Business Directory Costs: What does it cost to develop a professional business directory?

A business‑directory website can be an interesting source of passive income. But not every directory site earns money as expected despite the business‑directory costs—only the good ones do. Think of sites like Yelp, Angie’s List and Google+, which always rank #1 because they offer great content and genuine reviews.

We believe that many newly created websites lack personality and focus. Moreover, there are already plenty of sites riding at the top. However, there is still enough space to join them and carve out your own market that can generate revenue.

Nonetheless, you should start your venture for the right reasons in spite of the business‑directory costs. Earning more money is certainly motivating, but if you want to launch a business directory, you need the necessary interest and enthusiasm for the topic.

Choose the type of directory you want to start

You can launch a directory website for almost any industry or purpose, allowing members to add all kinds of rich content like videos, articles, special offers and photo galleries. There are several types of online directories you can create. The most common are local business directories, professional‑service directories, member directories or association websites. The associated business‑directory costs can vary but generally fall within the same range. The costs for building any type of directory are usually similar, as the required technical development work is comparable.

Choose how you want to build your online directory

There are several ways to do this. You could, for example, hire a developer and a web designer to create your own directory script. While these business‑directory costs are the most expensive part, they yield optimal results—your site will not only be unique but also fully scalable. However, caution is advised, as many web‑development agencies actually use a generic theme and charge you heavily for it. Also make sure you know the business‑directory costs included in ongoing maintenance and whether your service covers them.

If you’re looking for a cost‑effective solution, you can use a WordPress directory theme or a WordPress directory plugin. You will still need someone with the right technical knowledge, though, to keep maintenance costs low and handle site upkeep. Another challenge of building a directory with WordPress is that WordPress wasn’t built for directories; it was designed for publishing blogs. You therefore have to invest a lot of time connecting various components. WordPress is not ideally suited to scaling a powerful directory solution.

Wire Framing, Project Management and Graphic Design

Every complex web‑development project—such as a directory or other database‑driven site—requires extensive project management, including wireframes to ensure smooth execution and map out the user experience. Naturally, you also have to factor in the business‑directory costs for branding graphics and custom web design—the look and feel of the site.

If you want a professional agency to build your directory, the business‑directory costs depend on how large or custom your site is and how many different bespoke features must be developed. Costs also vary with the number of developers required and their working hours. With a development team and a timeline of 3–12 months, the business‑directory costs can add up faster than you’d like.

Features

Needless to say, the more features you want, the higher the business‑directory costs:

Profiles: People must be able to register and list their property.

Listing pages, search results and much more: You now need to consider listing pages once a search is run. How will a result be displayed—can users see only a table of results, or can they click an entry and review a detailed profile or results page?

Payments: An e‑commerce solution is required. Perhaps you want free trials or recurring payments, and so on.

Other integrations: Maybe you do all your accounting through Xero and want seamless integration with your site to send invoices automatically and track payments?

Of course, there are many more features to consider, such as autoresponders enabling users to reset passwords, edit account information, upload updated business data, and so forth—depending on the type of online business.

Domain and Hosting

You need a reliable host that can handle high traffic and hundreds of business listings, since directory entries may include content, images and videos. While this adds to your business‑directory costs, it provides many benefits.

The URL or domain name is what people type into their browser to reach your site. Without it, the only way to visit would be by entering the IP address. Domain fees also add to your business‑directory costs. They usually range between $10 and $20. For a custom extension (e.g., .restaurant, .online, etc.), you may face premiums of $200–$300 per year, depending on the option.

Design

Do you want your site to reflect the latest design trends and truly outperform the competition? Then you need to expect higher business‑directory costs—but they will pay off later.

Experienced, creative designers aren’t inexpensive talent. It takes careful thought and experience to weave unique elements into your design.

Once an innovative design is complete, custom coding is required to bring everything to life on your site.

The new StudioPress website, for example, contains some great hand‑drawn illustrations that animate on hover. This level of design detail also increases business‑directory costs.

Design work that comes at a price:

• Animations
• Illustrations
• Custom icons and graphics
• Custom page layouts
• Image editing or special photo treatments
• Video and video backgrounds
• Infographics
• Mobile‑specific design or layouts

High‑quality Content

Publishing and maintaining high‑quality content is a key factor in bringing new, qualified visitors to your site. Start with a content‑creation schedule for your directory website. Either hire good writers with extensive industry knowledge or create the content yourself to keep business‑directory costs down.

You should allocate a budget within your business‑directory costs for content creation. Quality content always pays off long‑term and helps you grow your directory enormously.

Here are a few easy steps to kick‑start your content strategy:

• Start a blog on your site and begin blogging about the industry your directory serves—sharing tips and resources.
• Create infographics about your industry, filled with facts and other tips.
• Create video slideshows and post them on YouTube with links back to your site.

Marketing

Marketing costs are not really defined and can range from €1,000 to €100,000. However, the results aren’t always tied to the size of the investment. With truly creative marketing, you can achieve an amazing ROI and grow your directory enormously with low business‑directory costs.

Here are some of the channels you can use:

• Paid search‑engine advertising
• Buying banner space on other websites
• Television
• Radio
• Sending letters and postcards
• Flyers

Conclusion