Submit a new website to the search engines first: Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, which also covers IndexNow. Then list it where your customers look: startup and launch directories, software comparison sites, business profiles and communities like Hacker News and Indie Hackers. Skip article submission, social bookmarking and "submit to 1,000 sites" services; Google treats those links as spam.
Most lists of site submission sites still read like it's 2008: hundreds of URLs, sorted by an old authority score, half of them dead. Here's the shorter version, in the order I'd do it for a new product.
| Step | Where | What you get | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow | Your pages indexed. No link. | About 30 minutes |
| 2 | Startup and launch directories | Early users, and the fastest real links a new site gets. Of the ones we checked on live listings in September 2026, Microlaunch linked dofollow and Product Hunt nofollow. | Plan a few weeks ahead for the free queues |
| 3 | Software and comparison sites (AlternativeTo, SaaSHub, G2, Capterra) | Buyers comparing tools, long after launch week | An hour per profile |
| 4 | Business profiles (LinkedIn, Crunchbase, local listings) | Trust. Mostly nofollow links. | An afternoon |
| 5 | Communities you post in yourself (Show HN, Indie Hackers, Reddit, DEV) | A day of real visitors. Links are nofollow or ugc. | One good post each |
What "site submission" means now
Site submission used to mean two things: telling search engines your site exists, and adding it to as many directories, bookmarking sites and article sites as possible for the links. The first still matters, and it's free. The second stopped working when Google started discounting those links in 2012, and Google's John Mueller has since said directory, article and bookmarking submission links are against its guidelines in general.
What replaced it is simpler: get indexed, then get listed in the handful of places people use to find products like yours. Each listing should be something a customer might click, not just something a crawler might count.
Step 1: Submit your site to the search engines
This is the one "site submission" that every website should do, and it takes half an hour.
Google Search Console
- Add your domain at Google Search Console and verify it, usually with a DNS record.
- Submit your sitemap (for most frameworks,
yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml). - Use URL Inspection on your homepage and your most important pages, then Request indexing.
You can't pay Google to index you faster, and any service that says it "submits your site to Google" is doing these same steps, or less.
Bing Webmaster Tools and IndexNow
- Sign in to Bing Webmaster Tools. You can import your site straight from Google Search Console instead of verifying again.
- Submit the same sitemap.
- Turn on IndexNow if your host or CMS supports it. IndexNow is an open protocol that tells participating search engines, Bing and Yandex among them, the moment a page is added or changed. It doesn't guarantee indexing, but it saves waiting for a crawl.
Bing matters more than its market share suggests. Other search engines and several AI assistants draw on its index, so being in Bing gets you into more places than Bing itself.
The rest
Other search engines find you through links and through the big indexes. You don't need a "submit to 500 search engines" service; most of those engines are gone or reuse someone else's results.
Step 2: Startup and launch directories
If you've built a product, launch directories are where early users and other founders look, and they're the fastest real links a new site can get. Product Hunt (DR 90), Indie Hackers (DR 81), Uneed (DR 76), BetaList (DR 71) and Microlaunch (DR 62) are a good start; there are dozens more.
Plan these a few weeks ahead. Several have free queues that run weeks behind and charge to skip them. I've written up free online web directories by type, with what each is best for.
Step 3: Software and comparison sites
People compare products on these before they buy, so a listing keeps working long after launch.
- AlternativeTo and SaaSHub: list yourself as an alternative to the two or three products your customers already know.
- G2 and Capterra: review sites for business software. A basic vendor profile is free; they sell visibility on top.
- StackShare, SourceForge, Devpost: for developer tools, open-source projects and anything built at a hackathon.
Step 4: Business profiles
These make a young company look real to customers, investors and search engines.
- LinkedIn company page and Crunchbase: the first two places people check.
- Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect: only if you have a location or serve a local area. Google's profile isn't for online-only businesses.
- Your founders' profiles: GitHub, X and personal sites, all linking to the product.
Most of these links are nofollow. That's fine: they're for trust and for people, and they make your backlink profile look like a real company's.
Step 5: Communities where you post it yourself
These aren't directories. You post, people respond, and the post can send more visitors in a day than a year of directory listings.
- Show HN on Hacker News: for products other developers can try. Read the Show HN rules first; they're strict about what qualifies.
- Indie Hackers: a product page plus a post about how you built it.
- Reddit: communities like r/SideProject welcome launches, but most subreddits don't. Read each one's rules.
- DEV and similar developer blogs: a genuine write-up of how you built something, with a link, not an ad.
Links from these are almost always nofollow or ugc. Post for the readers; the links are a side effect.
Site submission sites to skip
Some kinds of "submission site" are still sold as SEO. They don't help, and some can hurt.
| Kind | Why to skip it |
|---|---|
| Article submission sites | Anyone can post, so nobody trusts the links. Google names them as link spam. |
| Social bookmarking sites | The same, with even less review. |
| "Submit to 1,000 directories" services | Mostly dead sites and link farms, submitted in a burst. |
| Free "search engine submission" tools | They do what Search Console does for free, or nothing. |
| Press releases for links | Fine for real news. Keyword-rich links in releases have long counted as a link scheme in Google's guidelines. |
| Profile-creation spam | Empty profiles on random sites, made only for a link. |
If a submission site accepts anything instantly and nobody browses it, a link from it is worth nothing.
What to have ready before you submit anywhere
Every form asks for roughly the same things. Write them once and reuse them, so your details match everywhere:
- Product name and website URL, exactly as you want them shown.
- A one-line tagline, under about 60 characters.
- A short description of about 200 characters and a longer one of about 600.
- A square logo, a screenshot or two, and your categories.
- Pricing model (free, freemium, paid) and a contact email you'll check.
Screenshot each confirmation page as you go. A few weeks later, open each listing, check your link is there and read its rel attribute; nofollow, ugc or sponsored means it passes no ranking credit. Listings go missing more often than you'd think.
When you don't need any of this yet
If the site isn't live, or it's a waitlist page, submit it to Search Console and stop there. Directories want a working product, and a listing for a landing page is wasted.
When you're ready, the directory part is the repetitive bit. LaunchDistro fills those forms from Claude, Cursor or Codex, in a browser you can watch, and checks which listings went live. For the bigger picture, see our guide on how to get backlinks for a startup.
Frequently asked questions
What are site submission sites?
Websites where you add your own site: search engine webmaster tools, business and startup directories, software comparison sites and communities. The old meaning also covered article and bookmarking sites, which no longer help.
Do I still need to submit my website to search engines?
Google and Bing will find a site eventually through links, but submitting a sitemap in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools gets a new site indexed sooner and shows you any problems. It's free and takes minutes.
How do I submit my website to Google for free?
Verify your site in Google Search Console, submit your sitemap, then use URL Inspection and Request indexing on your main pages. There's no paid way to get indexed faster.
Do site submission sites help SEO?
Search engine submission helps you get indexed. Real directories and comparison sites help with visitors, crawling and a few links. Article, bookmarking and mass-submission sites don't help and can count as link spam.
Are article submission sites still useful?
Not for SEO. Google names low-quality article and directory links as link spam. Writing a genuine article for a publication your customers read is a different thing, and still works.
How long until a new site shows up on Google?
Usually days to a few weeks after you submit a sitemap, sometimes longer for a brand-new domain. Links from sites Google already crawls, like launch directories, can speed it up.