AC
Marketing & Growth5.7 KBMIT licensed

directory-submissions

Rewritten from patterns in an open SaaS marketing skills pack (MIT)

Plan and execute product submissions to startup, SaaS, AI, agent/MCP, and review directories for backlinks, domain rating, and discovery, including Product Hunt launches and G2/Capterra review drives. Use when the user says "directory submissions", "submit to Product Hunt", "backlinks from directories", "list my product", or "launch directories". Not for AI citation work on your own pages: use ai-seo. Not for editorial backlink outreach: use claude-seo-backlinks.

  • directory
  • submissions

SKILL.md

Directory Submissions

Directories are the foundation layer of distribution, never the whole strategy. They pass link equity and put you in front of in-market browsers, but they only pay off when the pages they link to can convert. Build destinations first, then submit.

Three Hard Rules

  1. Foundation before submission. The landing page a directory will link to must be live, indexed, and carry: a single H1 with clean heading hierarchy, a real pricing page (free-while-in-beta counts), privacy policy and terms, logo assets (PNG, SVG, square, favicon), 5-8 real screenshots, a 60-90 second demo video, FAQ schema, and Organization/Product/SoftwareApplication structured data.
  2. Destinations before directories. Minimum before submitting anywhere: 3-5 competitor alternative pages, 3-5 use-case pages, a template gallery if the category supports one, and one honest "best of" post about your own category. Alternative pages convert several times better than generic content; that is where the link equity should land.
  3. Positioning varies by directory type. Never paste one description everywhere. Duplicate descriptions get down-weighted by AI engines and bore every audience. Startup directories get the outcome, SaaS directories get alternative framing, AI directories get the AI-first angle, dev directories get technical depth, review sites get ROI and use cases.

Workflow

  1. Readiness gate. Check every Rule 1 item plus: product publicly accessible, destination pages live and indexed, and 20+ users who could leave reviews. Any Rule 1 miss is a hard block, build the missing piece first. Thin reviews or no gallery is a soft block: launch, but flag the lost compounding.
  2. Pick tiers. Read references/tiers.md when selecting: it has the full tier catalog (flagship launch, startup/SaaS, AI, agent/MCP, no-code, listicles, integration marketplaces, and the rest) and the positioning variant per tier. Triage rule: submit only where the product genuinely fits; forced listings get rejected and burn the first-submission advantage.
  3. Prepare variants. Per tier: tagline under 10 words, 60-char short description, 150-word long description, 5-8 category tags, founder story. Vary the opening sentence, feature emphasis, and audience framing per tier.
  4. Batch submit and track. Keep a tracker (CSV or sheet) with columns: directory, tier, URL, date submitted, status, listing URL, dofollow (y/n), notes. Work through it in batches, log every submission.
  5. Run the anchor events. Product Hunt is the highest-leverage single submission and the easiest to waste; G2/Capterra listings are worthless without reviews. Read references/launch-playbooks.md when a PH launch or a review drive is in scope: it has the prep timeline, launch-day execution, and the 10-in-30 review protocol.
  6. Measure weekly. Domain rating, referring domains, listings live, reviews, signups from directory referrals, and a monthly manual check of where AI assistants mention the product for "best [category]" questions. If a number is flat, investigate; do not just submit more.

Verification

After each batch goes live, verify every listing link: run curl -sIL <listing-url> | grep -i "rel=" and inspect the anchor in the page source. Expect the listing live, pointing at the intended destination page, without rel="nofollow" where the directory claims dofollow. If a link is missing or nofollow on a directory that should pass equity, fix the listing or log it as low-value and deprioritize that directory.

Good vs Bad

Judgment call: product not launched yet, user wants "50 directories this week".

Bad: Blast the homepage link to 50 directories with one pasted description. No destinations, duplicate copy, equity lands on a page that converts nothing.

Good: Block submission, build 4 alternative pages and 3 use-case pages first, then submit in tier order with per-tier positioning, tracking dofollow status per listing.

Footguns

  • Paying for submission services. These directories are free; the packages sell you an afternoon of copy-paste. Fix: do it in batches yourself, 2-3 hours each.
  • Spam directories. Low-authority junk directories dilute the backlink profile and can trigger spam penalties. Fix: skip anything with no traffic and no editorial standards.
  • Asking for upvotes on Product Hunt. Ranking algorithms and moderators punish it. Fix: ask for feedback, reply to every comment fast.
  • Zero-review listings on G2/Capterra. A dead listing signals worse than no listing. Fix: run the 10-in-30 protocol or do not submit there yet.
  • Dishonest comparison pages. AI engines cross-reference competitor claims and de-rank lies. Fix: honest "when to choose them" sections on every alternative page.

Completion Checklist

  • [ ] Readiness gate passed or blockers named to the user
  • [ ] Destination pages live and indexed before any submission
  • [ ] Per-tier positioning variants written, no duplicates
  • [ ] Tracker updated for every submission
  • [ ] Live listings verified for dofollow and correct destination
  • [ ] Weekly metrics baseline recorded

Any box unchecked: not done. Fix or say so.

Reference files

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