Free Business Directory Script

Creating a business directory script isn’t just another CRUD app. It’s a high-responsibility system handling sensitive business data, PII (personally identifiable information), and real-world transactions.

1. Architecture: Beyond Simple Listings

A production-ready business directory must follow a layered architecture:

• Frontend: Typically built with a templating engine (Twig, Blade, etc.) or SPA frameworks (Vue, React).

• Backend: Often LAMP/LEMP stack; frameworks like Laravel, Symfony, or CodeIgniter offer MVC, CSRF protection, and middleware out of the box.

• Database: Normalised relational DB (MySQL/PostgreSQL). Use indexing on search fields (e.g., location, category, business_name) to reduce query time.

Key tables to model:

• users: With roles, hashed passwords (Argon2id or bcrypt), 2FA support

• listings: Business metadata, timestamps, publication status

• categories: Hierarchical taxonomy with recursive relationship

• reviews: With moderation flag, timestamps, rating breakdown

• payments: Track invoices, status, and payment method securely

Recommendation: Avoid monolithic codebases. Design with modularity and clear separation of concerns for easier scaling and maintenance.

2. Authentication and Access Control

For YMYL applications, authentication and authorisation need more than just login/logout endpoints.

• Hashing: Use Argon2id with time and memory cost tuned based on your server specs.

• 2FA: Integrate TOTP (e.g., Google Authenticator) for business owners and admins.

• RBAC: Implement role-based access control — never hardcode access checks.

• JWT: Use for API authentication; include role claims and expiry.

Security headers (via middleware):

• X-Frame-Options: DENY

• Strict-Transport-Security: max-age=63072000

• Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'self'

3. Search and Filtering at Scale

Business directories rely heavily on geospatial search, faceted filters, and full-text lookups. Performance becomes critical as listings grow.

Approaches:

• Full-Text Search: Use MySQL’s FULLTEXT index or integrate Elasticsearch for fuzzy matching and relevance scoring.

• Geolocation: Store lat/lng in POINT columns (MySQL spatial indexes). Use Haversine formula or integrate Google Maps API for distance filters.

• Caching: Use Redis/Memcached for caching frequently accessed filters, homepage blocks, and category data.

Pagination: Always use indexed WHERE clauses (WHERE id < last_seen_id) rather than OFFSET, which becomes expensive with large datasets.

4. Review and Rating Systems

Reviews introduce YMYL complexity as they can damage reputations or manipulate ranking.

• Anti-Spam: Throttle submissions per IP/user ID, require verified user accounts.

• Moderation Queue: Create a status column (e.g., pending, approved, rejected). Admins approve reviews manually or via rules.

• Review Integrity: Prevent duplicate reviews via checksum or hash per listing-user combo.

• Average Rating: Denormalise and store in listings.rating_average to avoid recalculating on every fetch.

All rating data should be timestamped and immutable for auditability.

5. Payment Gateway Integration

Monetisation requires secure and compliant payment handling. For paid listings, featured ads, or subscription plans:

• PCI-DSS Compliance: Never store CVV or raw card details. Use tokenisation via Stripe, Braintree, or PayPal.

• Webhook Verification: Use signatures (Stripe-Signature) to validate inbound webhook events.

• Subscription Logic: Handle billing cycle edge cases (prorations, grace periods). Create cron jobs to auto-expire listings.

Table Schema Example:

6. SEO and Structured Data

For SERP visibility and rich snippets, your script must emit clean structured markup.

• Schema.org Markup: Use LocalBusiness, Review, and PostalAddress.

• Meta Tags: Dynamically generate title, description, and canonical URLs per listing.

• Slugging: Use slugify() functions on business names; enforce uniqueness.

Important: Avoid duplicate content by enforcing canonical URLs for category/listing pages. Implement hreflang if your platform is multilingual.

7. Compliance (GDPR, PDPA, CCPA)

If your directory collects user data, you must implement:

• Consent Management: Cookie banners, opt-in checkboxes for newsletters, etc.

• Right to be Forgotten: User deletion endpoints and automatic PII scrubbing on inactive accounts.

• Data Portability: Allow users to download their data in a machine-readable format (JSON or CSV).

• Audit Logs: Track admin actions, data changes, and login history (store in append-only log table).

Encryption: Encrypt sensitive data at rest (e.g., using Laravel’s Crypt facade or libsodium in PHP) and always use HTTPS in production.

8. Common Vulnerabilities to Avoid

1. SQL Injection: Always use prepared statements or ORM query builders.

2. XSS: Escape all user-submitted content in templates (htmlspecialchars, e()).

3. CSRF: Use CSRF tokens on all POST requests (middleware enforced).

4. Directory Traversal: Sanitise file uploads; never trust $_FILES['name'].

5. Broken Access Control: Enforce backend-level permission checks; never rely on frontend-only restrictions.

Use tools like OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite, and static code analysis to test your script.

9. Deployment Considerations

• Web Server: Use NGINX or Apache with rate limiting enabled.

• PHP-FPM Tuning: Optimise pm.max_children based on traffic load.

• Queues: Offload email sending and background tasks to Laravel Queue/Redis.

• Monitoring: Integrate with Sentry or Bugsnag for error tracking.

Use CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions, GitLab CI) to enforce tests before deployment. Automate DB backups daily.

Conclusion

A business directory script is not a basic PHP script—it’s a trust platform. You are handling live business data, user reviews, and payments. That makes your codebase subject to legal, financial, and technical scrutiny.

From a YMYL perspective, the directory must:

• Be secure

• Respect privacy laws

• Provide reliable, high-availability service

• Protect business reputations and user data

If you’re starting from scratch, use a modern PHP framework like Laravel, implement modular packages, and integrate external APIs (e.g., Stripe, Google Maps) using signed requests and sandbox testing.