Oklahoma – Directory & Listings WordPress Theme

You sold the top spot and a banner swallowed it

A business pays to stand out in your directory and, when it opens its category page, the first thing it sees is another company's ad. Neither payment is wrong on its own. The problem appears when the same screen is sold twice.

In a directory, the sponsored listing and the ad space compete for the same attention, so it pays to decide what is sold on each screen. Oklahoma, by ModelTheme, is a directory and listings theme that brings both income sources and lets you keep them apart: normal and sponsored listings on one side, and ad spaces placed by page type on the other.

Three ways to charge, and where each one lives

• Sponsored listings. Whoever publishes can choose between a normal or sponsored listing, and the panel has its own sponsored package section.
• Publishing packages. You can offer free and paid submissions. The demo has three tiers, and the paid ones lead to the WooCommerce cart.
• Ad spaces. The MT AdPlaces section places banners or AdSense on the listing, in blog posts, in search, in categories and in listing lists. It also covers the footer and sidebars.

A practical way to start is to reserve categories and search for sponsored content, and leave banners for the blog and footer. That is our own combination, so test it with your advertisers.

What visitors use to find a business

• Multi-filter search by location, type, tags and text, with suggestions as they type.
• Results map to search by area, now with Leaflet instead of Google Maps.
• Reviews by criteria, such as atmosphere, pricing and staff.
• Complete listings, with tagline, contact details, social networks, features, working hours and video.
• Price per day, per month and per sale on the listing, useful for rentals and for car, boat or property ads.
• Event countdowns and a dedicated page for them.

The part that depends on whoever publishes

Each advertiser has an account of their own with their listings, reviews, events and orders. They can create and edit listings from the front end, and register with a social network. Final approval of each submission belongs to the administrator.

That review is your work, and it grows with the directory. Keep it in mind if you plan to open submissions to anyone from day one.

Payment is handled by WooCommerce, so payment gateways are configured there and not inside the theme. Layout relies on WPBakery, included in the package, and the theme is not optimized for the block editor.

Setting up the directory step by step

You need WordPress and WooCommerce, the latter for the My Account page. The theme also works with WPML and Contact Form 7. The steps are:

1. Upload oklahoma.zip from Appearance, Themes, or the oklahoma folder by FTP to wp-content/themes, and activate it.
2. Install the recommended plugins, including the theme panel and ModelTheme Listings.
3. Import the content from Oklahoma Theme Panel, Demo Importer. The demo has six homepages.
4. Review MT Listing Settings: general settings, archive pages, sponsored package and single listing.
5. Create your first listing in MT Listings, Add New, and place the ads in MT AdPlaces.
6. Check the map. The current engine needs no key, although the panel may still show the API KEY Maps section.

When the business calls for bookings or more listing types

Listeo is built around bookings by day, by time slot or with a ticket and QR code. MyListing allows unlimited listing types, each with its own form and search. OneListing is the theme designed for the Directorist plugin. UrbanGo is aimed at local guides with membership modules.

Maps, languages and the look of the directory

Is it only for local businesses?

No. It handles directories of restaurants, hotels, shops, cafes or ATMs, and ads for cars, boats, property and second-hand items.

Is a Google Maps key needed?

The current maps engine uses Leaflet, which is free and works without a key.

Can the directory be translated?

It is compatible with WPML, and includes .pot files for the theme and its plugins.

How far can the look be changed?

The panel uses Redux and covers more than 600 Google Fonts, colors, several headers, footer and unlimited sidebars.