Directory Submission Checklist: Everything to Prepare Once

The startup directory submission checklist at a glance

A founder submitting to thirty sites fills the same facts thirty times under thirty labels, so the checklist is about having each answer ready once, in a form you can paste.

Product facts every directory form asks for

Write these into one document first. The table pairs each field with a directory whose form asks for it, from our guides. If the submissions are part of a launch, our week-by-week launch plan shows where they fall.

The tagline, the one-line summary and the short and long descriptions are the fields to write again for each site, because each form sets its own length. They have a page of their own, with an example at every length.

The page behind your URL

Some directories skip most of the form and build the listing from your page. FiveTaco asks for a URL and fills the entry from what it finds there: your title, your meta description and your Open Graph image (our guide, 10 September 2026). Run your homepage through our link preview checker to see what a site like that will pull, and fix the tags before the first submission. The site needs a list of its own as well, the new website SEO checklist, which our SEO plan for a new domain covers.

Logo and screenshot sizes directories ask for

An image rule sets a size in pixels, a file format, a file-size cap or a mix of the three. Of the 28 directories we submit to with one on record, 20 set a logo rule, 20 a screenshot or cover rule and 12 both. The three tables count them.

Logo size for directories

Every logo rule that sets a size asks for a square, and none goes above 512 pixels a side. Export one square master at 512, which scales down to every logo size on record, and a 256 copy beside it. Keep the mark in the middle with room around it: ThisTool crops the logo to fill a small rounded square, which trims a wide wordmark (our guide, 2 October 2026). The tightest cap, 200 KB, is Find Your SaaS's: its form recommends 256 by 256 and a file under 200KB, with the line “Please follow this else listing will be rejected” in bold (our guide, 10 September 2026). Neeed recommends the same 256 by 256 square (23 October 2026).

Screenshot size for directories

No one shape wins: the 14 rules that set a size name seven sizes, from 450 to 1400 pixels wide, and five of the 14 rules are 16:9. Capture a master at 1400 by 800: every size on record fits inside it, so each one is a crop or a scale-down away. Then save each recurring size as a file of its own for the forms that want an exact one. AI Tach wants an exact 450 by 250 jpg (our guide, 11 August 2026), Resource.fyi recommends 1270 by 760 (11 October 2026) and Neeed's cover is 1280 by 720 (23 October 2026). Launching on Product Hunt as well? Its own sizes are in our Product Hunt assets post.

Formats and file-size caps

PNG and JPG both come up for each kind of image, PNG more often, so keep every file in both. A JPG has no transparency, so export the JPG copies on a solid colour you choose rather than one a converter picks. Good Design Tools wants its square icon on a solid colour and takes no PNG at all (our guide, 15 September 2026). For weight, a logo of 200 KB or less and a screenshot of 499 KB or less clear every cap on record; the median cap is about 1 MB for both.

Accounts: one inbox, the sign-ins and two-factor

Plenty of forms sit behind a sign-in, and the sign-in is how you change the listing later. PitchWall wants Google, GitHub, Microsoft or Discord before its free launch (our guide, 11 October 2026), Neeed takes Google or an email code (23 October 2026) and Make.rs has no passwords at all, a magic link each time (10 October 2026). Where a mail is the login, the inbox is the account.

• One address on your own domain for every submission, read by someone who will still be at the company in a year.
• A Google account and a GitHub account on that address, since forms offer both as sign-ins.
• A password manager with one entry per directory: the dashboard URL, the address and the sign-in method.
• Two-factor on the inbox and on both accounts: where a magic link or an email code is the login, whoever holds the inbox holds the listing.

The badge: where it goes and who keeps it up

Of the 189 directories we submit to, 32 want their badge shown on your site and 10 make it optional; on three of the optional ones the link to you is followed while the badge is up and nofollow without it. A badge is a small embed that links back to the directory, and where it pays for the listing it has to stay up after the listing is live. So the checklist item is one place on your site, not a task per directory.

• One place for every badge, such as a footer strip or a "featured on" row in the layout every page shares.
• Two columns per directory in the tracking sheet: badge needed, badge live.
• A look at the strip after every redesign: a new template is the usual way a badge disappears, and nothing tells you it has.

For a list with no badge question, the directories that ask for no badge have a post of their own, and our post on links back covers where a badge sits in Google's link rules. On a Submitator order the badges are part of the job: every badge your picks call for loads from one component and we keep each of them live, with no commit per directory. Our open-source badge package shows how the badges reach your HTML.

Directory submission rules and guidelines

Directories print their submission guidelines on the form, on a rules page or under the pricing cards, and most of them fall into a handful of kinds. The table quotes one of each in the directory's own words.

Two more kinds decide whether to apply at all. Some directories take a product at one stage, before launch or after it, and the step on reading the rules names two that draw that line. Others are built around one kind of product: 54 of the 189 directories we submit to are AI tool directories. And the rules keep applying after the listing is up: Startups Lab's guidelines end with “Listings violating these guidelines may be removed post-launch”, one more reason to repeat the checks further down.

A directory submission spreadsheet you can copy

A row per directory turns thirty inboxes, dashboards and review queues into one view you can sort. Copy the header row into the first cell of an empty sheet; the tabs split it into columns.

DR is the directory's Domain Rating on the day you file, from our Domain Rating checker. Submitted URL is the address you gave the form, so a mismatch with your homepage shows. Sign-in is the method: Google, GitHub, an email code or a password. Status runs from submitted to in review, then live or rejected; put a rejection's reason in Notes, since many rules can be met on a second try, and our numbers on what happens to submissions show how often it comes to that. Rel, Indexable and Indexed on are filled in once the listing is live, and Badge live gets its own column because it changes after a redesign.

On a Submitator order the status column is ours to keep: Starter, Growth and Scale each come with real-time tracking and a detailed report.

Directory submission template: the checklist in plain text

The whole checklist as a block to paste into a notes app or a ticket, with the image sizes from the tables above.

After a listing goes live: five checks

A listing that is live is not yet a link that counts. Run five checks on each one and write the result into its row.

1. Open it signed out. A private window shows what a visitor and a crawler see, not your own dashboard view.
2. Follow the link to your site. It should land on your own URL; a link that runs through a redirect path on the directory's domain deserves a second look, because some directories block those paths in their own robots.txt.
3. Read the rel: followed, nofollow, ugc or sponsored. How to read it takes a minute in the page source.
4. Check that the page can be indexed (no noindex in its robots meta tag) and then whether Google has it; our guide to indexing backlinks covers both.
5. Check your side: the badge is still up where one is needed, and the listing shows the right logo crop, category and price.

Directory submission tips and mistakes

Directory submission tips

• Keep every file and fact in one folder, each file named by what it is: logo-512.png, logo-256.jpg, shot-1280x720.jpg.
• File a few directories a day, so confirmation mails and review replies come at a pace you can answer.
• Give every directory the same name, URL and categories, so the listings agree with each other and with your site.
• Fill the optional fields too: a promo code, a demo video and the founders' profiles make a fuller listing.

Directory submission mistakes

• A wide wordmark in a square logo field.
• A transparent PNG where the form wants a JPG.
• A file over the cap, which some forms reject outright.
• A URL with a referral code or tracking parameters.
• A personal inbox, which leaves when its owner does.
• No sheet, so a listing that goes live in week three never has its rel read.
• A redesign that drops a badge, which some directories answer by taking the follow off your link.

Or hand the checklist to Submitator

On an order, Submitator takes the filing off this list. You choose from the 189 we submit to in our dashboard, with each one's Domain Rating beside its name, and a directory gets onto that list by carrying one submission all the way through first. We write each pick a description of its own, to its form's lengths, and your images are cut to each site's format; the image rules counted above are the ones our pipeline enforces. Any CAPTCHA on the way is handled by us, so none reaches you.

Every order also has us push your new listing pages through IndexMachine, which Starter, Growth and Scale include as free indexing ($25 value). It needs nothing from you, and whether Google indexes a page stays Google's call. Delivery: most directories are delivered in 24 to 48 hours, every directory within 21 days at most. A rejection is credited back by default as one more directory to choose, except on All Directories, where the whole catalog is already yours. A refund can be requested within 30 days of purchase, on the conditions in our terms.

At Startups Lab, $29 buys a 30-day Spotlight, a slot below its home page hero for the month. At Submitator the same $29 files 30 directories you choose (Starter), and the plans run on to 60 for $49 and 100 for $79, each paid once; All Directories takes the whole catalog for $149. Weighing what each route costs? Our post on directory submission prices sets them side by side.