Want to build a WordPress church directory website? With our business directory plugin, you'll have no trouble creating online directories for those with faith.
If you're looking to create a WordPress church directory, you're in the right place. By now, you may have noticed there are actually a lot of options! Should you use a WordPress theme? A WordPress plugin?
Have faith! The answer is closer than you think. A quick search of the WordPress.org plugin directory reveals many options. But today we are going to show you a plugin that has over 30,000 active users. It's called the Business Directory Plugin.
Business Directory Plugin for a WordPress Church Directory?
Although a church is not technically a business, a church directory is very similar to a business directory. Here's what you'll need if you want to create a directory of church websites:
- Add a listing to any page on your site with a shortcode
- Create forms with fully customizable fields for submitting listings
- Make a free directory, or accept one-time or recurring payments
- Charge a fee for featured listings
- Enable reCAPTCHA to block spam listings
- Allow users to edit their listings from the front end
And guess what? Business Directory Plugin has all the above features included in our free plugin! If you want to pump up the volume, here are some of our premium features:
- Set up coupons and discount codes
- Add Google Maps embeds to listings
- Allow users to search with zip codes
- Allow users to claim existing listings
- Offer different levels of featured listings
- Add a 5-star rating system to your listings
So yes, our users build store directories and restaurant directories – but church directories are also very much on the list.
Does the Business Directory Plugin work with any theme?
At this point, you may have already purchased a church theme or another WordPress theme. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't use our plugin. Our tools were created to work with whatever theme you've got.
We also have built-in directory theme templates. These work by adjusting only the directory listing components of your site. So your WordPress theme styles will remain untouched! Our templates are responsive just like most themes, so compatibility won't be an issue.
Building your church directory in WordPress
Rather than showing you every step in building a WordPress church directory, we're going to take a shortcut. That's because we've already written a great step by step guide!
Learn more: How to Create a Business Directory in WordPress
Again, don't be scared off by the term “business” – the steps in creating a WordPress church directory are exactly the same. Let's consider the church-specific aspects of a directory site to see if the Business Directory Plugin is right for you.
We'll also assume your hosting and WordPress installation is good to go. If not, check out Siteground – they actually install WordPress on your website with a few clicks!
Let's consider the following questions when building a church directory site.
What type of church directory site are you building?
When it comes to a church directory, there are 2 types that come to mind:
- Classic directory listings style site
- Member directory for people at one church group
If you are hoping to build a classic directory, make sure you can say yes to these 3 questions:
- You want to list all the churches in a specific region
- Users will submit their church's information to your site
- Specific members of each church may leave public reviews and ratings on the site
A classic directory site is a public listing. It's meant to be searchable so online users can find what they are looking for.
How about a membership directory for a single church group?
If you are instead looking to build a directory site just for members of a specific church, that's a little different. We'd suggest looking into some different tools for that, depending on the scope of the project.
If the scope is smaller, you could create a user directory with a WordPress form builder. One plugin we like is Formidable Forms – well… they are our sister company, so of course, we like them a lot!
If the scope of your site is larger, then you might need something a bit more powerful. It's not that Formidable Forms isn't powerful, it's just that further customization might require some coding.
So if you are hoping to automate things like recurring events, prayer requests, and other messages directly to users, consider a membership plugin like MemberPress. This plugin can turn WordPress sites into powerful membership platforms.
MemberPress has even put together a full guide to building a business directory within a membership site… so theoretically you could build a private listings site. The best of both worlds!
Wrapping up
So if you're planning on building a WordPress church directory, we hope this article has left you inspired. Thanks for stopping by and good luck with your site!
What are you waiting for? Check out our premium plans and get started today!
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