A directory submission tracker: what to record, when to chase, when to re-check

A directory submission tracker needs one row per place and a handful of dates: the day you submitted, the wait the site itself states, the day you will chase it if nothing has happened, the day it went live with the address of your listing, and a day to check that the listing is still there. Everything else is notes.

You can keep it in My launch, which takes a free account, stamps the dates as you change each place from planned to submitted to live, keeps a note per place and exports a CSV. Or you can keep it in a plain spreadsheet with the columns below. Either way, build it on what each site says about its own wait, not on authority scores. This guide covers both, with the spreadsheet formulas that turn a stated wait into a chase date.

01The columns

These are the columns that answer a real question later. Leave out what you won't act on.

1. Place, with a link to its site and to its page on the list, where the stated wait and its source sit.
2. Kind. A launch platform gives you a day; a directory publishes after a review; a review site verifies your product first. The kind tells you which date matters.
3. Cost you chose: free, fast track or paid, and what you paid.
4. Stated wait, in the site's own words, with the day you read it. A wait you wrote down months ago may have changed.
5. State: planned, submitted or live.
6. Submitted on.
7. Chase on: the day you follow up if nothing has happened. The next section shows how to set it.
8. Launch date given, for queues that assign you a day instead of reviewing you.
9. Listing URL, once it's published.
10. Live on.
11. Re-check on: the day you open the listing again.
12. Notes: the account or email you used, the description you sent, any rule you agreed to, such as a badge or a link back.

There is no column for DR or other authority scores. DR is a score from an SEO tool, not something the site states, and it tells you neither when you'll be listed nor whether your link is followed; do startup directories help SEO? explains what it measures.

02A chase date from a stated wait

A stated wait comes in one of a few shapes, and each sets the chase date differently:

• A day the site gives you. Some launch queues hand you a launch date rather than reviewing you. Write it in "Launch date given" and chase only if that day passes without a launch.
• A length in days, weeks or months. The chase date is the day you submitted plus that length.
• Business days. Count working days, not calendar days.
• A range, or "up to". Use the far end. The near end is the site's best case, not its promise.
• No stated wait. Pick your own, write it down as yours, and treat the place as slow until it tells you otherwise.
• A day you pick. Some launch sites let you schedule. There is nothing to chase; the date is in your own calendar.

Here are examples from the list, from long to short. The approval column is each site's stated wait in the short form our posters use; hover it for the full sentence, or open the place's page for the source and the day we read it.

The formulas. In the spreadsheet layout further down, the state is in column G, the submission date in H and the chase date in I. These work in both Excel and Google Sheets:

• Months: =EDATE(H2, 6) gives the same day six months later. Microsoft's EDATE page (opens in a new tab) says it "Returns the serial number that represents the date that is the indicated number of months before or after a specified date"; Google's EDATE page (opens in a new tab): "Returns a date a specified number of months before or after another date."
• Business days: =WORKDAY(H2, 15) gives the fifteenth working day after H2. In Microsoft's words, on its WORKDAY page (opens in a new tab): "Working days exclude weekends and any dates identified as holidays." Google's WORKDAY page (opens in a new tab) describes it as calculating "the end date after a specified number of working days."
• Calendar days: =H2+30.
• A flag for overdue rows: =IF(AND(G2="Submitted", I2<TODAY()), "chase", ""). TODAY "Returns the current date as a date value", by Google's page (opens in a new tab); Excel's TODAY (opens in a new tab) returns "The serial number of the current date".

We read the four help pages on 2 October 2026. Sort by the chase date and the rows to follow up on come to the top.

03Run it in My launch

My launch is the tracker built into the list. It needs a free account and keeps your plan on every device.

1. Add places. Press + on any poster, in this guide or in a room, or set a status on a place's page. A place added with + goes in as planned.
2. Next up. The top of the page shows the first place you added that is still planned, with its cost, its approval time and a button to its submit page.
3. Mark it submitted when the form is in. The plan stamps the day. It stamps the day you change the state, not the day you sent the form, so change it the same day.
4. Mark it live by pasting the address of your listing. The day is stamped again, and the row links to your listing from then on.
5. Keep a note per place, up to 500 characters: the chase date, the launch date a queue gave you, the account you used.
6. Export. The CSV has one row per place with these columns: Number, Name, Room, Kind, Website, Venture List page, State, Added on, Submitted on, Live on, Listing URL, Note, Last checked. The Excel download has two sheets: "My launch", your plan, and "All places", every place on the list with its checked cost, terms and approval time, so you can look up each stated wait by the place's code.

My launch also watches the list for you. Its "since your last visit" block lists what changed on the list since you last opened it and pins the places that are in your plan, and if a place in your plan leaves the list, the page says so and links the changelog.

What it doesn't do: it has no chase-date field and sends no reminders, and it has three states, so a rejection or a closed queue goes in the note. For a chase column and the overdue flag above, export the CSV and add them in a spreadsheet.

04A plain spreadsheet instead

If you'd rather not make an account, a spreadsheet does the same job with one more step each time. One header row covers it, columns A to N:

Place · Kind · Site · Venture List page · Cost chosen · Stated wait (and the day read) · State · Submitted on · Chase on · Launch date given · Listing URL · Live on · Re-check on · Notes

Fill in the stated wait from each place's page before you submit, put the formulas above in "Chase on", and filter by state. If you start from a My launch export, the names, links and dates are already there; add the columns it lacks.

05Re-check what's live

A live listing is not a permanent one. Directories close, change owners or turn into something else. In our 2026 link check, 20 of the 375 launch links we checked no longer worked: the site was dead, parked or showing spam.

So give each live row a re-check date. The interval is yours to choose; what matters is that the date exists. On that day:

• Open the listing URL you saved. Is it still there, and is it still about your product?
• Look at your link: does it still go to your current address? If the link is the reason you listed, check the link yourself explains how.
• Look at the site around it. The signs of a directory gone bad are in check a directory before you submit.

If a listing is gone, change its state and write what happened in the note. We hide a place on the list after repeated failed checks or at once if it shows spam, and record why in the changelog; what we do about it has the rules.

The order to submit in, counted back from launch day, is in the launch plan, and each queue's wait in how long a free launch waits.

06How we checked

This guide quotes no place. The waits in the table are each site's own words, as shown on each place's page with the day we read them. The spreadsheet functions are quoted from Microsoft's and Google's help pages, read on 2 October 2026. My launch is described as it works on 2 October 2026. We don't submit products or measure what a listing brings. Nobody pays to be listed or to appear in a guide. Read how we check for the details.

07Questions

01

What should a directory submission tracker include?

One row per place, with its kind, the cost you chose, the wait the site states, the state (planned, submitted or live), the day you submitted, a day to chase it, the launch date if a queue gave you one, the listing URL, the day it went live, a day to re-check it, and notes. Authority scores aren't needed: they don't tell you when you'll be listed.

02

Is there a free launch tracker template?

My launch is free with an account: it stamps the dates, keeps a note per place and exports a CSV and an Excel file. Without an account, copy the header row from this guide into any spreadsheet.

03

How long should I wait before following up on a directory submission?

Until the end of the wait the site states for itself. If it gives a range, use the far end; if it counts business days, count working days. If a queue assigned you a launch date, wait for that day. If the site states no wait, set your own and write it down.

04

Can I track Product Hunt, directories and accelerator applications in one place?

Yes. My launch takes places from all three rooms of the list: launch sites and directories, communities, and accelerators. Each moves through the same three states, with its own note.

05

Why re-check a listing after it goes live?

Directories close, get taken over or change their links, and a listing that was there at launch can disappear. Our 2026 link check found a share of launch links that no longer work. Set a re-check date on each live row and open the listing on that day.