In WordPress, widgets are small blocks of content that you can add to your website. Each widget can add a special feature or functionality to your site, without any code.
Where can you add widgets on your site?
It all depends on your WordPress theme. Many themes have sidebar and footer widget areas. Some also allow you to place widgets in the header, homepage, or other areas of your site.
Directory Widgets
Business Directory Plugin comes with a variety of widgets to display listings. They can be placed wherever your theme allows widgets. You can find them under Appearance → Widgets in WordPress:
- Search
- Region Search (comes with Region Module)
- Location Search (comes with ZIP Search Module)
- Latest Listings
- Random Listings
- Featured Listings
Search Widgets
Basic Search
This widget can be used to place a search form in a widgetized area on your page. The basic mode will search listing titles, categories and description fields by default.
And here is the result on the site:
Advanced Search Widget
If you want to add additional fields to be searched, you would choose the Advanced option and select multiple fields search. You can select more than one field by holding down the Ctrl or Cmd button on your keyboard while making selections:
And here is what that looks like on the front-end:
Region Search
This widget is available with the Regions module and it adds a quick Regions search area on the page.
You can change the widget title as well as select the region fields you’d like to include in the search form. You can also choose the number of matching listings to return in search results. Here is what that looks like on the front-end:
Location Search
This widget comes with the Zip search module. It allows you to add a quick Zip search form on the page. You can also include a category search field with Zip search.
The widget allows you to change the title and select from the following:
Display Settings
- Hide Search Mode Selector – When selected, the widget will only search for the provided zip code
- Hide Category field selector – When selected, the category field will not be included with the zip search
Default Search Mode
- By Postal Code only
- Distance Search
Standard Directory Widgets
Featured Listings, Latest Listings, and Random Listings
These widgets allow you to display listings from your directory with full control over the size and placement of your images. You can also choose which fields should be included.
Widget Settings
Title – By default, the name of the widget will show, but the text can be modified to anything you'd like.
Number of Listings to display – Defaults to 5 and can be changed to the number you prefer.
Display listings in random order – Only applies to the Featured Listing widget. Toggle on or off.
Thumbnail Settings
The thumbnail settings control the media that show up in your widget.
Show thumbnails – toggle on or off
Use “Coming Soon” photo for listings without an image – toggle on or off
Image width, height, in pixels – customize to your preference and the space where the widget is being displayed
Thumbnail Positions (Desktop, Mobile) – place the image differently for better desktop or mobile viewing experiences.
Fields
The final area of customization for widgets is which fields you'd like to have displayed. You can choose from any field you have added to your listings.
This is an example of what the Random Listings widget might look like on your site when changing the name of the widget to “Visit These Listings” and choosing some fields to display:
This is an example of what the Random Listings widget might look like on your site when changing the name of the widget to “Support these local businesses” and choosing different fields to display. We've also changed the image to be on the right side of the listing with a simple setting change:
