There are more than 300 directory software plugins and specialised themes on the market.
Software Plugin & Theme
- CMS Theme & Software - Drupal, Joomla, WordPress
- LDAP Software (Hosted)
- Script (Stand Alone)
Specialised Industry Themes
HOSTED
The biggest benefit of "hosted' software is ease and compatibility. There is no software to install and configure. Login, and commence adding categories.
Costs range from monthly plans to annual, to one-off lifetime plans.
Pro's
- No hosting
- Support
Con's
- Ongoing plan/software cost
SELF HOSTED
Self hosted covers web sites that are hosted by the user.
CMS - Content Management System
Working as a plugin, the software installs relatively easily and then commence adding categories.
There are no monthly plans other than hosting costs.
Pro's
- No hosting consideration
- No developers
- Software support
Con's
- Ongoing plan/software cost
Premade Directory Theme
Many popular directory types have themes specially designed for them
For example: Real Estate - Layout of listings in area order plus listings that incorporate maps, areas, galleries.
We are big raps for WordPress whether it be themes or plugins:
SCRIPT - .exe
The software is purchased, installed and then the software scripts run the directory
Pro's
- No hosting consideration
- No developers
- Software support
Con's
- Ongoing plan/software cost
Regardless of how software promotes itself as being optimised and search engine friendly, it's irrelevant as no search engine indexes directories.
Regardless of how well optimised the directory is, it will NOT rank for it's keywords or target phrases.
It can be found by searching for it's name and in some instances "keyword directory", but very few searches include the word "directory".
This is a typical Directory SEO pitch that can be totally disregarded