DEV Community: Indie Daddy

How to check if a "dofollow backlink" is real (30 seconds in DevTools)

Indie Daddy — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 00:15:57 +0000

Submit a side project to a few startup directories and you'll notice half of them promise a "dofollow backlink". Some deliver. Some slap rel="nofollow" on it anyway. Some only follow the link if you keep their badge on your site or pay for premium.

You don't need an SEO tool to tell which is which. DevTools is enough.

What the attributes mean

There's no such thing as rel="dofollow". A link counts as "dofollow" when it doesn't have any of these:

<!-- a normal link, passes ranking signals -->
<a href="https://yourproduct.com">Your Product</a>

<!-- asks Google not to pass ranking credit -->
<a href="https://yourproduct.com" rel="nofollow">Your Product</a>

<!-- user-generated content, like comments and forums -->
<a href="https://yourproduct.com" rel="ugc">Your Product</a>

<!-- paid or sponsored placement -->
<a href="https://yourproduct.com" rel="sponsored">Your Product</a>

Google calls nofollow, ugc and sponsored hints. For planning, I just assume they pass little or nothing. A plain link from a relevant page that Google indexes is the one that helps.

The check

Open your listing, right-click the link to your site and hit Inspect. Then look at the <a> tag.

If rel contains nofollow, ugc or sponsored, it's not a followed link. If there's no rel, or only noopener / noreferrer, it's followed. noopener is a security thing and has nothing to do with SEO.

Look at the href too. If it goes through something like directory.com/out?url=..., it's a redirect, and those usually don't pass value either.

One more catch: some sites add nofollow with JavaScript after the page loads. Compare the page source (Ctrl+U) with what you see in Inspect. Or paste this in the console on the listing page:

[...document.querySelectorAll('a[href*="yourproduct.com"]')]
  .map(a => ({ href: a.href, rel: a.rel || '(none, so followed)' }))

And check the listing page isn't noindex. Look for <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> in the head. A followed link on a page Google won't index isn't worth much.

Why the free ones come with strings

Directories want something back. The usual deals look like this:

Deal	What it means	The catch
Keep their badge	They follow your link while the badge is on your site	Remove the badge and the link can flip to nofollow
Upvote threshold	Followed if your launch gets enough votes	No guarantee
Paid plan	Followed on premium	Paid links are supposed to be marked sponsored
Editorial review	Followed once a human approves it	Can take weeks

I don't think badge deals are shady if the directory is relevant and actually reviews listings. Full disclosure, I run one: IndieDaddy gives a free reviewed listing with a followed link while its small badge is on your site, and nofollow if you don't want the badge. It's new, so judge it on whether it fits your product, not on Domain Rating.

How many directory links is enough?

Less than people think. Twenty or thirty good, relevant listings spread over a few weeks is a solid start for a new site. A few hundred random ones looks like spam and can do more harm than good.

Order I'd go in: directories in your niche first, then curated launch sites that review submissions, then integration and "built with" pages of tools you use. After that, one genuinely useful thing on your own site (a free tool, an honest comparison) that people link to without being asked.

Measure it

Write down your Domain Rating before you start and check again after a month. It moves slowly, so checking every day will just make you sad. There's a free Domain Rating checker on IndieDaddy for that, and a longer post on dofollow vs nofollow links from directories if you want more examples.

What's the sneakiest "dofollow" trick you've seen on a directory? Post it so the rest of us can skip that one.

Product Hunt alternatives for side projects (12 launch sites I actually looked at)

Indie Daddy — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 00:14:22 +0000

I run a small launch directory called IndieDaddy, so I spend more time than is healthy reading the rules of other launch sites. People keep asking me the same thing: "where should I launch if not Product Hunt?"

Product Hunt is still the biggest board. It's also one day, one shot, and you're up against teams who line up hundreds of supporters before midnight. If your launch goes quiet, you can't really redo it on the same listing.

So here's the list I send people. I've included mine and tried to be as fair about it as the rest. I checked everything on 4 November 2026, and these sites change their rules a lot, so look again before you submit.

The short version

Platform	Format	Cost to start	Backlink	Good for
Peerlist Launchpad	Weekly, opens Monday 00:00 UTC	Free	Varies	Builders with a decent profile
Dev Hunt	Weekly, GitHub sign-in	Free	Varies	Dev tools, APIs, open source
Show HN	One text post	Free	Not a backlink thing	Technical stuff, blunt feedback
Uneed	Daily board + newsletter	Free queue, pay to pick a date	Dofollow above an upvote threshold	A calmer launch day
Fazier	Daily leaderboard	Free, paid boost	Dofollow on paid	Being seen on a smaller board
Microlaunch	A month of exposure	Free	Varies	Early feedback
BetaList	Curated pre-launch	Free queue, paid expedite	Varies	Building a waitlist
TinyLaunch	Weekly	Free, paid premium	Dofollow on premium	A weekly cohort
Smol Launch	Seven-day window	Free tier	Varies	Indie SaaS
Launching Next	Reviewed listing	Free, paid faster review	Reported dofollow	A listing that sticks around
IndieDaddy	Weekly launch + reviewed directory	Free	Dofollow while our badge is on your site, nofollow without	Indie founders
Indie Hackers	Community posts	Free	Not a launch board	Slow, long-term stuff

If you built a dev tool

Start with Show HN. Write a plain post: what it is, why you made it, what you want feedback on. Don't write marketing copy and don't ask anyone to upvote. People will tell you exactly what they think, which hurts a bit and is worth it.

Dev Hunt is a weekly board only for developer tools. Votes need a GitHub login, so the crowd is developers and the votes are harder to fake.

Peerlist Launchpad runs for a full week and ties your launch to your profile. I like that a slow first morning doesn't kill you there.

If you want a calmer launch day

Uneed has a daily board and a newsletter. On the free plan you wait in a line, sometimes for weeks, so join early. You can pay to pick your date.

Fazier is smaller, which is kind of the point. A modest launch can still end up near the top.

TinyLaunch and Smol Launch group launches by week. Attention gets spread out instead of all landing on whoever woke up first.

If you care about the long tail

Launch traffic is mostly gone after two days. What's left is the listing, and a listing that stays indexed keeps sending a few visitors and helps Google trust your domain a little.

Launching Next reviews submissions and keeps the page up. Microlaunch gives you a month, which suits you better if you want feedback than if you want a spike.

On IndieDaddy, a free listing gets a followed link while our small badge is on your site, and a nofollow link if you'd rather not add it. It's a new site, so it won't send you Product Hunt numbers. The bit developers seem to like is that it has a public API and an MCP server, so you can do the submission from Claude Code or Cursor:

claude mcp add --transport http indiedaddy https://indiedaddy.com/api/mcp

Then ask your agent to check your site and prepare a draft. It can't publish or pay by itself. You look at the draft and send it.

About those "dofollow backlinks"

Most directories that advertise a dofollow link attach a condition. Usually it's one of these: keep their badge on your site, hit some upvote number, or pay for premium.

That's fine, just know which one you're signing up for. You can check any listing yourself: right-click your link, Inspect, and look at the <a>. If rel has nofollow, ugc or sponsored in it, it isn't passing ranking credit. (noopener doesn't matter, that one's about security.)

Ten relevant links do more than a hundred random ones. I'd rather see someone on fifteen good directories than eighty bad ones.

How I'd spread it out

About three weeks before: get into the queues (BetaList, the free Uneed line). Put your listing on one or two reviewed directories and add whatever badge you need so the link actually works.
Launch day: one main board, Product Hunt or Peerlist, plus Show HN if it's technical. Answer every comment.
The week after: smaller boards like Fazier, TinyLaunch or Smol Launch. You'll have better copy by then because of the day-one feedback.
The month after: a few evergreen directories each week. Not forty in one afternoon.

Also, before any of it, fix your page title, meta description and share image. Directories pull them, social sites show them, and AI assistants read them. I built some free tools for this on IndieDaddy, no signup: a meta tag and share preview checker, an AI crawler checker and a where to launch finder.

Should you skip Product Hunt then?

I wouldn't. It's still where the biggest crowd is. I just wouldn't put the whole launch on one day there. Pick two or three places where your users already hang out and watch which one actually brings sign-ups.

There's a longer version with sources and 15 platforms on the IndieDaddy blog.

Where did your last launch actually get users from? I'm always looking for ones I've missed.