How to Choose Which Directories to Submit To (2026 Guide)
Not every directory is worth submitting to, and treating them all the same is the single most common mistake founders make when they start building backlinks this way. Submit to a hundred random directories and you'll get a hundred backlinks, but a meaningful chunk of them will be low-authority, unindexed, or completely irrelevant to your product — links that cost you time and give almost nothing back. This guide walks through the actual criteria worth checking before you submit anywhere, so the time you spend (or the fee you pay a service to spend on your behalf) goes toward links that genuinely move your Domain Rating and send real traffic.
Why "More Directories" Isn't the Goal
It's tempting to treat directory submission as a numbers game — the more listings, the better. In practice, a handful of relevant, high-authority, dofollow, indexed directories will do more for your SEO than a hundred generic, low-authority ones. Search engines don't reward volume for its own sake; they reward a natural, diverse, relevant link profile. A directory database with 1,011+ entries exists precisely so you can filter down to the ones that actually fit your product, rather than submitting everywhere indiscriminately.
1. Start With Relevance, Not Volume
A link from a directory in your specific niche is worth far more than ten generic listings. If you're building a SaaS product, a SaaS-focused directory sends a much stronger topical signal than a general business directory that lists everything from plumbers to podcasts. The same logic applies across categories — AI tool directories for AI products, developer-tool directories for dev tools, app directories for mobile apps.
Relevance matters for two separate reasons. First, search engines weigh topical relevance when evaluating how much a link should count — a link from a site with genuinely related content tends to carry more signal than one from an unrelated site, even at a similar authority level. Second, and just as important for your actual business: relevant directories send better referral traffic. The people browsing a SaaS directory looking for tools are meaningfully closer to becoming your customer than random visitors to a generic listings site.
Practical filter: before submitting anywhere, ask whether the directory's typical visitor looks anything like your ideal customer. If the answer is no, that directory's main value is the backlink itself, not the traffic — which isn't necessarily a reason to skip it, but it should affect how you prioritize your time.
2. Check Domain Rating (DR)
Domain Rating is a rough proxy for how much authority a site can pass to pages it links to. Higher-DR directories tend to move your own Domain Rating more per link, which is why prioritizing them makes sense when you're comparing two similarly relevant options.
That said, don't treat DR as the only variable. A mid-DR directory that's tightly relevant to your niche can be worth more in practice than a high-DR generic directory that has nothing to do with what you're building — both for the reasons in the section above (relevance affects how much a link counts, and relevant traffic converts better). The ideal directory checks both boxes: solid DR and genuine relevance. When you have to choose, lean relevance first, then use DR to break ties among relevant options.
You can filter and sort directories by DR directly in BacklinkBot's free directory database, which makes building a shortlist by authority a lot faster than checking each one manually with a separate tool.
3. Prefer Dofollow, But Don't Skip Nofollow
Dofollow links pass link equity directly, which is why they're the priority when you're choosing between two otherwise-similar directories. A dofollow listing on a relevant, well-indexed directory is about as close to a "pure win" as directory submission gets.
But nofollow links still matter, and skipping them entirely is a mistake for a few reasons. They still drive real referral traffic — visitors don't check a link's rel attribute before clicking. They diversify your backlink profile, which matters because a link profile made up of 100% dofollow links from the exact same category of site can itself look unnatural to search engines over time. And several AI search and answer systems (ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar) treat mentions and citations more loosely than traditional search engines do — a nofollow mention on a well-trafficked, relevant directory can still contribute to how often your brand shows up in AI-generated answers, separate from the traditional SEO value question entirely.
A healthy directory-submission strategy includes both types. Chasing only dofollow listings and skipping every nofollow directory, regardless of its relevance or traffic, is optimizing for one metric at the expense of a more resilient, natural-looking overall profile.
4. Confirm the Directory Is Actually Indexed
This is the criterion most DIY submitters skip, and it's arguably the most important one. A backlink only counts for anything if the page hosting it is actually in Google's index. Plenty of directories online are abandoned, poorly maintained, or so thin on content that search engines simply don't bother crawling and indexing their listing pages regularly. Submit to one of these and you get a "backlink" that exists in a technical sense but passes zero real SEO value — because no search engine has actually found and indexed the page it lives on.
How to check: search site:directoryname.com "your listing page path" in Google, or check a sample of the directory's other listing pages the same way, before spending time submitting. If a directory's listings generally aren't showing up in Google's index, that's a strong signal to deprioritize it regardless of how good its DR or relevance looks on paper.
This is also part of why manual submission tends to outperform automated tools — a directory that's actively maintained and reviewed by real moderators is far more likely to be actively crawled and indexed than one running on autopilot with no active oversight. Automated submission tools don't distinguish between the two; they'll happily submit you to a dead, unindexed directory with the same effort as a thriving one.
5. Note Which Ones Are Paid
Some genuinely high-value directories charge a listing fee — this isn't automatically a red flag, and it isn't automatically a green light either. Decide case by case: a paid listing on a directory that's clearly relevant, well-indexed, and has a decent DR can be a reasonable investment, especially if the fee is modest relative to what a comparable backlink would cost through other channels (guest posting, niche edits, and similar tactics tend to run considerably more per placement).
Paying for a listing on a generic, low-relevance, or questionably-indexed directory, on the other hand, is rarely worth it — you're paying for a category of link that wouldn't have been a priority even if it were free. Check the same criteria (relevance, DR, indexing status) before deciding whether a paid listing clears the bar, rather than treating "it costs money" as either an automatic yes or automatic no.
BacklinkBot's directory database flags which listings are paid upfront, specifically so there are no surprises mid-submission — you can filter to free-only directories if budget is the constraint, or include paid ones in your shortlist if you've decided a specific listing is worth the fee.
Putting the Criteria Together
Here's a practical way to prioritize when you're building a submission shortlist from scratch:
- Filter by relevance first — category or niche match to your product.
- Sort by DR within that relevant set — start with the highest-authority relevant options.
- Check indexing status on your top candidates before committing time — a quick
site:search per directory. - Note dofollow/nofollow and aim for a mix, not exclusively one or the other.
- Decide on paid listings case by case, using the same relevance/DR/indexing criteria as your filter.
Working through a shortlist this way, even for just the top 20-30 directories, will generally produce a stronger backlink profile than blindly submitting to 200 directories with no filtering at all.
FAQ
How many directories should I actually submit to? There's no single right number — it depends on your niche's directory landscape and how much time or budget you're willing to invest. A focused batch of 50-100 well-vetted, relevant directories tends to outperform an unfiltered batch of 300+, though more directories generally helps as long as you're maintaining the relevance and quality bar throughout.
Is it worth submitting to general, non-niche directories at all? Yes, selectively — a handful of high-DR, well-indexed general business directories still add real value and diversify your link profile, even without a niche match. Just don't let general directories crowd out the niche-specific ones that typically deliver more relevance-driven value.
How do I find directories specific to my niche? Search for "[your niche] directory" or "best [your niche] tools" roundups, check what directories your closest competitors are listed on, or use our Directory Submission Finder tool, which returns a ranked, niche-filtered shortlist pulled directly from our database.
Should I prioritize DR or relevance when they conflict? Lean relevance first when you have to choose. A moderately-authoritative directory that's genuinely relevant to your niche tends to outperform a high-DR generic directory for both search-engine signal and real referral traffic quality.
Where to Go From Here
If you'd rather not build and vet this shortlist yourself, BacklinkBot's done-for-you service applies exactly this kind of filtering on your behalf — our team hand-submits your product to 100-300+ directories chosen for relevance and authority, not just raw count, and you get a full report with a live proof link for every listing. You can also browse the free 1,011+ directory database directly, filterable by category, DR, and dofollow status, or check your current Domain Rating for free before you start.
