Getting Your Business Directory Started

Typical layout

  1. Below is a standard layout of an Our Hometown directory site, using GeoDirectory.
  2. All the directory pages are based on this layout.
  3. The default Design settings only use the GD Right Section and not the GD Left Section, because that is the most common layout.
  4. Also, the GD Bottom Section is not enabled by default, although this section allows you to add content to the bottom of your GD pages you maybe do not want in the footer section of your non-GD pages.
  5. You can adjust the settings for these by going to WP Admin > GeoDirectory > Design.
Header section
Part of your theme: logo, header menu etc
Top section
Use GD widgets here like map, popular categories etc
Left section
Used for sidebar widgets		 Content section
This content will vary depending on whether this is your directory home page, Listings page, Detail page or  Directory Search page		 Right section
Used for sidebar widgets
Bottom section
Footer section
Part of your theme: footer menus, copyright text etc

Home page

  1. This page is the home page for each of the locations in your installation (including countries, regions and cities).
  2. Normally, you’d want the map in the top section.
  3. Without the Location Manager turned on, you will only have one location.

Examples:

  • yoursite.com/location will show all listings
  • yoursite.com/location/belgium will show all listings in Belgium
  • yoursite.com/location/united-kingdon/greater-london will show all listings in Greater London
  • yoursite.com/location/italy/lombardia/milano will show all listings in Milan

Listings page

  1. This is the template that will display a list of all listings in a particular category or custom post type, and will show different listings depending on location and category requested.

Examples:

  • yoursite.com/attractions will show all listed attractions
  • yoursite.com/hotels/finland will show all listed hotels in Finland

Search page

  1. You guessed it, this is the page displaying the result of a GD search.

Detail page

  1. The detail template is used to display all the detail of each of your listings.
  2. It will display all the information one of your users has submitted about their place, business, organization or event etc.

Author page

  1. This is the page displaying content specific to your users when they are logged in; it is your users’ dashboard.
  2. It will list their favorite listings and/or events, and the listings they have submitted themselves.

Directory management pages

Add Listing

  1. This page is only available to registered users.
  2. Different Add Listing pages will be created for each Custom Post Type.
  3. You can also create this page with shortcodes.

Listing Preview

  1. Once a user has entered all data, this page allows for a review, and for changes to be made if required.

Checkout

  1. If charging a fee for submissions using the Payments Manager, the user will be taken to this page once they reviewed their submitted data.
  2. For free listings, this page gets by-passed.

Listing Success

  1. This is the last page in the free submission process, and provides a link to the newly created listing.

Info

  1. This page is used to display messages like payment received etc.
  2. For paid listings, it will display payment received details etc, and provide a link to the newly created listing.

Manage Invoices

  1. This page lists all invoices of a user if you are using the Payments Manager.
  2. This page uses the Author right sidebar.
  3. Example:

Other pages

Login

  1. This is used for both registration and login in a default setup.