While going through the upgrade of WordPress 2.6 to 2.7, I noticed that someone had linked to one of our article and when I followed the link, I came across this post that was titled “6 things you didn’t know wordpress could be“. I loved the article as it showed that how WordPress can be put under various uses even though it started off as blogging software and is primarily used as the same.

I would now like to add to that, that how WordPress can be used as Link Directory as well. Link Directory, as one can understand from the name are those directories that contain the links to various different websites or blogs and put them in various categories for easier searching of the links. You can consider them as “old” social bookmarking sites. Dmoz, Yahoo directory are the biggest examples of a link directory.

Free Link Directory scripts

1. yet another link directory.
2. super link exchange script.

WordPress by default wasn’t meant to be Link directory software; however there are few generous developers who have created plugins that allow WordPress to act as a Link Directory. Here are the free plugins for you -

1. WordPress Link Directory by Sean Bluestone – This plugin has the following features :

• Automatically checks for reciprocal links on pages specified by PR.
• Displays the PR of all sites in the directory.
• Option to display more detailed information on each link.
• Option to notify the admin when a new link is submitted.
• Categories and Sub-Categories with parenting.
• Integrates seemlessly with WordPress and adopts whichever theme you’re using.

Apart from this there is a pro version of the plugin too. The pro version allows you to accept paid links and the addition of that feature makes it a complete link directory script.

2. WordPress Link Directory by Alec Tang – Here are the features of this wonderful plugin :

• Creation of link categories, sub-categories with descriptions.
• Quick add of link from admin backend and visitor front-end
• Search engine for admin to find link
• Easy integration to your Wordpress theme
• Backlink cleansing for checking reciprocal links
• Non-reciprocal link allowance
• Email notification templates
• SEO friendly url rewrite

The features of both the plugin are pretty much same although, the ability to accept paid links (even though in paid version) is what makes the first plugin an obvious choice for anyone. However, I would suggest that any plugin of these can be used to convert WordPress in a link directory.