Do Launch Directories Give Backlinks, and Are They Worth Having?
Yes, most launch directories put a link to your site on your listing, but whether it is followed depends on the site, and how much any link helps your search ranking cannot be known from outside Google. A listing helps most when real people visit it. Google’s spam policies name low-quality directory links as link spam, so pick a few directories you would visit yourself, read the link’s rel attribute in the page source and judge the result by visits.
Is there a link on your listing at all?
A listing normally carries a link to your product, since that is why a visitor came. Four questions decide whether it is worth anything beyond the click. Is the link written in the page’s HTML, or added only by a script after the page loads? Which rel value does it carry? Is the listing page itself something a search engine has indexed? And does the listing stay online after the launch week ends?
You can answer the first two in a minute and the other two with patience. A link that exists only on a page nobody can find, or that disappears when a weekly batch rotates out, adds little however it is marked.
What do the platforms say about the links they give?
| Platform | What its pages say about your link |
|---|---|
| This board (ours) | The outbound link on a launch page is a normal followed link; links inside user-written text are marked nofollow ugc |
| DevHunt | Links on free listings are nofollow; paid launches get a permanent dofollow link |
| TinyLaunch | A dofollow link is granted when you embed its badge with a dofollow link back; a high-authority backlink goes to the top 3 ranked |
| Uneed | A do-follow backlink after an upvote score of 20 on the free route |
| Smol Launch | Paid tiers add a backlink; the free launch asks for its badge on your site |
| Product Hunt | Its pages refused our automated check, so we cannot say; look at a live listing’s source |
Notice the pattern: where a followed link is on offer, it usually arrives with a condition, whether that is a badge, a score or a fee. That is the site’s decision and a fair one to make, but it means the answer for your listing is specific to your listing. A general claim that “directories give dofollow links” is not true of any platform in that table.
How does Google treat directory links?
We read Google’s spam policies on 13 November 2026. Under link spam they list buying or selling links for ranking purposes, excessive link exchanges, and low-quality directory or bookmark site links. The same page says qualified paid links, marked nofollow or sponsored, are not a violation. Google’s page on qualifying outbound links says links that carry nofollow, ugc or sponsored will generally not be followed, and that a regular link needs no attribute.
Read that as a boundary on your own behaviour, not a verdict on any platform. A handful of listings on sites with real visitors is the opposite of the pattern the policy describes, which is links made mainly to move rankings. Submitting to dozens of sites in a week because a list said to looks more like it. We cannot say where Google draws the line, so keep any link-back condition to the one or two sites you would list on anyway. The dofollow link entry explains the attributes in detail, and the free startup directories list says what to check before submitting.
How can you see what you actually received?
Two checks, one in the page itself and one in Google’s tool, because each shows what the other hides.
curl -sL "https://directory.example/your-listing" | grep -io '<a [^>]*yourdomain.com[^>]*>' # Read the output: # no rel=... -> a plain link # rel="nofollow" -> asks not to be counted # rel="ugc" or "sponsored" -> also asks not to be counted # no output -> the link may be added by a script; open the page and use your browser inspector
The second check is Google Search Console’s Links report, which lists sites that link to yours, if you have verified your own domain there. Its help page says the report is a sample, not a full list, that it includes links Google found over time, some of which may have been removed, and that it does not say whether a link is nofollow. So use it to learn whether Google has noticed a link, and use the page source to learn how the link is marked.
How do you judge whether a listing was worth the effort?
Ranking effects are slow, mixed with everything else you do and impossible to isolate, so measure what you can see. Keep one row per listing and fill it in a month later.
| Listing | Visits from its tagged link | Signups | Link in source? | rel value | Still live after 30 days? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Example directory | 40 | 3 | Yes | none | Yes |
| Your listing |
A listing that sent forty visitors and three signups earned its place whatever its attribute says. One that sent two visitors and a followed link may still help, but you have nothing to measure it by. The launch directory traffic calculator compares rows side by side. When you launch your product on this board, put its page in the same table.
What earns links more reliably than submitting?
Links that other people choose to give. A page that answers one question better than the others, an honest write-up of what you learned building the product, or a tool that people embed in their own notes will collect links from places that were never asked. That is slower than a form, and it is the only kind of link nobody can call manufactured. Start with the product launch checklist so the page you send people to is worth linking, and browse ideas by category for the kind of problems people write about.
Frequently asked questions
Do all launch directories give dofollow links?
No. From the pages we read, DevHunt marks free listings nofollow, TinyLaunch ties its dofollow link to embedding its badge, and Uneed ties its do-follow link to an upvote score. Each platform decides, so check the source of your own live listing rather than trusting a general claim.
Will a directory backlink improve my Google ranking?
It may help, but nobody outside Google can say how much, and a link from a page nobody visits is unlikely to matter. Google also lists low-quality directory links among its link spam examples. Judge each listing by the visitors it sends and treat any ranking effect as a possible bonus.
How do I check whether my directory link is nofollow?
Open the listing, view the page source, and find the anchor tag that holds your address. If it has no rel value, or no nofollow, ugc or sponsored in it, it is a plain link. If the link is not in the source, it may be added by a script, so use your browser’s inspector instead.
Is it bad to submit to many directories?
It is rarely useful. Many near-identical listings take time, send few visitors and resemble the pattern Google describes as link spam. A short list of sites where your users actually look will give you more to learn from, and each one is easier to measure.
Does this board give a backlink?
The outbound link on a launch page here is a normal followed link, and links inside user-written text are nofollow ugc. We make no promise about ranking or traffic, because we cannot know either. The board is new and small, so expect a little attention, not a stream of visitors.
Written by Post your build ideas with AI assistance and edited for this site. Where a page names another product, the facts came from that product’s own pages on the date shown above; terms change, so check them before you rely on them. About the publisher.