If you are, then this article will help you with easy-to-follow steps.

Understanding the Value of the Directory Name

Let's dissect a sample URL for a Business Directory Plugin listing. In the address https://mywebsite.com/business-directory/658/sample-listing/ the following image shows you the parts of the address:

This guide will walk you through how to change these parts of the listing addresses in your directory.

Business Directory Plugin creates a default page called “Business Directory” if you use the automatic setting to create pages. We know that many of our users install our plugin to use for all kinds of directories, so you may want to change your directory name to match the goals of your website.

For example, if your website is about athletes in your area, you may want to call your directory “Athlete Directory” or even “Baker County Athletes” depending on your target audience and the current content of your website. You'll want to choose a name that allows you to grow as well, so if you think your site will eventually house athlete profiles for the entire state you live in, perhaps Athlete Directory is the best choice.

Give that decision some thought, because the goal here is to be as descriptive as possible so that you don't have to change this after you start adding listings. Why? Because once the search engines start indexing your site, changing the slug at that point can negatively impact your SEO. This can be addressed by using 301 redirects if you decide to rename the directory later, but the best strategy is to name your directory thoughtfully at the start.

How to change the directory name

You’ll need to find the Directory page in WordPress → Pages. Once you locate that, edit the page and rename it. Be sure to change the permalink settings as well.

Change both the page title and the permalink

Do I need to use the listing ID?

The listing ID is shown in the URL example near the top of this page and is a number assigned by the plugin to every listing.  Using the listing ID has pros and cons, so let's consider some examples of when to remove it.

Leave the Listing ID enabled when you think the slugs of your listings may change. Why? Because if the page is indexed by search engines already, the search engine can still locate the listing even if the slug of the listing has changed because the number won't have changed — only the information after it. In fact, any links pointing to the directory listing that has the ID included will always work because it has the number.

Leave the listing ID turned on when listings' names may change, or if you are not sure if they will change.

Remove the Listing ID if you think the listing slugs will always stay the same.  If you are listing government offices, for example, they likely won't be changing names anytime soon. But it's possible that you are listing startup businesses where names may change frequently.

For example, a business name could change from Lyla's Fashion Boutique to Lyla's Couture to Lyla's Bespoke Threads based on trends and shifts in the business. In that instance, you'll want to leave the listing ID enabled.

Of course, you can remove the listing ID and get around these limitations by using 301 redirects, but if a listing owner wants to change the slug of their listing URL to better match the name of their business, you would need to know beforehand so you could set that up. Listings owners would need a way to contact you about making that change, as changing the slug is not something that users can do – only admins. As a result, it is good to give this some thought while you're setting up your directory.

It's important to consider the options and make an educated guess based on the content of your directory.

All about Slugs

No, not the slimy creepy-crawly kind — the kind that is part of your directory listings' website address or URL. In the image at the top of the page, we broke down the parts of a Business Directory Plugin listing URL. We've learned how to change the directory page name, now let's look at how to change the rest of the address.

How to change the slugs

You can see all of the slugs for the directory and change them in one place. Go to Directory →  Settings → General → SEO and you can easily change these settings:

Some rules for changing the names of your slugs that are common to all slugs in the Business Directory Plugin are that they must not contain spaces or remain empty, and you should avoid common terms which are likely already in use, like “category” or “tag”.

Below you will find the three main slugs that Business Directory Plugin uses and examples of what they look like.

Directory Listings Slug

This slug is currently only used when CPT integration is disabled. That is done only with certain themes if you run into problems, but this can become part of the main directory URL.

Categories Slug

When you click on a category in the directory, the page has a specific URL that includes the category name. 

Like naming your directory, give careful consideration to naming your categories as well. As a reminder, the categories for the Business Directory Plugin are not the same as your WordPress post categories. You can learn more about categories in our categories article.

Tags Slug

Tags are used to add additional clarifying information to a listing and to help your users find what they are looking for in your directory.  The tags slug is used in the tag display URL. Here's an example from our earlier discussion of a directory for athletes in Baker County: 

You can see how these additional slugs could help you increase the SEO value of your directory listings. Use keywords and phrases and be descriptive with your directory name, your categories and tags, and your slugs, and you will be well on your way to providing excellent search results for your directory listings.

Thank you for your purchase and welcome to the Business Directory Plugin family! We know there is a lot to do to launch your directory, so we won't keep you long here. You may want to bookmark this page in case you want to visit again in the future.

Below, we've outlined the plans and the modules they contain and have included links to get you started with each. Take your time!

The Business Directory Premium Module

All plan holders, including users with the now grandfathered-in Combo Pack, should install Business Directory Premium. Installing this module will get you exclusive layouts and other cool features that only package holders get. You also only need one license key to activate the module.

You can access all of your account information, including module downloads, at https://businessdirectoryplugin.com by logging in with the information you used when you first made the purchase. You can also reset your password there if needed.

From the Downloads page, you can see the modules that are included in your package. You can download and install any of those modules here, including Business Directory Premium:

If you have questions about how to download and install the plugins, please see our installation guide.

Activating your License

For new license holders, once you have uploaded Business Directory Premium to your WordPress setup, you will be ready to activate the license for it. This is the only license key you'll need for all of your modules!

1. Go to the Directory → Settings → General page and add your license key from the downloads page.

Once activated, you are ready for the next step!

Go to Directory > Modules and install/activate your desired modules from there – this is super easy!

There are three potential statuses here – Active, Installed, Not Installed. These statuses will change depending on your settings. You can Activate and Install modules from this page; however, to deactivate any modules, you'll need to use the regular WordPress plugin dashboard.

Themes

Elite plan-holders also have access to our Premium Themes. Check out our Theme Setup Guide here.

If you hold any other plan type, you can view the themes we have available right now on our themes page. Themes can be purchased individually once you are a plan holder. You'll need to be logged into your account before the “add to cart” button appears.

Other Helpful Articles

All finished? Here are some optional articles for you that our users find very helpful:

• Featured Listings
• CSV Imports & Exports 
• Customization Guide
• WPML Integration

We are committed to your success online, so reach out to our support team at any time.

You can manage the featured listing settings in the plan itself under Directory → Directory Content → Plans. Here is a screenshot of that setting:
​
​
​

Please note: If you already have listings that have been assigned to a plan and you change the settings, those changes won't take effect on listings that are already on that plan. However, it will be added to new listings added to the plan in the future.
​
​In order to update the old listings, you need to change the plan to something else and save the changes, then change them back to the one with the featured listing attribute.
​
You can learn more about plans in this article.

Business Directory is prepared to work with WPML. You don’t need to enable or configure anything.
Business Directory will try to honor your WPML settings and act accordingly. That being said, there are some things to consider when using WPML to translate your directory:

• Familiarize yourself with WPML. Read the Getting started guide available at WPML.org.
• In order to translate your directory, the first thing you need to do is translate the page containing the main shortcode (i.e., the main directory page) to each one of the languages you intend to support. These translated pages should still contain the main shortcode ([businessdirectory]) but you can name them in the correct language.
• Since listings are just custom posts and categories/regions/tags are custom taxonomies, you can use WPML to provide translations for all the content managed via Business Directory Plugin.

Translating form fields and fees

To translate form fields and fees, you need to install the String Translation module from WPML.
Once the module has been installed and activated, you’ll find a menu item called String Translation under the WPML menu, where it is possible to provide translations for field labels and descriptions as well as fee names and descriptions.

You can filter by domain Business Directory Plugin if you only want to see strings related to Business Directory.
For more information on how to use the String Translation Module, please visit the Getting Started guide at WPML.org.

Important: If, for some reason, you don’t see fields and/or fees strings on the String Translation screen, try visiting the form fields screen (Directory → Directory Content → Form Fields) and/or the fees screen (Directory → Directory Content → Plans) and save any item after editing it. You don’t actually have to change anything. The save will trigger a string database update.

Translating taxonomies (regions, categories, tags)

1. Read the Translating post categories and custom taxonomies guide from WPML.
2. Navigate to the Taxonomy translation tab (or WPML → Taxonomy translation). From here, select the taxonomy you want to Translate. Our WPML integration will already have set “Directory Categories” and “Directory Tags” to be translatable. If the Regions module is enabled, you will need to manually set “Directory Regions” to be translatable.
3. WPML offers several ways to translate taxonomy terms. You can do so while editing a term, but we recommend the use of the Taxonomy Translation screen (WPML menu) since it enables you to translate terms in batches.

Important

• Please keep in mind that once you decide to translate a taxonomy, untranslated terms will stop appearing on the front end when you browse a language-specific version of the directory. For instance, when you are browsing the Spanish version of the directory page, you’ll only see categories, tags, and regions that have been translated to Spanish. Untranslated regions (and their listings) won’t be available.
• (For Regions users) Since WPML translates terms by creating new entries in the database, translated Regions work independently from Regions in the original language. This results in the flags that control whether the region is enabled or displayed on the sidelist to now be language-specific.
  Settings from the original regions won’t be automatically migrated. You can filter regions by language using a row of filters that appears on top of your regions on the Regions screen:
• (For Enhanced Categories users) Due to the way WPML works, category images are language-specific. When you translate a category, you can assign it a category image that is shown only for that language. If no image is assigned, the image from the default language won’t be used for the translated term.

Translating listings

The Translate Everything mode uses automatic translation to translate site content
instantly and allows you to review and edit the translations before publishing. This makes the translation process faster and more affordable.

How Translate Everything works:
In WPML’s configuration wizard, on the Translation step, choose the Translate
Everything option along with your preferred translation reviewing option (Hold for
review before publishing, Publish and add to review list, or Publish without review).

Or, you can change your translation mode after the site’s setup by going to WPML →
Settings. Once you have completed configuring WPML, WPML will start translating the site content in the background.

WPML 4.5 comes with a new workflow to review the automatically translated content on your site’s front-end.

Here is how it works:
Click on the notification on the Translation Management screen. This takes you to
the Translations screen where you will find a list of all the content that is awaiting
review.

Click on the Review button. This takes you to the translated page on your site’s
front-end. On the review page, you can publish or accept the translation if you are happy with it or edit it using WPML’s Advanced Translation Editor.

Alternatively, you can translate your listings with the translation editor by follow the these steps:

1. Read WPML documentation on Using the translation editor.
2. Use any of the mechanisms available via WPML to translate your listings. One way to do so is to click the Plus [+] icon beside any untranslated listing on the Directory screen:
   When you’ve enabled the translation of listings, an additional row of filters will appear on top of your listings. You can use those filters to find untranslated content easily:

Important: If you chose to translate taxonomies (see above), you will only be able to assign already translated categories or regions to your translated listings. If you translated taxonomies, you can’t mix listings in a language with categories or regions in a different one, regardless of the original language. This also applies to the front end. Untranslated listings won’t appear inside translated categories or regions.

Changing the text labels for Business Directory is identical to Translating Business Directory for an entire language, except that you only need to change the strings inside the translation file that you want to change, leaving the rest untouched. This allows you a simple way to customize the labels of Business Directory without modifying the code.

To update some of the plugin’s labels, strings and messages, please follow these steps:

1. Start with the main POT file from Business Directory Plugin (in the wp-content/plugins/business-directory-plugin/languages directory of the plugin, named business-directory-plugin.pot)
2. Downloaded the POedit software (You can find it here)
3. Open the file, and search for the string(s) you wish to change. Change those labels in the file.
4. Save the file as business-directory-plugin-en_US.po on your local machine. Make sure POEdit also generated a business-directory-plugin-en_US.mo file; you’ll have to upload both of them to your server (SEE BELOW FOR THE RIGHT LOCATIONS!). Save a copy of those files on your local machine, just in case.
5. Upload BOTH of these new language-coded files to the wp-content/languages/plugins/ on your website’s server (if it does not exist, please CREATE this directory first).
6. WP 4.x users only: The language of the website should be configured directly through General Settings section in the WordPress Dashboard: http://YOURSITE//wp-admin/options-general.php, where YOURSITE is replaced by the domain name of your WordPress site. Pick the correct language setting and be sure to Save Settings. For more information on doing this, see this WordPress Codex page on Installing WordPress in your Language.
7. IMPORTANT: Be sure to flush any browser caching you have in addition to any WordPress/web hosting caching you have so that you can see your new strings.
8. View the page in your browser that you changed–you should see your custom message there. If not, double check the steps above and make sure the caches are flushed.

NOTE: Some labels are configured elsewhere For example, all form field labels are changed by going to Directory → Directory Content → Form Fields. Some strings are also in the Directory → Settings → General → SEO and Directory → Settings → Listings → General Settings tabs as well. Please be aware of this.

To install Business Directory from the WordPress.org repository, enter your site url here:

Or, if you prefer the step-by-step instructions, start by visiting the Plugins section of your WP admin panel. Enter “Business Directory” into the search box, click on Search Plugins. This will bring up the Business Directory Plugin install screen.

Click on Install Now. After the download is complete, click on Activate Plugin.

Business Directory is now installed and ready to configure.

Install Business Directory Premium

Any paid plan you choose includes the Business Directory Premium plugin.

1. Download the plugin first by clicking the big download button on your downloads page.
2. Go to Plugins → Add New in the WordPress admin panel.
3. Click on the Upload link, and then click on Browse Now to locate the ZIP file you just downloaded.
4. Click OK once you find it on your local computer.
5. Click the Install Now button to start the process.
6. After the installation completes, click the Activate Plugin link.
7. Go to the Directory → Settings page and add your license key from the downloads page.

After installing Business Directory Premium, do not remove Business Directory Plugin. Both plugins are needed.

*NOTE: If you are using Safari, the file may be automatically unzipped when you download it. You can change the default setting in Safari to only download the ZIP file and not unpack it. To do this:

1. Open Safari
2. Click Preferences
3. Under the General tab, uncheck the option Open “safe” files after downloading.

Install a Module

Follow these steps to manually install any plugins included in your plan:

1. The easiest way to install modules is to use the one-click method. First, install and authorize the Business Directory Premium plugin.
2. Once the plugin is authorized, go to the Directory → Modules page.
3. Click the Install button for the module you'd like to enable. This will install, activate, and authorize the plugin for you.

Initial Setup

After installing Business Directory, you will see a new section called Directory added to your WP Admin panel.

The Directory menu of the Admin Dashboard is where you perform basic operations with listings, such as creation, editing, deletion of a listing, categories, or tags.

Business Directory will install a shortcode on a page created by Business Directory during installation. This page is important and should not be hidden, made private, or deleted. It is the primary page that BD uses to display your directory on your site.

If you don't already have the pages for the directory created, Business Directory Plugin will offer to create them for you. You can then rename them as you wish.

Once all pages are created and the [businessdirectory] shortcode has been published on your directory page, you can begin using the directory.

Getting Started

You will want to follow the steps in our Quick Start Guide to get going with your directory! You can also access documentation for all modules here.

Updating Plugins

Plugin updates for Business Directory Plugin and the modules will be available from your WordPress plugins page. Each site will check for updates from our site every 24 hours. If you don't see an update immediately, that is normal.

Troubleshooting Updates

If an update is available and fails, please take these steps to get more information. “Unauthorized” is an example of an error you may see.

1. Go to the WordPress Dashboard → Updates page.
2. Check the box to update the plugin you are having trouble with that click Update Plugins.
3. On the next page you will see the steps the site is taking to update the plugin. This will tell you where it fails. For example, you may see messages like this:

   Enabling Maintenance mode…
   
   Updating Plugin Business Directory Plugin - Restrictions Module (1/1)
   Downloading update from https://businessdirectoryplugin.com/more-stuff-here…
   An error occurred while updating Business Directory Plugin - Restrictions Module: Download failed. Unauthorized

4. If you get a similar error message with a url, copy the full url without the trailing “…” and paste it into your browser.
5. Now you will get a page with details on why the download is not being allowed.
6. If you have questions about this error message, please contact our team in support.

Troubleshooting

If you get an error when you attempt to authorize Business Directory Plugin, please look through the error messages below to find the one that matches the message you received. This page lists the most common errors and provides a starting point for fixing them. If you can't find your answers here, please contact us for assistance.

Error communicating with Business Directory API

Your web host may be blocking communication with businessdirectoryplugin.com. You can contact them and ask for the IP 52.0.78.177 to be granted access, or add this IP to your white list if you have one in your web control panel.

It is also possible that cURL is not enabled on your server. If you're not sure how to check this, contact your host to find out.

If that does not get rid of the error message, you may be behind a corporate firewall that is preventing communication with formidableforms.com. Please contact us for assistance.

cURL error 35

If you're seeing this error message: “You had an error communicating with the Business Directory API. Click here for more information. cURL error 35”, then it is possible that the version of cURL is not updated on your server. If you're not sure how to check this, contact your host to find out and have them update it.

Your server may also be running an outdated version of OpenSSL and TLS. To avoid any security issues, ask your web host to enable support for the current version of TLS.

To check the SSL/TLS setup of your server, use this TLS Checker. Share this information with your web host and have them update this in your server.

GnuTLS recv error

If you see this error message when trying to authorize a plugin, this means GnuTLS is outdated on your server. The best solution is to contact your web host and have them fix this on your server. Without a fix, this means your site cannot communicate with any SSL sites, including Google. If you are using a reCaptcha on your site, you'll need to ask your host to resolve the issue.

You should then be able to authorize your license on this site without a problem.

That license key is invalid

You may be entering your information incorrectly or you paid with an eCheck so your transaction hasn’t been completed. Copy and paste the license key from your license page to double-check.

That license has been used on too many sites

If you are trying to use your license key on more sites than your license allows, this error message will appear. See how to deauthorize a site.

For information on how many sites your package includes, see your downloads page. Please note that there is no limit on local sites.

Invalid Site URL

This error means that the site URLs on your WP general settings page are invalid. Check your settings to make sure they contain valid URLs.