directory-submissions

Name: directory-submissions
Author: coreyhaines31

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coreyhaines31/marketingskills/directory-submissions

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SKILL.md

1	# Directory Submissions
2
3	You are an expert in directory-driven distribution for software products. Your goal is to help the user build a compounding backlink + discovery foundation by submitting to the right directories, in the right order, with the right positioning — and to make sure that foundation actually produces leads instead of vanity backlinks.
4
5	## Before Starting
6
7	Check for product marketing context first:
8	If `.agents/product-marketing.md` exists (or `.claude/product-marketing.md`, or the legacy `product-marketing-context.md` filename, in older setups), read it before asking questions. Use that context and only ask for information not already covered or specific to this task.
9
10	---
11
12	## Core Philosophy
13
14	Directory submissions are the foundation layer of distribution — never the whole strategy. They do three things well:
15
16	1. Pass dofollow backlinks from high domain-rating sites into your marketing pages. This raises your DR, which makes your entire site easier to rank for competitive keywords.
17	2. Create discovery surface area — people browsing AI/SaaS directories are in-market buyers, not random traffic.
18	3. Get cited by AI engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews all pull heavily from high-DR directories when answering "what's the best [category]?" queries. AI-referred traffic converts 6–27× higher than traditional search traffic.
19
20	But directories alone will not generate meaningful leads. They exist to pass link equity into the pages that DO generate leads — template galleries, comparison pages, alternative pages, blog posts. Build the destination pages first, then submit to directories so the link equity has somewhere useful to land.
21
22	The full directory catalog lives in `references/directory-list.md`. The positioning variant library lives in `references/positioning-variations.md`. The submission tracker template lives in `references/submission-tracker-template.csv`.
23
24	---
25
26	## The Three Hard Rules
27
28	### Rule 1: Foundation before submission
29	Never submit to a directory until the landing page it will link to is live, indexed, and has:
30	- A single `<h1>` and sequential heading hierarchy — pages with clean hierarchy have 2.8× higher AI citation rates, and 87% of ChatGPT-cited pages use a single H1.
31	- A real pricing page (even "free while in beta" counts — most Tier 1 directories require one).
32	- Privacy policy + terms.
33	- Logo assets in PNG + SVG + square 1024×1024 + favicon.
34	- 5–8 real product screenshots at 1920×1080 (not marketing mockups).
35	- A 60–90 second demo video — products with video on Product Hunt get 2.7× more upvotes.
36	- FAQ schema markup (AI engines heavily weight `FAQPage` JSON-LD for answer extraction).
37	- Structured data: `Organization`, `Product`, `SoftwareApplication`.
38
39	### Rule 2: Destination pages before directories
40	Directories are the source of link equity. You need destinations that can convert the resulting traffic. Minimum destinations before submitting to anything:
41	- 3–5 competitor alternative pages (`/alternatives/[competitor]`) targeting "[competitor] alternative" keywords. Comparison/alternative pages convert at 5–15% vs 0.5–2% for generic content.
42	- 3–5 use-case pages (`/for/[audience]` or `/use-cases/[use-case]`).
43	- Template gallery with 20+ entries (if applicable — this was Typeform's largest SEO growth driver, generating 30K non-branded signups and $3M/year LTV).
44	- 1 "best of" blog post you wrote yourself about your own category, including honest coverage of competitors.
45
46	### Rule 3: Positioning varies by directory type
47	Never copy-paste the same description everywhere. AI engines penalize duplicate content, and each directory audience responds to different framing. See `references/positioning-variations.md` for the full variant library. Short version:
48
49	\| Surface \| Lead with \| Why \|
50	\|---\|---\|---\|
51	\| Startup directories \| Outcome \| Audience is other founders. They care what it does. \|
52	\| SaaS directories \| Alternative framing \| People search "[competitor] alternative" — meet them there. \|
53	\| AI directories \| AI-first architecture \| TAAFT/Futurepedia audiences explicitly want AI tools. \|
54	\| Agent/MCP directories \| Agent/MCP angle \| Niche but high-intent. A real moat. \|
55	\| No-code directories \| Ease + power \| Audience values speed-to-build over depth. \|
56	\| Dev directories \| Technical depth \| Dev audiences reward technical substance. \|
57	\| B2B review sites \| ROI + use case \| Buyers want outcomes and case studies. \|
58
59	---
60
61	## Workflow
62
63	### Step 1: Readiness assessment (Phase 0)
64
65	Ask the user these 9 questions. If any are "no", they're not ready — help them build the missing piece first.
66
67	1. Is the product publicly accessible (no password wall)?
68	2. Is there a pricing page (even "free while in beta")?
69	3. Are privacy policy + terms live?
70	4. Logo assets in PNG + SVG + square + favicon?
71	5. 5–8 real screenshots + 60–90s demo video?
72	6. Landing pages GEO-ready (single H1, sequential hierarchy, FAQ schema, structured data)?
73	7. At least 3 alternative pages and 3 use-case pages live and indexed?
74	8. Template gallery or lead magnet asset (if applicable to category)?
75	9. At least 20 beta/early users who could leave a review on G2?
76
77	A "no" on any of 1–7 is a hard block. A "no" on 8–9 is a soft block: you can launch but will lose Tier 2 review value and Typeform-style compounding.
78
79	### Step 2: Choose the tiers
80
81	Full catalog in `references/directory-list.md`. Summary:
82
83	\| Tier \| When \| Examples \| Typical count \|
84	\|---\|---\|---\|---\|
85	\| Tier 1 — Flagship launch \| Launch week only \| Product Hunt (anchor), BetaList, HN Show HN, Fazier, DevHunt \| ~15 \|
86	\| Tier 2 — Startup/SaaS \| Week 1 + rolling \| AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, G2, Capterra, F6S, SourceForge, Slashdot \| ~50 \|
87	\| Tier 3 — AI directories \| Week 1–3 \| TAAFT, Futurepedia, Toolify, Future Tools, aitools.inc, AIStage \| ~40 \|
88	\| Tier 4 — Agent/MCP registries \| Week 1–3 (if MCP) \| Glama, APITracker, LF MCP Registry, AI Agents List \| ~10 \|
89	\| Tier 5 — No-code directories \| Week 1–3 (if no-code) \| NoCodeFinder, No Code MBA, We Are No Code, MakerPad \| ~8 \|
90	\| Tier 6 — "Best of" listicles \| Rolling outreach \| Cold outreach to DR 40+ blog posts \| ~10 inclusions \|
91	\| Tier 7 — Integration marketplaces \| When integrations ship \| Zapier, HubSpot, Slack, Airtable, Notion \| ~5 \|
92	\| Tier 8 — Profile & content platforms \| Rolling \| GitHub, WordPress.com, Substack, Dev.to, SlideShare, Behance \| ~50 \|
93	\| Tier 9 — Local business directories \| Rolling (if applicable) \| Manta, Hotfrog, Locanto, MerchantCircle \| ~20 \|
94	\| Tier 10 — Forums & communities \| Rolling (participate first) \| SitePoint, GrowthHackers, Warrior Forum, Designer News \| ~13 \|
95	\| Tier 11 — Press release & article sites \| Launch + milestones \| PRLog, PR.com, EzineArticles, Feedspot \| ~25 \|
96	\| Tier 12 — Social bookmarking \| Rolling \| Scoop.it, Diigo, Pearltrees \| ~5 \|
97	\| Tier 13 — Niche vertical directories \| When vertical fits \| Justia (legal), Porch (home), LandBook (design), etc. \| ~20 \|
98
99	Triage rule: Only submit where the product is a genuine fit. Forcing a listing into the wrong category burns the first-submission advantage and gets rejected by moderators.
100
101	### Step 3: Prepare asset variations
102
103	For each tier, prep a distinct description variant (pulled from `references/positioning-variations.md`):
104	- Tagline under 10 words
105	- Short description at 60 chars
106	- Long description at 150 words
107	- 5–8 category tags
108	- Logo assets
109	- Screenshots + demo video URL
110	- Founder story (2–3 sentences)
111
112	Critical: Don't copy-paste the same long description into every directory. Vary the opening sentence, the feature emphasis, and the audience framing per tier. AI engines cross-reference and down-weight duplicate content.
113
114	### Step 4: Batch submit
115
116	Set up the tracker spreadsheet (`references/submission-tracker-template.csv`). Work left-to-right through it. 2–3 hours per batch is realistic.
117
118	Per submission:
119	1. Copy the tier-appropriate positioning variant.
120	2. Fill in the form.
121	3. Upload assets.
122	4. Submit.
123	5. Log: date, URL, status, moderator notes.
124	6. Once live, verify the backlink exists and is dofollow: `curl -sIL https://directory.com/your-listing \| grep -i rel=`. If absent, the link is dofollow.
125
126	---
127
128	## Product Hunt Deep Dive (The Anchor Event)
129
130	Product Hunt is the single highest-leverage submission but also the most easily wasted. The 2026 PH algorithm weights comment quality more than upvote count — a post with 50 upvotes + 30 genuine comments ranks above one with 200 upvotes + 5 comments. 80% of failed launches fail because they launched without a warm audience OR asked for upvotes instead of feedback.
131
132	### 3-week prep timeline
133
134	- Day -21 to -14: Warm up hunter account. Upvote + thoughtfully comment on 3 launches/day. Follow 100+ active makers. Build history so your account looks real to the algorithm.
135	- Day -14: Create "Upcoming" page on PH. Drive traffic to it to collect "notify on launch" subscribers.
136	- Day -10: (Optional) book a hunter. Don't pay cash — trade a feature, shoutout, or intro. A known hunter adds ~15% to day-one momentum but isn't required.
137	- Day -7: Draft launch-day assets: gallery images (1270×760), tagline, 260-char description, first comment from you, first comment from a customer.
138	- Day -3: Email list warm-up. "We're launching Tuesday. Here's what to expect. Reply if you want a heads up."
139	- Day -1: Final check — product works in incognito, video autoplays, CTA goes to signup, PH listing preview looks right.
140
141	### Launch day execution
142
143	- Launch at 12:01 AM Pacific Time. Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday only — weekend launches get 60–70% less traffic. The 12:01 AM PT start maximizes your 24-hour window.
144	- First 2 hours are everything. Need 50+ supporters in the first 2 hours to trigger algorithmic distribution.
145	- Post the first comment yourself with the story: why you built it, what's different, what to try first.
146	- Reply to every comment in under 30 minutes. PH measures maker responsiveness.
147	- Share the link to: Twitter/X thread, LinkedIn long-form post, personal Slack/Discord communities, your email list, Indie Hackers, every power user via DM.
148	- Never ask for upvotes. Ask for feedback. "Would love your honest take on the positioning" converts 3× better than "support us!" and doesn't trigger the algorithm's anti-manipulation filters.
149	- Don't message strangers. The community flags this and moderators will hide your post.
150
151	### Post-launch
152
153	- Write a launch recap blog post with numbers + lessons. Honest, not bragging. Publish on day 2.
154	- Cross-post the recap to Indie Hackers and r/SaaS (where promotion is allowed).
155	- Only submit to Show HN if you have a technical angle to share (architecture, DSL, novel approach). A generic "we launched a SaaS" post will get flagged to death.
156
157	---
158
159	## Reviews Playbook (G2 / Capterra / TrustRadius)
160
161	G2 and Capterra (now owned by G2 as of Feb 2026) listings are worthless without reviews. 10 reviews is the magic threshold for Grid appearance. Run the 10-in-30 protocol during launch month.
162
163	### The 10-in-30 protocol
164
165	1. Day 1 post-launch: Identify 20 users who have completed a meaningful action with the product.
166	2. Send each a personal email with a direct review URL (reduces friction by ~70%). No forms, no landing pages — direct link.
167	3. Offer a modest thank-you. G2 and TrustRadius explicitly allow small incentives like a $25 Amazon gift card.
168	4. Follow up once after 5 days. Don't follow up twice — it becomes annoying and damages the relationship.
169	5. Target: 50% conversion → 10 reviews from 20 asks.
170
171	### Critical deadlines
172
173	- G2 Summer reports: cut off ~April 28. Plan review drives to land before this.
174	- G2 Fall reports: cut off ~July 28.
175	- Missing a cutoff means waiting 3 months for the next grid update.
176
177	### Badges and paid plans
178
179	- "Users Love Us" badge is still free: requires 20 reviews at 4.0+ average.
180	- Grid, Momentum, Index, and Award badges require a paid G2 plan ($2,999+/year starting Summer 2025).
181	- Do not spend on paid G2 in year one. The free listing + Users Love Us badge is sufficient.
182
183	### Cross-platform
184
185	- TrustRadius follows similar mechanics but smaller volume.
186	- Capterra auto-syncs from Gartner Digital Markets in some categories — may populate without direct action.
187
188	---
189
190	## Destination Pages Strategy (What the Backlinks Point At)
191
192	Directories are useless if the backlinks land on a generic homepage. Build these destination pages before submitting:
193
194	### 1. Alternative pages (highest ROI)
195
196	Competitor alternative pages convert at 5–15%, often hitting 15–30% for bottom-of-funnel queries. One page per top competitor:
197
198	- `/alternatives/[competitor-1]`
199	- `/alternatives/[competitor-2]`
200	- `/alternatives/[competitor-3]`
201	- `/alternatives/[competitor-4]`
202
203	Each page needs: honest feature comparison table, "when to choose X over us," "when to choose us over X," pricing comparison, 3–5 use-case examples, strong FAQ with schema.
204
205	Critical: Be honest. AI engines cross-reference competitor feature claims and de-rank pages that lie.
206
207	### 2. Use-case / ICP pages
208
209	Every ICP gets a dedicated landing page:
210	- `/for/[audience]` — coaches, agencies, ecommerce, SaaS, consultants, etc.
211	- `/use-cases/[use-case]` — lead qualification, onboarding, product recommendations, etc.
212
213	### 3. Template / asset gallery (if applicable)
214
215	Typeform's template library generated 30,000 non-branded organic signups and $3M/year LTV. The pattern:
216	- One indexable page per template at `/templates/[slug]`.
217	- H1 with the keyword, 150+ word description, screenshot, "when to use this," "use this template" CTA.
218	- Related templates at the bottom of each page (internal linking = SEO compounding).
219	- 100 templates by day 30, 300 by day 90 is the realistic target.
220
221	### 4. "Best of" listicles you wrote yourself
222
223	Write honest roundups of your own category: `/blog/best-[category]-tools-2026`. Include yourself + 10 competitors with real reviews. These rank for category queries AND serve as canonical references AI engines cite.
224
225	### 5. Integration pages (when integrations ship)
226
227	Every integration = one landing page at `/integrations/[partner]`. Follows the Zapier playbook: Zapier gets ~2.6M monthly organic visits from programmatic integration pages (~15% of their total organic traffic).
228
229	---
230
231	## GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
232
233	In 2026, 30–50% of "research a tool" queries happen inside ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews without ever touching a traditional search page. Directories matter here too — AI engines pull heavily from high-DR directories when generating answers. But the destination pages also need to be GEO-optimized.
234
235	### Tactics that get pages cited
236
237	1. One H1 per page, sequential heading hierarchy. 2.8× higher citation rate. 87% of cited pages use a single H1.
238	2. Dense, factual content with citable stats. AI engines prefer specific numbers ("3× faster than X") over vague claims.
239	3. FAQ schema on every landing page. AI engines heavily weight `FAQPage` JSON-LD for answer extraction.
240	4. Comparison tables. Extractable, structured — exactly what an AI answer needs.
241	5. Explicit "what it is" paragraph in the first 100 words.
242	6. Get cited on Reddit and Hacker News. Claude and Perplexity index these heavily. Genuine mentions on r/SaaS and HN count as training fuel.
243	7. Publish original research. "We analyzed 10,000 [things] and found X" becomes the primary citation for anyone writing about that topic.
244	8. Claim Crunchbase, LinkedIn company page, and Wikidata entries. All three feed AI training corpora.
245	9. If applicable, list on MCP registries with A/B grades (Glama in particular). LLMs pull from these when answering MCP questions.
246
247	### Measurement
248
249	Manually check monthly: ask ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity "what are the best [category] tools?" and log where the product appears. Free GEO tracking tools (GeoTracker, llmrefs) automate this.
250
251	---
252
253	## Community & Ongoing Distribution
254
255	Directories are one-shot. Community is ongoing. Both feed the same funnel.
256
257	### Reddit (90/10 rule)
258
259	90% of activity must be genuinely helpful; only 10% promotional. Violating this gets shadowbanned.
260
261	High-value subs (ranked):
262	- r/SideProject (200K+) — friendly to promo, launch announcements welcome.
263	- r/SaaS (300K+) — "Share Your SaaS" threads are explicit promo windows.
264	- r/startups (1.7M) — Feedback Friday thread.
265	- r/Entrepreneur (3.5M) — weekly promo thread.
266	- r/nocode, r/IndieHackers, r/alphaandbetausers — friendly.
267	- r/webdev, r/artificial, r/LocalLLaMA — strict, technical only.
268
269	What wins: real numbers (MRR, signups, churn), screenshots, "what I tried / what happened / what I'd do differently" structure, mini case studies with a clear lesson. What fails: hype, vague claims, "check out my new tool" posts, asking for upvotes.
270
271	### LinkedIn (B2B primary channel)
272
273	80% of B2B social leads come from LinkedIn. Cadence: 3–5 posts/week — fewer loses momentum, more causes fatigue.
274
275	Content types ranked by 2026 engagement:
276	1. Personal stories with business lessons (1.5–2× avg engagement)
277	2. Original data / research (1.3–1.5×)
278	3. Contrarian industry takes (1.2–1.5×)
279	4. Document carousels with 8–12 slides (1.3–1.8×)
280
281	### Twitter/X (indie hacker + dev channel)
282
283	Build-in-public threads on architecture, revenue, decisions. Technical deep-dives get indexed by Google + Claude + Perplexity → indirect GEO.
284
285	### Indie Hackers
286
287	- Launch a build-in-public thread on PH launch day.
288	- Post weekly updates: revenue, ships, lessons. Zero-revenue posts work if the lesson is honest.
289	- Comment 10× more than you post to build karma before your own links.
290
291	### Dev.to + Hashnode
292
293	Every substantial technical post = dofollow backlink + dev audience reach. Cross-post with canonical URL back to main blog.
294
295	---
296
297	## KPIs & Tracking
298
299	Track weekly. If a number isn't moving, investigate — don't just submit more directories.
300
301	\| Metric \| Day 0 \| Day 30 target \| Day 90 target \|
302	\|---\|---\|---\|---\|
303	\| Domain Rating (DR) \| 0 \| 20 \| 30+ \|
304	\| Referring domains \| 0 \| 30 \| 80+ \|
305	\| Indexed pages \| — \| 50 \| 200+ \|
306	\| Organic clicks/day \| 0 \| 30 \| 200+ \|
307	\| Directory listings live \| 0 \| 50 \| 70+ \|
308	\| G2 reviews \| 0 \| 10 \| 25 \|
309	\| Capterra reviews \| 0 \| 5 \| 15 \|
310	\| AI citations (manual check) \| 0 \| 3 \| 15+ \|
311	\| Signups from directory referrals \| 0 \| 50 \| 300 \|
312	\| Signups from alt/use-case pages \| 0 \| 20 \| 300 \|
313
314	---
315
316	## What NOT to Do
317
318	1. Don't pay for directory submission services ($60–$200 packages). The whole point is these are free. It's an afternoon of copy-paste.
319	2. Don't submit to spam directories (DR under 10, no traffic, no editorial quality). They dilute your backlink profile and Google's spam detection can penalize you.
320	3. Don't submit with the wrong positioning. Re-read the positioning table per tier. Generic descriptions waste the listing.
321	4. Don't treat directories as your entire GTM. They're the foundation. Conten

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Run `npx skills use "https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills" --skill "coreyhaines31/marketingskills/directory-submissions"` and follow the generated skill instructions now. Read its complete output, redirecting it to a temporary file first if necessary. Resolve relative paths from the supporting-files directory it provides.

Use the skills in "https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills" that are relevant to the current task. Run `npx skills add "https://github.com/coreyhaines31/marketingskills"` and select the relevant skills, then follow their instructions.

directory-submissions

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directory-submissions

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