The directory submission checklist: what to prepare before you start

This is the list of assets to prepare before you submit anywhere. Get all of it into one folder and one text file, and each submission drops from around twenty minutes to around four. That difference is the whole reason some founders get through fifty directories and others give up at twelve.

Text you'll paste over and over

Write these once. Keep them in a single plain text file so you're never hunting through a doc for the right length.

Product name. Decide the exact casing and stick to it everywhere. Inconsistent naming across listings makes it harder for search engines and AI systems to recognize that all those pages are talking about the same thing.

Tagline, under 60 characters. The hardest asset on this list. It has to say what the product does, not what it aspires to be. Write ten and pick one.

Short description, around 160 characters. One sentence. This doubles as your meta description and shows up in most directory cards.

Medium description, around 500 characters. Two or three sentences covering what it does, who it's for, and what makes it different.

Long description, around 1500 characters. Three or four short paragraphs. Some directories give you real space, and a thin description on a site that allows a full one looks lazy next to competitors who filled it.

Feature list, five to eight bullets. Short noun phrases, not sentences.

Category and two backups. Directory taxonomies vary a lot. Knowing your second and third choice in advance saves a decision at every form.

Tags, eight to ten. Lowercase, single words or short phrases.

Images

Directories are inconsistent about image requirements, but these four cover nearly all of them.

| Asset | Size | Format | Notes | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Logo, square | 512 by 512 | PNG, transparent | The one you'll use most | | Logo, safe background | 512 by 512 | PNG, solid | For sites that render on white or dark | | Banner | 1200 by 630 | PNG or JPG | Wide cards and social previews | | Screenshots | 1280 by 800 | PNG | Three to five, same aspect ratio |

Two things people get wrong. Transparent logos disappear on directories that render cards on a matching background, so keep a solid-background version ready. And screenshots of your landing page are not screenshots of your product. Show the interface.

Account details

A dedicated submission email. Something like listings at yourdomain. This one change makes the whole process manageable, because every confirmation link, moderation notice, and approval email lands in one place you can search later.

A password manager entry per directory. Many directories require an account. You will not remember which ones, or which email you used, in a month.

Founder profile basics. A headshot, a two-sentence bio, and your X or LinkedIn URL. A meaningful minority of directories ask for a maker profile alongside the product.

Facts about the product

These come up constantly and are annoying to look up mid-form.

• Launch date or founding year
• Pricing model, and your lowest paid tier if you have one
• Whether there's a free tier or trial, and its length
• Platforms supported
• Integrations, if relevant to your category
• Company location
• Team size

Before you start submitting

Three checks that prevent wasted submissions.

Your homepage returns 200 at the canonical URL. Submit the URL your site actually settles on after redirects. A listing pointing at a URL that redirects loses some of whatever value the link had.

Your site has an OG image and description. Some directories pull metadata automatically. If yours is missing, you'll get a listing with a blank card, and some sites won't let you fix it after the fact.

Your product actually works for a stranger. Moderators click through. A signup flow that breaks without an invite code is the most common reason a legitimate product gets rejected.

While you submit

Record these five fields for every submission, in a spreadsheet or anywhere you'll actually keep it up to date:

1. Directory name
2. Date submitted
3. Email or account used
4. Status
5. Live listing URL, once it appears

That record is what lets you follow up on the ones that stall and verify the ones that went live. There's more on that in tracking submissions and verifying backlinks.

When you're ready to pick where to submit, our directory list records link type, pricing, and what each site is best used for. Or if the whole exercise sounds like a weekend you'd rather not spend, we do it for you.