What we check before a listing goes up

A directory is only worth reading if someone is saying no. Here is what stands between a submitted form and a published page.

Is there a product here

We open the site. If it does not load, if it is a landing page collecting emails for something that does not exist yet, if it is a reskin of a template with the demo content still in it, or if it is not really a product at all, it does not go up. We say why.

Does the listing describe it

Every listing needs an original description of at least 350 characters, written about that product and no other. We draft it from your own page to save you the blank field, but the draft is a starting point and you have to read it. Listings that describe nothing in particular, or that read like they were mass-produced, are the fastest way to make a directory worthless.

Does the link go where it says

The listing links to the site you submitted, and that is the site we looked at. On paid listings we keep checking: a URL change waits for a person before the new address goes live, and a link that dies or starts redirecting somewhere else gets looked at too.

What a paid package does and does not do

Picking Premium or Featured moves your submission up the review queue. That is all it does before approval. The same person applies the same bar, and nothing is charged until after your tool is live, so a listing that does not belong here is never a paid listing. What the packages buy is visibility once you are in: a followed link, a Premium tag, analytics, and a labelled run in the featured slots.

What we do not check

Whether we personally like it. Plenty of good tools are dull to look at, and plenty of beautiful sites do nothing. The bar is: is it real, and does the listing describe it honestly.