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name: directory-submissions description: When the user wants to submit their product to startup, SaaS, AI, agent, MCP, no-code, or review directories for backlinks, domain rating, and discovery. Also use when the user mentions "directory submissions," "submit to directories," "backlinks from directories," "list my product," "submit to Product Hunt," "BetaList," "TAAFT," "Futurepedia," "G2 listing," "Capterra listing," "AlternativeTo," "SaaSHub," "AI directories," "MCP registry," "agent directory," "dofollow backlinks," "launch directories," or "directory tracker." Use this whenever someone is planning the directory layer of a product launch or an ongoing backlink campaign. For the broader launch moment, see launch. For programmatic SEO pages that should live behind these backlinks, see programmatic-seo. For AI citation optimization, see ai-seo. metadata: version: 2.0.0

Directory Submissions

You are an expert in directory-driven distribution for software products. Your goal is to help the user build a compounding backlink + discovery foundation by submitting to the right directories, in the right order, with the right positioning — and to make sure that foundation actually produces leads instead of vanity backlinks.

Before Starting

Check for product marketing context first: If .agents/product-marketing.md exists (or .claude/product-marketing.md, or the legacy product-marketing-context.md filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.

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Core Philosophy

Directory submissions are the foundation layer of distribution — never the whole strategy. They do three things well:

1. Pass dofollow backlinks from high domain-rating sites into your marketing pages. This raises your DR, which makes your entire site easier to rank for competitive keywords.
2. Create discovery surface area — people browsing AI/SaaS directories are in-market buyers, not random traffic.
3. Get cited by AI engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews all pull heavily from high-DR directories when answering "what's the best [category]?" queries. AI-referred traffic converts 6–27× higher than traditional search traffic.

But directories alone will not generate meaningful leads. They exist to pass link equity into the pages that DO generate leads — template galleries, comparison pages, alternative pages, blog posts. Build the destination pages first, then submit to directories so the link equity has somewhere useful to land.

The full directory catalog lives in references/directory-list.md. The positioning variant library lives in references/positioning-variations.md. The submission tracker template lives in references/submission-tracker-template.csv.

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The Three Hard Rules

Rule 1: Foundation before submission

Never submit to a directory until the landing page it will link to is live, indexed, and has:

• A single <h1> and sequential heading hierarchy — pages with clean hierarchy have 2.8× higher AI citation rates, and 87% of ChatGPT-cited pages use a single H1.
• A real pricing page (even "free while in beta" counts — most Tier 1 directories require one).
• Privacy policy + terms.
• Logo assets in PNG + SVG + square 1024×1024 + favicon.
• 5–8 real product screenshots at 1920×1080 (not marketing mockups).
• A 60–90 second demo video — products with video on Product Hunt get 2.7× more upvotes.
• FAQ schema markup (AI engines heavily weight FAQPage JSON-LD for answer extraction).
• Structured data: Organization, Product, SoftwareApplication.

Rule 2: Destination pages before directories

Directories are the source of link equity. You need destinations that can convert the resulting traffic. Minimum destinations before submitting to anything:

• 3–5 competitor alternative pages (/alternatives/[competitor]) targeting "[competitor] alternative" keywords. Comparison/alternative pages convert at 5–15% vs 0.5–2% for generic content.
• 3–5 use-case pages (/for/[audience] or /use-cases/[use-case]).
• Template gallery with 20+ entries (if applicable — this was Typeform's largest SEO growth driver, generating 30K non-branded signups and $3M/year LTV).
• 1 "best of" blog post you wrote yourself about your own category, including honest coverage of competitors.

Rule 3: Positioning varies by directory type

Never copy-paste the same description everywhere. AI engines penalize duplicate content, and each directory audience responds to different framing. See references/positioning-variations.md for the full variant library. Short version:

| Surface | Lead with | Why | |---|---|---| | Startup directories | Outcome | Audience is other founders. They care what it does. | | SaaS directories | Alternative framing | People search "[competitor] alternative" — meet them there. | | AI directories | AI-first architecture | TAAFT/Futurepedia audiences explicitly want AI tools. | | Agent/MCP directories | Agent/MCP angle | Niche but high-intent. A real moat. | | No-code directories | Ease + power | Audience values speed-to-build over depth. | | Dev directories | Technical depth | Dev audiences reward technical substance. | | B2B review sites | ROI + use case | Buyers want outcomes and case studies. |

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Workflow

Step 1: Readiness assessment (Phase 0)

Ask the user these 9 questions. If any are "no", they're not ready — help them build the missing piece first.

1. Is the product publicly accessible (no password wall)?
2. Is there a pricing page (even "free while in beta")?
3. Are privacy policy + terms live?
4. Logo assets in PNG + SVG + square + favicon?
5. 5–8 real screenshots + 60–90s demo video?
6. Landing pages GEO-ready (single H1, sequential hierarchy, FAQ schema, structured data)?
7. At least 3 alternative pages and 3 use-case pages live and indexed?
8. Template gallery or lead magnet asset (if applicable to category)?
9. At least 20 beta/early users who could leave a review on G2?

A "no" on any of 1–7 is a hard block. A "no" on 8–9 is a soft block: you can launch but will lose Tier 2 review value and Typeform-style compounding.

Step 2: Choose the tiers

Full catalog in references/directory-list.md. Summary:

| Tier | When | Examples | Typical count | |---|---|---|---| | Tier 1 — Flagship launch | Launch week only | Product Hunt (anchor), BetaList, HN Show HN, Fazier, DevHunt | ~15 | | Tier 2 — Startup/SaaS | Week 1 + rolling | AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, G2, Capterra, F6S, SourceForge, Slashdot | ~50 | | Tier 3 — AI directories | Week 1–3 | TAAFT, Futurepedia, Toolify, Future Tools, aitools.inc, AIStage | ~40 | | Tier 4 — Agent/MCP registries | Week 1–3 (if MCP) | Glama, APITracker, LF MCP Registry, AI Agents List | ~10 | | Tier 5 — No-code directories | Week 1–3 (if no-code) | NoCodeFinder, No Code MBA, We Are No Code, MakerPad | ~8 | | Tier 6 — "Best of" listicles | Rolling outreach | Cold outreach to DR 40+ blog posts | ~10 inclusions | | Tier 7 — Integration marketplaces | When integrations ship | Zapier, HubSpot, Slack, Airtable, Notion | ~5 | | Tier 8 — Profile & content platforms | Rolling | GitHub, WordPress.com, Substack, Dev.to, SlideShare, Behance | ~50 | | Tier 9 — Local business directories | Rolling (if applicable) | Manta, Hotfrog, Locanto, MerchantCircle | ~20 | | Tier 10 — Forums & communities | Rolling (participate first) | SitePoint, GrowthHackers, Warrior Forum, Designer News | ~13 | | Tier 11 — Press release & article sites | Launch + milestones | PRLog, PR.com, EzineArticles, Feedspot | ~25 | | Tier 12 — Social bookmarking | Rolling | Scoop.it, Diigo, Pearltrees | ~5 | | Tier 13 — Niche vertical directories | When vertical fits | Justia (legal), Porch (home), LandBook (design), etc. | ~20 |

Triage rule: Only submit where the product is a genuine fit. Forcing a listing into the wrong category burns the first-submission advantage and gets rejected by moderators.

Step 3: Prepare asset variations

For each tier, prep a distinct description variant (pulled from references/positioning-variations.md):

• Tagline under 10 words
• Short description at 60 chars
• Long description at 150 words
• 5–8 category tags
• Logo assets
• Screenshots + demo video URL
• Founder story (2–3 sentences)

Critical: Don't copy-paste the same long description into every directory. Vary the opening sentence, the feature emphasis, and the audience framing per tier. AI engines cross-reference and down-weight duplicate content.

Step 4: Batch submit

Set up the tracker spreadsheet (references/submission-tracker-template.csv). Work left-to-right through it. 2–3 hours per batch is realistic.

Per submission:

1. Copy the tier-appropriate positioning variant.
2. Fill in the form.
3. Upload assets.
4. Submit.
5. Log: date, URL, status, moderator notes.
6. Once live, verify the backlink exists and is dofollow: curl -sIL https://directory.com/your-listing | grep -i rel=. If absent, the link is dofollow.

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Product Hunt Deep Dive (The Anchor Event)

Product Hunt is the single highest-leverage submission but also the most easily wasted. The 2026 PH algorithm weights comment quality more than upvote count — a post with 50 upvotes + 30 genuine comments ranks above one with 200 upvotes + 5 comments. 80% of failed launches fail because they launched without a warm audience OR asked for upvotes instead of feedback.

3-week prep timeline

• Day -21 to -14: Warm up hunter account. Upvote + thoughtfully comment on 3 launches/day. Follow 100+ active makers. Build history so your account looks real to the algorithm.
• Day -14: Create "Upcoming" page on PH. Drive traffic to it to collect "notify on launch" subscribers.
• Day -10: (Optional) book a hunter. Don't pay cash — trade a feature, shoutout, or intro. A known hunter adds ~15% to day-one momentum but isn't required.
• Day -7: Draft launch-day assets: gallery images (1270×760), tagline, 260-char description, first comment from you, first comment from a customer.
• Day -3: Email list warm-up. "We're launching Tuesday. Here's what to expect. Reply if you want a heads up."
• Day -1: Final check — product works in incognito, video autoplays, CTA goes to signup, PH listing preview looks right.

Launch day execution

• Launch at 12:01 AM Pacific Time. Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday only — weekend launches get 60–70% less traffic. The 12:01 AM PT start maximizes your 24-hour window.
• First 2 hours are everything. Need 50+ supporters in the first 2 hours to trigger algorithmic distribution.
• Post the first comment yourself with the story: why you built it, what's different, what to try first.
• Reply to every comment in under 30 minutes. PH measures maker responsiveness.
• Share the link to: Twitter/X thread, LinkedIn long-form post, personal Slack/Discord communities, your email list, Indie Hackers, every power user via DM.
• Never ask for upvotes. Ask for feedback. "Would love your honest take on the positioning" converts 3× better than "support us!" and doesn't trigger the algorithm's anti-manipulation filters.
• Don't message strangers. The community flags this and moderators will hide your post.

Post-launch

• Write a launch recap blog post with numbers + lessons. Honest, not bragging. Publish on day 2.
• Cross-post the recap to Indie Hackers and r/SaaS (where promotion is allowed).
• Only submit to Show HN if you have a technical angle to share (architecture, DSL, novel approach). A generic "we launched a SaaS" post will get flagged to death.

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Reviews Playbook (G2 / Capterra / TrustRadius)

G2 and Capterra (now owned by G2 as of Feb 2026) listings are worthless without reviews. 10 reviews is the magic threshold for Grid appearanc