Software package

Business directory package

A ready-to-configure directory where listings carry category-specific fields and nested areas, owners claim by a code sent to the listed channel, edits pass through a moderation queue, packages and featured placement are labelled on the page, and each owner sees how many enquiries their listing produced.

Custom build Concept demo

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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Local and niche directory operators, from a sole publisher running a town directory with a few hundred listings to a small team maintaining a regional or trade directory with tens of thousands. It suits operators who want imports and claims to run on rules, editors who moderate owner edits and reviews every day, a sales side that sells packages and needs renewal dates in front of them, and business owners who want to update their own listing and see what it brings in.

Not the right fit

It is not for a B2B database with company size, sector codes and list export for members, which is the company directory package; it is not for person-level practitioner profiles with qualifications and appointment requests, which is the specialist directory package; and it is not a reviews platform, where the review rather than the listing is the product. It is also not for a business wanting a single page about itself.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

Monday morning.

The editor opens the moderation queue: eleven owner edits overnight, two new claims and a supplier update file waiting.
The first edit changes a plumber's opening hours; the diff shows the old and new values, the editor approves and the listing updates.
The second adds a website link to a domain that does not match the listed one, so the editor asks the owner for confirmation through the platform message rather than guessing.
A claim came in for a café by email to an address at the café's own domain; the code was entered, the claim is recorded with the channel and time, and the owner now sees a dashboard with their listing, its enquiry count for the month and the package options.

The supplier file holds three thousand records.

The import runs against the deduplication rules: two thousand match existing listings exactly and refresh only fields the owner has not edited themselves, six hundred are new, and forty land in the review queue because the name matches but the postcode does not.
By mid-morning the sales assistant renews a featured package that expires on Friday; the listing keeps its labelled position on the category and area pages and the renewal invoice goes out through the payment provider.
In the afternoon a visitor searches for electricians within the town, sees three labelled featured listings above the rest, filters by "open now" from the structured hours, and sends an enquiry that is forwarded to the owner and counted against the listing.
At five, the operator looks at claimed versus unclaimed listings per category, packages expiring this month and enquiries per area.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that follow the listing: import and data quality, schema and areas, claims and owner self-service, moderation, packages and featured placement, and enquiries and reporting. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Directory and reviews

Attribute schema per categoryEach category defines the attributes its listings must carry, validated on entry so visitors can filter on consistent data.

Listings and search

Area taxonomy and map searchNested areas and geocoded addresses let visitors search by place or on a map.
Offers and events on listingsBusinesses can attach offers and events to their listing so visitors see what is current.

Content and editorial

Category landing pagesEach category has its own landing page with an editorial introduction written by the directory team.
Reviews with owner repliesReviews pass through moderation before publication and the business can reply to them.

Integrations

Bulk import with deduplicationLarge lists are imported with duplicate matching, an update queue and data-quality flags for missing or suspect values.
Scheduled supplier feed importsSupplier data is pulled in on a schedule by API instead of being uploaded by hand.

Accounts and permissions

Listing claims by codeOwners claim a listing with a code sent to the listed phone, a domain email or a postal address.

Workflow and tasks

Owner edits through a moderation queueBusiness owners update their own details, and moderators approve or reject each change from a diff view.

Catalogue and checkout

Listing packages and featured placementPackages and featured positions are sold under published rules, with a visible label on every promoted listing.

Messaging and notifications

Enquiry forwarding with countsVisitor enquiries are forwarded to the listed business and counted per listing for reporting.

Reporting and insights

Renewal campaigns and monthly lead statisticsRenewal campaigns run through a connected email platform and owners can receive a monthly export of lead statistics.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Directory admin
- Define categories, attribute schemas and the area tree
- Set package tiers, featured positions per page and the published tier rules
- Run imports with deduplication rules and review uncertain matches
- See claimed, paying and stale listings and enquiries by category and area
Moderator
- Approve or reject owner edits from a diff view with a recorded reason
- Moderate submitted reviews against the published policy
- Handle disputed claims where two people claim one listing
- Flag listings with missing or suspect data for follow-up
Sales assistant
- Sell and renew packages against a listing
- See packages expiring this month and send renewal notices
- Apply featured placement within the configured positions
- Issue invoices through the connected payment provider
Business owner
- Claim a listing by a code sent to the listed phone, domain email or postal address
- Edit hours, offers, photographs and description, subject to moderation
- See enquiries received per month and the current package
- Reply to reviews on their listing
Visitor
- Search by category, area and map with facets from the schema
- Filter by "open now", offers and other category attributes
- Send an enquiry to a listed business
- Submit a review that goes to moderation

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of a business directory moderation queue showing owner edit diffs, pending claims and held import records with the reason each was held.

The moderation queue after a supplier import: owner edits shown as field-level diffs with approve and reject actions, two claims awaiting a code, and forty import records held because the name matched an existing listing but the postcode did not.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Attribute schema per category with validation
Nested area taxonomy with geocoded addresses and map search
Listing claim by code sent to the listed phone, domain email or postal address
Owner self-service edits through a moderation queue with diffs
Listing packages and featured placement with visible labels and published rules
Bulk import with deduplication, update queue and data-quality flags
Enquiry forwarding with per-listing counts
Reviews with moderation and owner replies
Category landing pages with editorial introductions

Common add-ons

Offers and events attached to listings
Scheduled supplier feed imports by API
Renewal campaigns through a connected email platform
Lead statistics exported to owners monthly

Needs custom work

Merging several overlapping supplier datasets with bespoke rules
Bookings or payments between visitors and businesses
White-label directories for partner publishers

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on your own hosting or on hosting we manage; owners and visitors use the mobile web version and your team uses a browser. You own the code and your data in either case. Listings, claims, packages, reviews and enquiry history can be exported at any time in standard formats, and nothing stops you moving the directory to another provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately. When taken, it covers security updates, monitoring of imports, claim code delivery, enquiry forwarding and payment callbacks, backups, and a monthly window for small changes such as a new category schema or a changed featured rule. Larger changes, such as a new data supplier, are quoted as change requests against the original scope.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

Sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines. The setup figure depends on the number of categories and schemas, the area tree, the starting dataset and its deduplication needs, the claim channels, the add-ons chosen and the payment provider. The package prices your directory charges listed businesses are your own commercial model, collected through your payment provider and unrelated to what you pay us. Each line is itemised in the proposal so recurring costs are never hidden in the setup.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Custom Platform : quote for this variant

Attribute schema per category with validation
Nested area taxonomy with geocoded addresses and map search
Listing claim by code sent to the listed phone, domain email or postal address
Owner self-service edits through a moderation queue with diffs

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What happens when two people claim the same listing?

The second claim is held and the moderator sees both, with the channel each used. A claim through the listed domain email or a posted letter outranks a phone claim by default, and the moderator records the decision. The losing claimant is told the listing is already claimed and can dispute through the platform.

Can a supplier import overwrite edits an owner made?

No. Fields the owner has edited are locked against feed updates and the incoming value is shown to the moderator as a suggestion instead. Fields never touched by the owner refresh from the feed.

How are paid listings disclosed?

Each featured listing carries a visible label, the number of featured positions per page is fixed, and the tier rules are published on a page the visitor can read. Package status never affects ratings, review order or whether a listing appears in search results.

How are reviews moderated?

Submitted reviews wait in a queue; the moderator checks them against your published policy and approves, rejects with a reason or asks the reviewer for more. The business owner can reply to any approved review and that reply shows beneath it. Rating averages are calculated from approved reviews only, by a rule published on the site.

Does the package help the directory rank in search engines?

It gives each listing, category and area its own crawlable page with structured data, generated titles and descriptions and a sitemap that updates when listings change. That is a structural capability; we make no claim about where those pages will appear in any search engine.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our directory, listings, orders and forms modules for each operator, and the screen on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live client directory. Anything beyond the listed options is scoped as custom business directory development.

Get a quote for Business directory package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.