Imagine a Yelp like site but for particular city and industry. If I'm not tech savvy and have a tight budget, where should I start?
If you want to start building your own Yelp like directory for a particular city and industry but you are on a tight budget with limited tech skills I would definitely suggest WordPress.
But it can be tricky as WordPress has several different options and you can get easily lost and even it could end up getting very expensing if you don’t play it right.
Here are few helpful resources for you to go over and decide.
Adam from WPCrafter has done a very good job comparing top 3 WordPress products to build a site like Yelp, watch the full video here https://youtu.be/Ykid7UTXxYI
Then you can watch a step by step full video on how to build the directory here https://youtu.be/sRbUsQXyEOc
There was a detailed article by Codeinwp on the same topic that can be found here https://www.codeinwp.com/blog/create-a-local-search-directory-like-yelp-on-wordpress
Hope this helps you get kick started with a tight budget.
Before you start you have to have a solid local data source. Users demand accurate data including all the fields normally important in any directory including base data, extended data such as hours, types of payments, specialties, accurate categorization, and more. You will need to develop processes to clean and normalize the data, and maintain the add/deletes/updates. You will need update process allowing businesses to self-fulfill, but also need verification processes to limit changes to data by the owner of that data. You may be able to use a white label version from a national provider, yet they often require minimum revenues and customization fees. Directory is always about accuracy.
