ECD Directory SaaS Platform 2025 to present

Find My
Nursery

South Africa's largest early childhood education directory. 1,750+ nurseries and ECD centres across all 9 provinces. On WordPress with GeoWP, extended with a custom ranking algorithm, subscription tiers, tour booking, and a Node.js admin centre.

  • WordPress
  • Custom PHP
  • GeoDirectory
  • Node.js
  • PayFast
  • Google Maps API
  • GA4
  • Search Console
  • Claude MCP
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01 The problem

SA parents had no reliable way to find ECD centres near them.

Google searches returned outdated pages, Facebook groups with unreliable listings, and word-of-mouth referrals. No single platform had verified, searchable, up-to-date listings for nursery schools and ECD centres across South Africa, let alone subscription tools for the schools themselves.

  • No centralized directory

    Parents searched across Google, Facebook groups, and community forums. No single source of truth existed for ECD listings across all provinces.

  • Schools had no digital presence

    The majority of nursery schools had no website, no Google Business Profile, and no way for parents to find their contact details or location reliably.

  • No enquiry management

    Schools received enquiries via chat apps and phone with no tracking, no follow-up system, and no way to measure how parents found them.

  • No advertising platform

    There was no targeted advertising mechanism built specifically for the ECD sector in South Africa. Schools couldn't reach parents in their area at scale.

02 What was built

A full ECD platform: directory, advertising, admin.

03 Major features we built

Major features we built

School owner dashboard and mobile app screenshot

School owner dashboard and mobile app

Every school gets its own dashboard, and it installs on a phone as a web app, so owners run their profile on the go.

  • Installable mobile web app with a mobile-first layout
  • Enquiries and tour bookings, with a booking calendar
  • Enrolment tracking from enquiry to outcome
  • Reviews, photo and video gallery, and job listings
  • Search performance and a monthly report
  • Notification settings and plan and billing in one place
School profiles screenshot

School profiles

Free listings, Essential tier, and Premium tier, each with a richer profile and more visibility. Premium schools get custom gallery, featured placement, review management, and a direct analytics dashboard.

  • Searchable by suburb, distance, and age group
  • Google Maps embed with accurate location
  • Tour booking and direct parent enquiry form
  • Analytics: views, enquiries, tour bookings per school
Business Centre screenshot

Business Centre

The command centre for the whole business. One custom-built admin app manages schools, search, ads, billing, and data from a single place.

  • Analytics across eight views, with CSV export
  • Inbox for enquiries, support requests, claims, and tour requests
  • Subscriptions, plans, and PayFast billing records
  • Networks: group schools under a partner organisation with a scoped login
  • Tasks, audit trail, and team logins
Ads and Boost screenshot

Ads and Boost

An internal ads system and a one-click Boost, inspired by Meta Ads and Google Ads. Schools promote themselves on the directory without leaving the platform.

  • Full campaign builder with campaigns, ad sets, and creatives
  • Boost your school: pick a goal and dates, preview it, and go live
  • Creative upload and crop, with a live preview
  • Moderation, scheduling, expiry, and rerun prompts
  • Boost adds a ranking signal on any tier
  • Receipts and PayFast billing for every campaign
Google services, integrated screenshot

Google services, integrated

Google Business Profile, Search Console, and GA4 are connected to the platform, so the Google presence of every school is managed and tracked from one place.

  • Google Business Profile, connected with Google sign-in: read and reply to reviews, manage photos, post updates, edit business info and action buttons, and see performance data, all from the dashboard
  • Search Console data synced per school profile
  • GA4 views, visitors, top pages, and geography per school
  • Every school profile is its own page and its own search target, so each school is tracked and ranks for its own keywords, including searches for the school by name
  • Daily scheduled syncs that resume if interrupted
Structured data screenshot

Structured data

Custom Schema.org markup, built in rather than bolted on.

  • Dedicated schema engines for schools, areas, pillar pages, and blog posts
  • Programmatic neighbourhood area pages
  • Search Console rankings synced into the Business Centre
Ranking engine screenshot

Ranking engine

Search results are ordered by a live, editable ranking formula that rewards complete school profiles.

  • Six weighted signals: proximity, rating, engagement, recency, completeness, and premium
  • Weights edited from the Business Centre
  • Completeness drives schools to fill in their data
MCP connector screenshot

MCP connector

The platform data is exposed through a Model Context Protocol connector, so you can query it in plain language from Claude Desktop or any MCP client.

  • Covers analytics, tasks, ads, and payments
  • Read-only access
  • Sign in with OAuth, or use bearer tokens you generate and revoke yourself
  • Built inside the Business Centre

04 Results

SA's largest ECD directory, still growing.

From zero to South Africa's most comprehensive ECD directory, covering all nine provinces. Growth is organic and comes from the architecture.

The platform is live, billing, and growing. Every month adds new school claims, new enquiries, and new search impressions, compounding without additional effort.

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built like this?

Custom ranking, billing, advertising, and admin, built for any niche market.

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