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Sourabh Singh
Sourabh Singh

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I Checked Which Startup Launch Directories Actually Give Dofollow Links

#seo #webdev #startup #marketing

Every indie hacker hits the same wall after shipping: you submit to 30 launch directories, and three months later your Domain Rating hasn't moved.

The reason is usually boring. Most of those links are nofollow, sit on DR 10 sites, or disappear when the listing expires.

So I ran a backlink crawl on several popular launch platforms and looked at which ones actually pass dofollow links. Here's what I found.

What actually moves Domain Rating

Three things matter far more than the number of submissions:

  1. Dofollow. Nofollow and most ugc links pass little or nothing.
  2. Authority of the linking site. One DR 70 link beats fifty DR 5 links.
  3. Permanence. A link that lives on a product page for years beats a homepage slot that rotates out in 24 hours.

Launch platforms with dofollow links (verified in a crawl)

At the time of writing, these platforms showed live dofollow links to listed products:

  • PeerPush: product pages with a "Visit site" link
  • Startup Fast: permanent project pages
  • DeepLaunch: product listing pages
  • Days Launch: tag and category pages
  • ShipBoost: badge-based listings
  • dofollow.tools: the name says it all
  • SaaSHub: alternatives pages
  • SideProjectors: project pages with a live demo URL
  • DevHunt: dev tool launches and maker profiles

Always double-check yourself: right-click the link on your listing → Inspect → look for rel="nofollow". Policies change.

Launch boards that don't rank on upvotes

The other problem with most launch platforms is that ranking comes down to upvotes, and upvotes reward whoever has the biggest audience on launch day.

Full disclosure: I'm building RankCert to try a different model. Products are ranked on verified domain control insteadof votes, every position cites the evidence behind it, and the check is re-run weekly. Listing, verification and the dofollow link are free. You can see how it works on the weekly leaderboard.

A launch checklist that actually compounds

  • Spread launches over 4–6 weeks instead of one big day
  • Prioritize dofollow + DR 50+ platforms first
  • Write one real post (like this one) per platform that allows articles
  • Add "featured on" badges to your footer, which many directories require for dofollow
  • Keep a spreadsheet: platform, date, link URL, dofollow yes/no

If you want a longer list to work through, I keep a list of startup launch directories, and there are ~50 freeSEO tools for checking your site before launch day.

What platforms have actually moved your DR? Drop them in the comments and I'll add them to the list.

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