Do startup directories help SEO? Google's own words, and what the directories actually promise

Don't count on the link. Google's spam policies list "low-quality directory or bookmark site links" as an example of link spam. And on the directories' own pages, a followed link seldom comes free: it comes with a payment, a featured slot, an upvote count or a badge on your site. A listing can still help people find your product. That is the better reason to submit, and the one to judge a directory by.

This guide quotes Google's policy word for word. Then it sets out what the directories on our list promise about their links, in their own words, and what three independent audits found when they looked at the links on live listings. We check links and read sites' own pages; we don't submit products, and we don't measure rankings or traffic. We also never ask the places we list for a backlink or a badge.

01What Google says, word for word

Google's rules for links are on its spam policies page (opens in a new tab). It said "Last updated 2026-08-28" when we read it on 30 September 2026. It defines link spam first:

Link spam is the practice of creating links to or from a site primarily for the purpose of manipulating search rankings.

Then it gives examples. These are the ones you meet when you submit to directories, in Google's words and order. The page lists more.

• Buying or selling links for ranking purposes. This includes:
  • Exchanging money for links, or posts that contain links
• Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and I'll link to you") or partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking
• Requiring a link as part of a Terms of Service, contract, or similar arrangement without allowing a third-party content owner the choice of qualifying the outbound link
• Low-quality directory or bookmark site links
• Widely distributed links in the footers or templates of various sites

The same section says when a paid link is fine:

Google does understand that buying and selling links is a normal part of the economy of the web for advertising and sponsorship purposes. It's not a violation of our policies to have such links as long as they are qualified with a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute value to the <a> tag.

And the top of the page says what happens to sites that break the policies:

Sites that violate our policies may rank lower in results or not appear in results at all.

Three things the page does not say. It does not call every directory link spam: its word is "low-quality", and it doesn't define a low-quality directory. It names no site, and we don't say that any site on our list breaks it: whether a given listing crosses the line is Google's call. And nowhere does it say that a followed directory link will help you rank.

The bluntest line we found from anyone at Google is older. On 30 September 2016, Google's Gary Illyes wrote on Twitter, as Search Engine Roundtable reported (opens in a new tab):

Directories are very often not the right way to build links. Make sure you know what you're doing & remember that there's manual actions too

02What the directories promise

23 places in room 01 say somewhere on their own pages what link a listing gets, and we copied each statement word for word. Nearly all of them promise a followed link. When we read them on 29 and 30 September 2026, only one offered that link on a free listing with nothing attached but a wait. The rest tie it to one of four things.

A payment. This is the most common. The link comes with a paid listing, a paid launch or a paid pack; what those cost is in paid startup directories. Startup Base says it plainly:

D024Startup Base·Link type

“Every paid launch includes a permanent dofollow backlink from StartupBase, currently a DR 74 domain. The link stays live for as long as the listing does.”

Our reading: Dofollow on paid launches

Being featured. Beta List has no free submission, and even a paid one gets the link only if it is featured:

D010Beta List·Link type

“All plans include a do-follow backlink if featured, and a full refund if not selected.”

Our reading: Dofollow

Upvotes or a top spot. Uneed's pricing page says of its free line: "An upvote score of 10 to stay published, 20 for the do-follow backlink." Its paid options are in how long a free launch waits. Several of the weekly launch boards on the list go further and give the link only to the week's top three or top five.

A badge on your site. Postmake's standard listing is paid. For the free one, its pages say: "Place a Postmake badge & get listed for free", and "Interested in a free listing? Get do-follow links to boost your visibility and SEO." There is more on badges in the next section.

The exception. Pitchwall's free plan lists a "Do-follow backlink (DR 70)" next to a "Minimum 30-day waiting period", and its FAQ says free listings "typically have a waiting period of 30+ days before publication". The free link is on offer; the cost is time.

Hold the paid ones against Google's list. "Buying or selling links for ranking purposes" is the first example of link spam, and the way out is a rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow" on the link. A pricing page doesn't tell you which of those, if any, your link will carry. The live listing does: see what audits found on live listings and check the link yourself below.

03Free listings that cost you a link

Some directories list you for free if you link to them first. Dokey AI puts it in one line:

D013Dokey AI·Cost

“How much does it cost to list a tool? It's totally free if you add a backlink to our website. Otherwise, we will review the quality of your tool.”

Our reading: Free with a backlink to their site

Dang.ai's free plan asks for "a verified backlink to Dang.ai", and adds: "Listing stays active while the backlink remains live." Postmake's free listing, as above, needs a Postmake badge on your landing page or in your footer.

Now set that next to Google's list above: excessive link exchanges, widely distributed footer links, and requiring a link without letting the site owner qualify it. One badge in your footer is not what those lines describe, and Google gives no number for "excessive". But badges add up. A team that made 435 directory submissions (opens in a new tab) found that more than half of the directories "wanted their badge or a link back on our site before they would list us, or before their link to us became a followed one." Say yes to all of them and your footer becomes a row of links to directories. The developer of Convertica, who audited directory links (opens in a new tab), drew the line like this: "Six badges reads as a community. Twenty reads as a link scheme." That is one developer's rule of thumb, not Google's.

Before you add a badge, ask two questions:

• Can I mark it rel="nofollow" and still qualify? Dang.ai asks for a "crawlable backlink", which leaves that open, so ask.
• What happens if I take it down later? Dang.ai answers it: the listing stays only while your link does. Elsewhere, the listing or its followed link may quietly go.

04DR numbers on pricing pages

Some of these pages sell the link with a number. Pitchwall's plans say "DR 70". Startup Base's about page calls it "currently a DR 74 domain".

DR is Domain Rating, a score made by Ahrefs, an SEO tool company. It is not a Google number. Ahrefs' own help page (opens in a new tab) says DR "shows the strength of a website's backlink profile compared to the others in our database on a 100-point scale", and adds: "It's not possible to say that a Domain Rating of 30 is good, or 50, or 60, or 70. It's all relative."

The number also moves, even on one site's own pages. Startup Base's blog post on this very question (opens in a new tab), dated 12 July 2026, says: "When you launch on StartupBase with the $39 plan, your product gets a permanent DR 72 dofollow backlink to your site." Its about page now says DR 74.

A DR on a pricing page tells you how one tool rated the directory's own backlinks when the page was written. It does not tell you whether Google counts the link to you, or whether anyone will click it.

05What audits found on live listings

A promise on a pricing page is one thing; the rel attribute on your live listing is another. In August and September 2026 three authors published audits on dev.to, each checking the HTML of live listings. These are their findings, on their own samples. We did not repeat them.

• 101 directories and launchpads (opens in a new tab), measured on 31 August 2026 by Safak Tepecik. Ten had a followed link on a page search engines may index, and "exactly one of those ten looked reachable without paying or trading something for it." Thirteen marked the link nofollow, three sat on pages marked noindex, ten didn't link to the product at all, and 65 couldn't be verified, some because the site blocked automated requests. The author's summary of the ten: "Nine of the ten dofollow results do not form a group of generous platforms. They form a price list." The audit also notes that Startup Base's own comparison table leaves the backlink out of the free tier, which matches its about page.
• About fifteen launch directories (opens in a new tab), checked by the developer of Convertica and published on 10 August 2026. Six didn't give the link they advertised, and one had turned an earned link into a nofollow link without notice. On one board the author sampled eight live listings: four followed, four nofollow.
• 435 submissions (opens in a new tab), counted by the team that made them and published on 14 September 2026. Of the listings that went live, 106 of 150 linked to them with a followed link, but "some links only become followed after a badge check, and some free lanes are nofollow while the paid lane is not."

Different samples, different methods, and the same pattern as the promises above. The followed link is mostly something you buy or trade for, and what a pricing page says is not always what the listing serves.

06When a listing is still worth it

None of this makes directories useless. It makes the link the wrong reason to pick one. A listing earns its place when:

• People browse it. A launch platform puts you on a front page for a day, and our Product Hunt alternatives guide covers them. Review sites exist for buyers comparing software.
• It's where your category lives. A board built for developer tools, if you make one; an AI directory, if you make an AI tool. Room 01 sorts the list by kind.
• It shows up for your name. After launch, search for your product's name. A listing that appears there does a job no link count shows.

The team behind the 435 submissions put it this way: "If discovery is the reason, a nofollow listing that real people browse can be worth more than a followed one nobody visits."

We can't tell you which listings will bring visitors: we don't measure traffic, and no pricing page can promise it. What you can check before you submit (cost, wait, link and whether the site is still alive) is in is directory submission worth it?

07Check the link yourself

If a link is part of what you pay or trade for, check it on the live listing. It takes two minutes.

1. Open your live listing in a private window, so you see what a visitor sees.
2. Right-click the link to your site and choose Inspect. Read its rel attribute. Google's page on outbound links (opens in a new tab) lists three values, sponsored, ugc and nofollow, and says that links marked with them "will generally not be followed". With none of the three, the link is followed. There is no dofollow value on Google's list.
3. View the page source and search for noindex. Two of the audits checked this: a followed link on a page search engines are told not to index is worth little.
4. Check a free listing, not only a featured one. The 101-directory audit found a directory where the author's own free listing was nofollow while two other listings, checked the same day, were followed. The author's reading: "The difference is not technical, it is commercial."
5. Check again in a month, and after you change a badge. As the Convertica developer wrote: "They verify your badge on a schedule. Nobody verifies their rel but you."

08How we checked

The link promises come from each site's own pages, with the page and the exact words, read on 29 or 30 September 2026; the quote boxes above show the page and the day. We read Google's pages, Ahrefs' definition and every site page quoted in the text again on 30 September 2026, and they still said the same. The audits are other people's work; we quote them and did not repeat them. Nobody pays to be listed or to appear in a guide. Read how we check for the details.

09Questions

01

Do startup directories still help SEO in 2026?

Don't count on the link itself. Google's spam policies list low-quality directory links as an example of link spam, and on the directories' own pages a followed link usually comes with a payment, a featured slot, an upvote count or a badge. A listing can still bring people who browse it, and that is the better reason to submit.

02

Are dofollow directory links against Google's rules?

Google's spam policies list buying links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges and low-quality directory links as examples of link spam. They also say paid links are not a violation when they carry rel=nofollow or rel=sponsored. Whether a particular listing crosses the line is Google's call. This guide quotes the policy word for word.

03

Is it safe to add a directory's badge to my site?

One badge is ordinary. Google's policy names excessive link exchanges and widely distributed footer links as link spam and gives no number, so keep your row of badges short. Ask whether you may mark the badge link nofollow, and check now and then that the directory's link to you is still followed.

04

What does DR mean on a directory's pricing page?

Domain Rating, a score from the SEO tool company Ahrefs. It rates a site's backlinks against the others in Ahrefs' database, on a scale up to 100. It is not a Google number, and it moves: one directory's blog post and its about page give different figures.

05

Which free directories give a dofollow link?

When we read their pages at the end of September 2026, only Pitchwall offered a followed link on a free listing with nothing attached but a wait of at least 30 days. Uneed's free launches keep one only above an upvote score it sets, several weekly launch boards give one only to the week's top three or top five, and Postmake's free listing asks for a badge on your site. The audits this guide cites found free followed links rare on live listings, too.