How Frey Turned a Simple SEO Test into a $2K/Month Directory Business and Now Leads a Growing Community of Builders
When Frey Chu first launched a directory website in 2022, it wasn’t part of some master plan. He was just learning SEO, testing ideas, and needed a project to practice on. That test site turned into a niche directory that now brings in over $2,000 per month, mostly on autopilot, and pulls in around 60,000 monthly visits.
Since then, he’s gone all in. Frey has built several high-traffic directories in weird, unsexy niches (his words), including porta potty rentals, flea markets, liquidation stores, and a national healthcare directory called Discover Plasma using GeoDirectory.
No code, no team, just smart research, solid SEO, and a ton of manual work that most people won’t do. He scrapes data, cleans it himself, checks individual listings on Google Maps, and enriches each one by hand because that’s what makes his directories useful.
Now, through his YouTube channel, Frey documents everything from choosing a niche and validating it with real user intent to monetizing through ads and featured listings.
His practical, transparent style has earned him a fast-growing audience and a thriving private community: Ship Your Directory, where builders swap ideas, review sites, and share behind-the-scenes progress.
He’s not pitching courses or get-rich-quick systems. He’s showing the actual work. Whether you’re trying to hit $500 per month or scale to five figures, Frey’s approach has helped a new generation of directory builders rethink what’s possible with SEO and a laptop.
We asked him to tell us how it all started, what makes a directory work, and why boring might actually be better.
The Frey Chu Story
Q: You went all in on directories after quitting your job. What was the a-ha moment that made you take the leap?
I went all in on directories because I saw that the first directory I built was pretty successful. It was getting a stable amount of traffic—around 60,000 to 80,000 monthly visitors. And I asked myself, what if I could replicate this in other directory niches?
Because that first one found traction, I felt pretty confident—whether that’s a good thing or not—going into more directory projects. The real a-ha moment for me came when I started to truly understand SEO and what actually moved the needle in driving organic traffic. I felt like I knew the core elements that made a difference.
Also, I noticed that a lot of the biggest internet businesses are directories. They’ve been around forever. Some are huge, others are super niche, and yet the category itself is still very underrated. There are so many ways to monetize and so many niches that are overlooked. That combination of things—that was it for me.
Q: Most people chase trendy niches, but you often pick boring ones. Why do you think they perform better?
I think boring, location-based niches tend to win over time. The big reason is that I believe they’re going to outlive info-style directories, especially in the next few years as AI keeps improving. A lot of info will get answered by AI directly, but AI can’t replace hyper-curated local information that easily.
Also, I got a taste of the passive side of these kinds of niches with my first directory. Once it’s built and starts ranking, you can get away with checking in maybe once a month—sometimes less. That hands-off model really worked for me.
Trendy niches are fun but can be exhausting. Like, if you build an AI tools directory, you’re constantly updating it because things move fast. And I just prefer not to be stuck in that cycle of endless maintenance.
Q: You said your first successful directory was basically copy and paste from Google Maps. What made it stand out despite the simplicity?
Yeah, that’s true. My first directory really was a copy-and-paste from Google Maps, but with extra enrichment that people actually cared about. Google Maps can be useful, but it takes time—you have to click into business profiles, read reviews, maybe even search for keywords in those reviews. That’s a lot of work.
So I just took all that friction away. I put everything people were looking for in one place. And the format mattered too. I used a pillar page style, which is basically a long-scroll page where everything is right there. It’s not the prettiest on mobile, but it works insanely well because users don’t have to dig for info.
Q: What’s the biggest misconception people have about building a directory website?
There are a couple big ones. First, that directories are fast cash-flow businesses. I get why people think that, but SEO isn’t fast. It’s not like running Facebook ads or building a personal brand on TikTok. SEO takes time.
Another one is that picking a niche is easy. I actually think it’s the hardest part. I spend a ton of time researching before I even buy a domain. You’ve got to look at competition, social signals, audience demand, whether you’re solving a real problem, and how you’ll make something better than what’s already out there. It’s not just about picking something random and hoping it works.
Q: How do you identify a niche with strong SEO potential but weak competition?
I use Ahrefs for keyword research. A basic approach would be finding low keyword difficulty with high monthly volume, but that only gets you so far. Once you know SEO better, you realize keyword difficulty isn’t always accurate.
So I also look at backlinks, how much topical authority a site has, how many indexed pages they’re working with. If I see mom-and-pop-style directories ranking on page one, that’s a really good sign that competition isn’t too fierce. It’s about putting together the full picture.
Q: What’s your current process for validating a niche before you commit to it?
I check four places: Ahrefs, Google search results, Reddit, and Google Maps. Ahrefs gives me data on search volume and competition. Google tells me if any small sites or indie directories are already ranking, which can be a good sign that it’s winnable.
Reddit and Google Maps are all about understanding if there’s a real problem. I’ll read threads, comments, reviews—just trying to listen. Are people constantly asking for recommendations? Are they repeating the same pain points? That’s the kind of social signal that tells me the niche has depth.
Q: Once you’ve found a promising niche, what’s your go-to tech stack for getting a directory off the ground?
It changes depending on the niche and how complex the build is, but I usually scrape data with something like Outscraper. For the site itself, WordPress is a go-to. I’ve used GeoDirectory for larger builds where I’m launching thousands of listings, and it’s been solid.
If you’re building something more complex or large-scale, I’d still say WordPress is hard to beat. But I’m also starting to experiment with AI coding tools, which I think are going to be big for scalability.
Q: Many beginners get overwhelmed by tools and costs. How lean can someone start and still be effective?
Pretty lean. When I started, I was manually scraping. You don’t need a crazy tech stack. WordPress alone can get you far.
The most expensive thing I pay for is Ahrefs, and honestly, I’d recommend that over anything else if you’re going to spend money. It’s not just for keyword research—it helps with competitive analysis, tracking, content ideas, all of it.
You could probably launch a directory for around $300 to $500. It can go up if you want to automate more or build something huge, but if you’re scrappy, you can absolutely stay lean.
Q: You’re very data-driven, but also talk about empathy for the user. How do you strike that balance when designing your directories?
It’s something I had to learn. I used to build directories just based on my own interests, and most of them flopped. Now I approach it like 70% data, 30% empathy and intuition.
Even if the numbers look good, you still need to understand what people are struggling with. That’s why I spend so much time on Reddit and Google Maps—just reading, listening, watching for patterns.
The data tells me where the opportunity is. Empathy tells me how to actually deliver value so people trust the site and keep coming back.
Q: From your experience, what separates a directory that ranks from one that gets ignored?
It really starts with the idea. There are so many tools out there now—AI tools, WordPress, plugins—that anyone can throw up a site. But if your idea is too competitive and you’re not strong at SEO, you’re probably not going to get very far.
That’s where I see most people give up. They put in all this work and then get discouraged when no traffic comes in. Another thing is expecting results too quickly. SEO just takes a while. If you think you’re going to rank and get traffic in two weeks, you’re going to be disappointed.
Q: What’s your approach to enriching listings so they actually help the end user?
I touched on this earlier, but enrichment starts by paying attention to what people are already saying. On Google Maps, I’ll look at review tags—if the same stuff keeps coming up, it’s a signal that people care about it.
If there’s a fragmented search result, where Google is showing a mix of categories, that tells me people are having trouble finding what they want. I try to fill in that gap. Reddit works the same way. I’ll scroll threads, see what problems come up again and again, and then turn those into data points I include in the directory. It’s about saving people time and frustration.
Q: Programmatic SEO seems to be gaining popularity. Have you found it as effective as the more manual approach?
Yes and no. Programmatic SEO is amazing for scale. You can publish thousands of pages in a day. But I’ve actually had more success with the manual approach because I can focus more on quality.
If your programmatic pages are thin or generic, they’re probably not going to rank. But if you’ve got the basics covered—like name, address, hours, phone—and then you add real enrichment on top of that, it becomes powerful.
I think of it like two buckets: info people need to know (like hours, phone, etc.) and info they want to know (like if the place has vegan food, sells beer, is kid-friendly). That second bucket is where you win.
Q: Your directories are often monetized through ads and featured listings. What determines which model you go with?
If the niche has high search volume and I know I can get 10K to 50K visitors a month, ads are usually the play. That’s where the traffic volume makes sense for ad revenue.
For featured listings, the search volume doesn’t matter as much. What matters is whether the average order value of the product or service is high enough that it’s worth it for the business to pay.
Like, I wouldn’t target yoga studios for featured listings. A class might be $25, and the marketing budget is probably tight. But something like luxury porta-potty rentals—those can run a couple grand per rental. That kind of business is much more likely to pay for visibility.
Q: Have you found that business owners are receptive to paying for visibility in directories today?
They can be, but there has to be alignment. Getting traffic to your directory is one thing. Getting that traffic to turn into actual leads is another.
If you can help a business get qualified leads—especially with clear search intent behind them—then yeah, it becomes a no-brainer. But you really have to make it worth their while. Not just traffic for traffic’s sake.
Q: If someone wanted to build a niche directory but had zero technical background, what would your advice be?
Honestly, the tech part is probably the easiest part of the whole thing. There are so many tools out there that make it easy to build a site, even if you don’t have a background in coding.
The harder parts are choosing the right niche, learning SEO, doing the research, and enriching the data. Those are the things that really make or break a directory.
So I’d say: focus on learning SEO fundamentals first. You can figure out how to use WordPress or a no-code tool pretty quickly. But even the most beautiful site won’t get traffic if you don’t understand how to make it rank.
Q: You’ve worked with scraped data at scale. What would you say is the biggest mistake people make when importing listings?
The biggest mistake is skipping quality data enrichment. People get excited about launching hundreds or thousands of listings, but then the pages are basically just name, address, phone number, and hours.
That’s not enough anymore. Google’s smarter, crawl budgets are tighter, and thin pages just don’t perform. You have to go beyond the basics—figure out what people are actually searching for and give them that info.
Otherwise, there’s no reason for someone to use your directory instead of just opening Google Maps.
Q: What’s the story behind your most successful directory? What niche is it in (if you’re comfortable sharing), and what do you think made it work so well?
It was the first directory I ever built, and it’s in the thrifting niche. I won’t share the actual URL because I’ve had a few copycats when I did that in the past, but it’s been bringing in a couple thousand dollars a month passively for about two years now.
What made it work is that I didn’t build it with the intention of making money. I just wanted to see if the SEO stuff I’d been learning on YouTube actually worked.
So I treated it like a skill-building exercise. I was super intentional with every little thing—on-page SEO, backlinks, structure. I also found a competitor getting over 100,000 monthly visitors and thought, I can do better. I changed the format, used the pillar page structure, and it ended up working way better than I expected.
Q: You’ve mentioned WordPress a few times. What do you look for in a good directory plugin?
User-friendly interface is a big one for me. I’m not super technical, so I want something that’s easy to work with. Good customer support matters too, because sometimes I need help figuring stuff out and I don’t want to be stuck.
I’m also willing to pay more for a plugin if it gives me flexibility and can support multiple projects. I care more about value than just the price.
And lastly, I want to know that other people have used the plugin successfully—especially with SEO. If it’s not SEO-friendly, it’s kind of a dealbreaker.
Q: When choosing a directory plugin, how important is scalability and SEO structure for you?
Both are huge. If I’m just building a tiny site, I might not use a plugin at all—I’ll just create the pages manually.
But if I know the site will have thousands of listings, then scalability becomes essential. That’s why I chose GeoDirectory for one of my healthcare directories. There was no way I could do that one page at a time.
SEO structure is everything. I need full control over meta descriptions, slugs, featured images, alt text—everything. If a plugin doesn’t let me do that, I won’t use it.
Q: What’s one feature you wish more directory tools had out of the box?
This is kind of niche to how I build directories, but I really wish more tools supported pillar page formatting. Most directory plugins assume you want individual listing pages, but I’ve had great success just using one long-scroll page for everything.
It works insanely well for certain keywords—some of my pillar pages rank #1 and get tens of thousands of monthly visitors. But I’ve had to work around the tools to make it happen.
Another thing: I wish more tools let you customize your location pages. A lot of traffic flows through those pages, but most plugins don’t give you much control there. (Editor’s Note: GeoDirectory gives you complete control of the location pages!)
Q: What’s a weird or unexpected idea you’re currently testing?
I’m really fascinated by luxury porta-potties. I know it sounds weird, but I think there’s legit opportunity there. You can rent one out for $1,000 to $2,000 a day if you’re the business owner, and it’s such a boring topic that not many people are talking about it. That makes it interesting to me.I’ve got a vault of hundreds of directory ideas—some of them are random, unexpected, or even borderline inappropriate—but they’re all based on search data and underserved niches. Running Ship Your Directory Pro also gives me a front-row seat to seeing some pretty odd but brilliant ideas that people come up with. So I don’t mind weird. The boring stuff is often the goldmine.