Sabai Directory

Building a local directory often starts with a spreadsheet of businesses and ends in a site where nobody leaves reviews, owners cannot fix their own details and every listing is handled by email. Sabai Directory covers that whole circuit, from the moment someone searches to the moment a business pays to stand out.

A directory lives on what users contribute, not on what you load yourself

Most new directories fail because the administrator fills in listings and then nobody shows up to give opinions. Sabai Directory is designed for the opposite model, that of Yelp or Yahoo! Local: users post reviews, upload photos, comment, vote on whether an opinion was helpful and bookmark favorites. Without that participation, the plugin gives you an empty structure, so your plan for getting the first reviews matters as much as the installation.

Walkthrough: from search to review with Sabai Directory

1. The visitor searches

They can search by keyword, category, distance and location, with auto-suggestions, and sort by date, number of reviews, rating or distance. Results appear as a list, a grid or a map. The map is interactive: it shows details on hover or click, refreshes results when dragged and clusters markers. There are 16 Google Maps styles and also OpenStreetMap support.

2. Filter with the fields you define

With a visual editor you create custom fields (choice, date, number, phone, email, video, file or image upload, among others) and you can filter listings and reviews by them. A restaurant directory filters by type of cuisine; a repair shop directory, by specialty.

3. Open the listing and rate

Each business can have several locations, its own tabs on its page and directions on the map. Reviews support 1 to 5 stars with several criteria you define (price, quality, service, etc.) and rating charts. Listings, reviews, photos and comments can be flagged, which gives you a moderation channel, but you will have to review those reports yourself.

4. The owner claims their business

Users can add new listings or claim existing ones. The owner manages from a dashboard their listings, the leads received (if there are claimed listings), their payment orders and their bookmarks. Visitors can write to them through a contact form.

5. The business pays to stand out

You can charge for listings with your own pricing plans, show pricing tables and mark listings as featured. The gateways are PayPal, Authorize.net, 2Checkout and Stripe, plus manual payments. PayPal and Stripe allow recurring charges (weekly, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual) with a trial period. Orders have a complete history.

Frequently asked questions about Sabai Directory

Can I have several directories on the same site?

Yes, the plugin lets you create several directories, and hierarchical categories are unlimited, with a different map marker per category.

Can I import my businesses from a spreadsheet?

It includes a CSV importer and exporter.

Does it integrate with communities?

Yes, with BuddyPress profile and activity and with the myCRED points system.

Can it be translated or used in right-to-left languages?

It supports RTL languages and includes French, Dutch and Italian translations. It also comes with 27 customizable email notifications, 11 widgets and 12 shortcodes.

A decision to make first: this plugin has a successor

Its own author released another plugin in May 2018, Directories Pro, based on WordPress content types and taxonomies and with more features, and recommends that one for anyone starting from scratch. Sabai Directory fits if you already have a project built with it, or if you like its approach and its user dashboard. If you are starting from scratch, compare both before committing, because migrating a directory with hundreds of listings later is serious work.

Take care with the data you publish

With user reviews and claimed listings, you should moderate and watch for fake or biased reviews. The plugin includes role-based permissions and Schema.org microdata support to describe listings to search engines.