?)

This addon could effectively manage this, but we have another addon that is more suited for this purpose called the Members Directory add-on which might better match your needs.

Is there any way to prevent Spam or Malicious content from being added to my directory?

There are two safety features built into the add-on. Re-captcha and Moderation.

Re-captcha can help to prevent attacks by bots harming your site content quality and performance and Moderation allows you to manually filter out nuisance visitors submissions and to check content quality before it goes live

To learn more about this feature see this Help article.

Do listing owners have to have access to or be registered users on my WordPress site to be able to own and managing directory listings?

No, not at all. When a business owner creates a new listing or claims an existing one and passes moderation (if the moderation features is enabled) they will receive log in credentials and a link in their email.

Using this link they can then go to your site and manage their listing without having to be logged in on the site. They don’t have to have a user account at all!

To learn more about this feature see this Help article.

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