I was doing some research today in need of finding a directory plugin for Wordpress. This wasn’t the first time I had actually searched for something like this. But unlike past efforts, this time I found something. And it’s something very good! It’s called the WP Link Directory plugin for Wordpress and it was exactly what I was looking for. Probably something you are looking for as well. The plugin was created by web developer Alec Tang and here are the features as mentioned from his website:

Creation of link categories, sub-categories with descriptions

You can create any number of categories with description in the directory, including sub-categories.

Quick add of link from admin backend and visitor front-end

Your visitor will be able to click on this link “Insert your link here”, it will pop out a form below for submission. Clean and simple.

Search engine for admin to find link

You can search for a particular link based on its title, domain name, email address, etc, thus never have to worry about can’t find a link that you want to delete or edit.

Easy integration to your Wordpress theme

Now, this is one of the highlights of the plugin. You don’t have to worry about the template because this directory will use your Wordpress theme. You can easily modify styling using the external style sheet provided in the directory folder.

Backlink cleansing for checking reciprocal links

Yes! Another powerful option!!! What it is, is enabling you to run a link cleansing process that checks each reciprocal links and see if the site is linking back to you as it promised. A list of broken links will be listed and you can either remove them or do something else.

Non-reciprocal link allowance

Yes!!! Another great great great thing of the script. There’s many time when we want to allow a link to have non-reciprocal link, eg. you might just start setting up the directory and you’d need to stuff some default links in it. Thus, you can simply check the tickbox of “Allow non reciprocal”, and then the link will not be checked when performing link cleansing check.

Email notification templates

Sure you want to be able to have a good email template system that manage communication for submitters and webmaster. Thus, this script allows you to set a custom email template system for link notification and approval.

SEO friendly url rewrite

Wow! What more do you want? SEO friendly URL rewrite feature, that re-writes all url to search engine friendly format. Note that this requires you to be running on an apache though.

Here’s How To Install It!

1. Upload everything you downloaded to your root directory, except upgrade.txt, install.txt, license.txt and database.txt. (See manual). Tha means, if your blog is at domain.com/blog, then upload everything into /blog directory.
2. Chmod 777 to “directory/temp” folder. Go to plugin page and activate the plugin.
3. Go to option -> Link Manager to set your configurations.
4. Your directory is ready! (eg. http://www.yourdomain.com/directory/)

I’m currently using this plugin for a project I am working on and it’s working out great. The ability for me to customize the CSS and layout easily is probably my favorite feature of this plugin. It was very important for me that this plugin integrate design wise with the site I am working on. Too often link plugins for many CMS’s look weird and don’t flow with their respective sites. Check out the WP Link Directory Plugin for Wordpress. It’s totally free.