Judge the directory yourself, in five minutes

Every list of the best directories you will read was written by somebody who did not measure the results for your product in your category. Here is how to run the checks yourself instead.

Run the free check

Evaluate any directory with six checks: does it show signs of recent real use, does it rank for anything itself, is it editorially reviewed, does it link to listed products in a way search engines follow, is its audience your audience, and is the business model paid inclusion. A directory failing the first two is worth nothing regardless of how large it looks.

Why nobody can give you the ranked list

You will find many articles ranking directories by value. Almost none of them are based on measured referral data, and the few that are measured somebody else's product in somebody else's category.

Referral value is specific to your audience. A directory that sends excellent traffic to a developer tool may send nothing at all to a consumer app, and the reverse is equally true. A ranking that ignores this is a guess presented as data.

So the useful thing is not a list. It is a method you can apply to any directory, including ones that did not exist when the article you are reading was written.

Check one: signs of life

Look for evidence that humans use this site, rather than that products are submitted to it.

Recent entries with visible dates. Comments, votes, or any form of user activity. A blog or newsletter that has been updated this year. Entries that have been edited rather than posted once and abandoned.

A directory with thousands of listings and no visible human activity anywhere is an archive rather than a destination. Submissions go in and nothing comes out, and there is no audience on the other side to reach.

Check two: does it rank for anything

A directory that cannot be found itself cannot send you anybody who found it through search, which is how most directory traffic arrives.

Take a distinctive phrase from one of its category pages and search for it. If the directory appears near the top for its own content, search engines think it is worth showing. If it does not appear at all for its own distinctive phrasing, that is a strong signal.

Then try the search a real person would use, something like the category name followed by tools or software. If the directory appears somewhere on the first page for the searches your customers would actually run, it is in a position to send you people. If it never appears, its listings are effectively private.

Checks three and four: review and links

Is anything submitted published automatically, or does a person look at it first? Editorial review is slower for you and it is the single best predictor of whether the directory has value, because a directory that publishes everything fills with abandoned projects and stops being useful to browse.

Then look at how it links to the products it lists. Some directories link directly to your site. Some route through a redirect. Some mark their outbound links in a way that tells search engines not to pass any weight.

None of those is disqualifying, and they change what you get. A direct followed link contributes to the evidence that your site is worth something. A marked or redirected link still sends people who click, and still creates the third-party description, which is the main reason to be there.

So do not skip a good directory because its links are marked. Do adjust what you expect from it.

Checks five and six: audience and business model

Is the audience your audience? A directory for developer tools is the wrong home for a consumer product no matter how well it performs on every other check. Read a few of its recent entries and ask whether your product would look like it belongs.

Then look at how the site makes money. Advertising, sponsored placement alongside free listings, or a paid tier for extra features are all normal and fine.

The signal to avoid is a site whose primary product is paid inclusion, especially one selling submission to hundreds of directories at once. That service exists because the directories it submits to have no audience, and if they had one they would not need to be sold in a bundle.

Measuring it afterwards

The checks above tell you where to spend an afternoon. Only measurement tells you whether it worked, and this part is usually skipped entirely.

Add a tracking parameter to the link you submit, so any visit arriving through that listing is identifiable in your analytics rather than mixed into everything else. Most directories accept a link with parameters attached.

Then look after a month, not after a day. Directory traffic is a trickle rather than an event, and a single day tells you nothing.

Keep a simple record: which directory, when submitted, what the description emphasised, and what arrived. After a dozen listings you will have something better than any ranked article, which is real data about your own product in your own category.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Getting listed. The other parts:

Questions people ask

Which directories should I submit my product to?
There is no universal list worth trusting, because referral value depends on your audience and category. A directory that sends excellent traffic to a developer tool may send nothing to a consumer app. Run six checks on any directory yourself instead: signs of real use, whether it ranks, editorial review, link handling, audience match, and business model.
How do I know if a directory has real visitors?
Look for recent entries with visible dates, comments or votes, and content updated this year. Then take a distinctive phrase from one of its pages and search for it. A directory that cannot be found itself cannot send you anyone who found it through search.
Does it matter if a directory marks its outbound links?
It changes what you get rather than disqualifying it. A marked or redirected link passes no weight to your site, and it still sends people who click and still creates a third-party description of your product, which is the main reason to be listed at all.
Is editorial review a good or bad sign?
A good one, and it is the single best predictor of value. It is slower for you, and a directory that publishes everything automatically fills with abandoned projects and stops being useful to browse, which means nobody browses it.
Should I use a service that submits to hundreds of directories?
No. That service exists because the directories it submits to have no audience of their own, since a directory with real visitors does not need to be sold in a bundle. The listings produced are worth nothing and the time is better spent on a handful of genuine ones.
How do I measure whether a listing worked?
Add a tracking parameter to the link you submit so arrivals from it are identifiable in analytics, then check after a month rather than a day, since directory traffic is a trickle rather than an event. Keep a record of each listing and what arrived, and after a dozen you will have real data about your own category.

Know what you are describing before you describe it

The free Get Found Check shows how your product currently reads to a machine, which is the description your listings should be consistent with.

Run the free check Have Licheo do it for you