Directory sites
In a directory the listing is the product, and members notice where they rank.
Put a real map and filter behind a membership or trade directory, with paid tiers appearing where they paid to appear.
Bring your location data
CSV import, Google Sheets sync or dashboard edits.
Shape the visitor journey
Search, filters, hours, directions and custom actions.
Match your site
85+ available settings, markers and provider map styles.
What your network looks like
Member businesses that pay to be listed: chambers of commerce, trade associations, accreditation bodies and buying groups, with listing tiers, renewal dates, and members joining and lapsing every month.
Why a generic map falls short
Most maps are decoration on a directory. Here the map is the thing being sold, so ordering is commercial rather than cosmetic: a premium member who paid for prominence and appears eleventh will email you, and a lapsed member still showing is a member who stops paying because the listing was free anyway.
What visitors need to do
- Paid and premium members appearing above standard ones, without it looking rigged to everyone else
- A category taxonomy members can be placed in, filterable by whoever is searching
- Membership number, website and contact held per listing and shown or hidden as the tier allows
- Remove a lapsed member the same week they lapse, not at the next site rebuild
How Handled covers it
- Featured and priority ordering, with a radius beyond which it stops applying so promotion never overrides genuine proximity in the visitor's own town
- Filterable categories and tags with counts beside each option, matching any or all selections
- Custom fields and per-listing action buttons for membership number, website, quote request and profile link
- CSV import and Google Sheets sync with change review, so an export from the membership CRM becomes a reviewed diff each month
- REST and Query APIs on Pro and Business, if you would rather drive your own front end and use Handled for the location data and the near-a-point query
- Worth knowing before you start: Handled is the map and search inside your directory, not the directory. It does not generate a page per member, and one account serves one locator
Not every directory sites business is the same
Chambers of commerce and business networks
Hundreds of small members across every trade in one town or county, renewing on their own anniversary rather than together. Members judge the subscription largely by whether they can find themselves in the directory, so a member who searches their own category and does not appear near the top is the one who queries the invoice.
Trade associations and accreditation bodies
Here the public is checking that somebody is legitimate before letting them into a house, so the directory carries a duty the others do not. What matters is the scope of the accreditation and how fast a lapsed or expelled member comes off, which is a data freshness problem before it is a mapping one.
Professional bodies listing practitioners
Therapists, coaches, surveyors and consultants, where the listing is a person rather than a premises. Many work from two or three rooms, some work online only, and their specialisms matter far more than their postcode. A map built around addresses has to cope with practitioners who barely have one.
Paid listing directories and niche marketplaces
The ordering is the product. Featured placement is sold by the year and the person who bought it counts their position, so promotion has to be visible enough to be worth paying for and bounded enough that the whole directory does not read as bought. That balance is a setting, and it is the one that gets argued about.
Setting it up
1. Export the membership system and decide what is public
Take the export and mark, field by field, what appears on a standard listing and what a paid tier adds: website, direct phone, logo, description, membership number. Deciding it once at this stage is what stops the tier difference being invented ad hoc later when a member complains.
2. Fix the taxonomy before importing
A closed list of categories that members choose two or three from filters well. A free text trade field does not, and no amount of configuration afterwards rescues it. Agree the list with whoever answers member queries, because they know which words members actually use for themselves.
3. Set the ordering, then bound it
Featured and priority ordering put paid tiers above standard ones, and the radius beyond which priority stops applying is what keeps it credible: a premium member two counties away should not outrank the member in the searcher's own town. Set that radius deliberately rather than leaving it wide.
4. Agree the lapse process before launch
Decide who runs the monthly pass and what triggers removal, then run it as a Google Sheets sync diff so each addition and removal is reviewed before it applies. A lapsed member still showing is a member who has learned the listing was free anyway, and that is a renewal you will not get back.
5. Connect it to the pages you already have
If your site already has member profile pages, the REST and Query APIs on Pro and Business let you drive them from the same location data rather than keeping a second copy. Handled provides the map, the search and the near-a-point query; your site keeps the pages.
What to prepare before you publish
You do not need a perfect data system to start. A clean first list is enough to test the visitor journey, then you can keep it current from the workflow that suits your team.
- Location name and address
- Phone, website or booking link
- Categories, products or services
- Opening hours and special hours
- A map provider key
- The page where the locator will be embedded
Questions we get asked
Can premium members rank above standard ones without the directory looking bought?
Yes, and the bound is the point. Featured and priority ordering lift paid tiers, and the radius beyond which priority stops applying is what keeps it credible, so a premium member two counties away never outranks the member in the searcher's own town. Set that radius deliberately rather than leaving it wide.
Does Handled generate a profile page for each member listing?
No. There are no generated per-member pages, and one account serves one locator. Handled is the map, the filter and the search inside your directory. Where you already have member profile pages, the REST and Query APIs on Pro and Business let you drive them from the same location data instead of keeping a second copy.
Can members log in and maintain their own listings?
Not individually. There are no per-member logins: roles are owner, admin and editor across the whole account, so an editor can change any listing. Directories usually run this as a monthly pass from the membership system export instead, brought in through CSV import or a Google Sheets sync where every change is reviewed before it applies.
How fast can a lapsed member be taken off the map?
As fast as you run the pass, and it wants to be weekly or monthly rather than at the next site rebuild. Removals arrive through the sync as a reviewed diff, so a lapsed or expelled member comes off in the same session you spot them. A lapsed member still listed is a member who has learned the listing was free anyway.
Can one account run both a public directory and a members-only one?
No. Handled holds one locator per account, so either both audiences share a map and a tag filter separates them, or the second directory sits on its own account and its own subscription. Decide before loading the data, because retrofitting the split afterwards means loading it twice.
What does a member directory map cost as the membership grows?
The $19 a month plan holds 200 listings, $39 holds 2,000 and adds the APIs, and $79 holds 10,000 with twenty seats. Annual billing is ten months' money for twelve. The trial is 7 days with no card and there is no free plan at the end, and the Mapbox or Google Maps key is yours, so map usage is billed by the provider.
If you need something that is not here
Handled is small enough to build to order. If your trade needs a field, a filter or a behaviour the locator does not have yet, say so and we will tell you honestly whether it is a week away or not something we will do.