Glossary
The launch and SEO glossary, in plain words
The terms you meet when you list a product in directories and wonder what the link does for you. Short definitions here; the ones with numbers of our own behind them get a page.
ghosty
Founder, SaaSCity
Updated
Definitions checked against primary sources.
- 32
- Terms
- 4
- Explained in depth
- 1,666
- Directories in our link data
- 45.9%
- Of them dofollow
Terms explained in depth
Dofollow vs nofollow links
A dofollow link is an ordinary link with no rel value that holds back credit; a nofollow link carries rel="nofollow", which Google treats as a hint that it may leave the link out of ranking. Google added rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc" in September 2019.
Read the full entryDirectory submission
Listing your product on sites that catalog products, from launch platforms and software directories to review sites and niche lists. Done selectively it brings visitors, a page that ranks for your name and sometimes a followed link; Google's spam policies list links from low-quality directories as link spam.
Read the full entryLink farm
A site or group of sites that exists to hand out links, accepting almost anyone for money or a link back. Google's spam policies treat links made primarily to manipulate rankings as link spam, and its systems work to neutralize them.
Read the full entryllms.txt
A proposed markdown file at /llms.txt that summarizes a site for AI agents and links to its key pages, published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024. Google says Google Search ignores it, and as of October 2026 none of the big AI assistants has said it reads the file.
Read the full entry
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A
- AI citationalso AI source link, LLM citation
- A link to a source shown in an AI-generated answer, such as the supporting links in Google's AI Overviews or the citations in ChatGPT search and Perplexity answers. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet to appear as a supporting link. How listings feed AI answers
- Anchor textalso link text
- The visible, clickable words of a link, which Google says tell people and Google something about the page it points to. For an image link, such as a badge, Google uses the image's alt text instead.
- Awesome listalso awesome-* list, curated GitHub list
- A curated list of links on one topic, kept as a README on GitHub in the style of Sindre Sorhus's original "awesome" list. You get in by opening a pull request that meets the list's rules, and the awesome manifesto calls such a list "a curation, not a collection". Where to promote an open source project
B
- Backlinkalso inbound link, incoming link
- A link on a page of another site that points to a page on yours, which is how Google's Search Console defines it. What one is worth depends on the page it sits on and on whether it carries nofollow, sponsored or ugc. How to get backlinks for a SaaS
- Badge exchangealso badge swap, badge backlink
- A deal in which a directory lists your product, or makes its link to you followed, once you put the directory's badge (a small image linking back to it) on your site. SaaSCity runs one: a free listing's link is nofollow until our badge is verified on your homepage, then dofollow. Badges and Google's link policy
C
- Canonical URLalso rel=canonical, canonical tag
- The URL Google picks as the representative version from a set of duplicate or near-duplicate pages. A site can suggest one with a rel="canonical" link, which Google calls a strong signal, but Google makes the final choice. Checking a listing page
D
- Directory submissionalso directory listing, submit to directories
- Listing your product on sites that catalog products, from launch platforms and software directories to review sites and niche lists. Done selectively it brings visitors, a page that ranks for your name and sometimes a followed link; Google's spam policies list links from low-quality directories as link spam. Full entry
- Disavowalso disavow tool, disavow file
- A Search Console tool for asking Google to ignore specific links to your site. Google calls it an advanced feature that most sites will not need: use it only when many spammy or artificial links have caused, or will likely cause, a manual action. When to disavow
- Dofollow vs nofollow linksalso dofollow link, nofollow link, rel="nofollow", follow link
- A dofollow link is an ordinary link with no rel value that holds back credit; a nofollow link carries rel="nofollow", which Google treats as a hint that it may leave the link out of ranking. Google added rel="sponsored" and rel="ugc" in September 2019. Full entry
- Domain Rating (DR)also DR, Ahrefs DR
- Ahrefs' 0 to 100 score for the strength of a site's backlink profile, on a logarithmic scale built from its referring domains and their own DR. It is a proprietary Ahrefs metric, not a Google one. Does Domain Rating affect SEO?
G
- Google Search Consolealso Search Console, GSC
- Google's free service for site owners, with reports on indexing, search traffic, links and manual actions. Its Links report shows a sample of the links Google found to your site, and Google says it does not show whether a link is nofollow. Tracking your listings
L
- Launch directoryalso startup directory, new product directory
- A directory built around new products, where each listing gets a permanent page, often tied to a launch date, a queue or a featured slot. SaaSCity, which we run, is one; many sites work as both a launch directory and a launch platform. The SaaS directory list
- Launch platformalso launch site, Product Hunt alternative
- A site where products launch on a set day and compete with that day's other launches for upvotes and comments, ending in a ranking. Product Hunt is the best-known example, and the launch page usually stays up afterward. 25 launch platforms compared
- Link equityalso link juice, PageRank
- SEO shorthand for the ranking value a followed link is thought to pass to the page it points to. Google's own help pages talk about links passing PageRank and ask for nofollow or a more specific value on links that should not pass it. How Google treats each rel value
- Link farmalso link network, link selling site
- A site or group of sites that exists to hand out links, accepting almost anyone for money or a link back. Google's spam policies treat links made primarily to manipulate rankings as link spam, and its systems work to neutralize them. Full entry
- llms.txtalso llms-full.txt, LLMs.txt file
- A proposed markdown file at /llms.txt that summarizes a site for AI agents and links to its key pages, published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024. Google says Google Search ignores it, and as of October 2026 none of the big AI assistants has said it reads the file. Full entry
M
- Manual actionalso Google penalty, manual penalty
- A penalty a reviewer at Google applies when a site breaks Google's spam policies. It shows in Search Console's Manual Actions report, and the affected pages can rank lower or drop out of results until you fix the problem and request a review. What to do about bad links
- MCP server registryalso MCP registry, MCP server directory
- A catalog of Model Context Protocol servers that developers and AI clients search to find servers to install. The official MCP Registry at registry.modelcontextprotocol.io launched in preview in September 2025, and other registries and client marketplaces build on it or keep their own lists. Where to list an MCP server
N
- Noindexalso meta robots noindex, X-Robots-Tag noindex
- A rule, set in a robots meta tag or an X-Robots-Tag HTTP header, that keeps a page out of search results. Google drops a noindexed page from Search even if other sites link to it, so a directory listing marked noindex will not show up there. How to check a listing page
P
- PBN (private blog network)also private blog network, blog network
- A group of websites under one owner, often built on expired domains that still have links, made to look independent while linking to the sites the owner wants to rank. Google's spam policies do not use the term, but they count creating links primarily to manipulate rankings as link spam. Link farm vs PBN vs directory
R
- Reciprocal linkalso link exchange, link swap
- Two sites linking to each other by agreement. It is common between partners, but Google's spam policies list "excessive link exchanges" and partner pages made only for cross-linking as link spam. Badge swaps and Google's policy
- Redirect (301, 302)also 301 redirect, 302 redirect, permanent redirect, temporary redirect
- An HTTP response that sends a browser or crawler from one URL to another: 301 means moved for good, 302 means moved for now. Google treats a permanent redirect as a strong signal that the target is the URL to show and a temporary one as a weak signal. Many directories route outbound clicks through a redirect of their own. Spotting a redirect link
- Referring domainalso linking domain, linking root domain
- A unique website that links to yours at least once, so fifty links from one site still count as one referring domain. SEO tools report the count, and Ahrefs builds Domain Rating on it. What Domain Rating measures
- rel="sponsored"also sponsored link attribute, rel sponsored
- The link attribute value Google asks sites to use for ads, sponsorships and other paid placements, introduced in September 2019. Google still accepts nofollow for paid links but prefers sponsored. sponsored and ugc explained
- rel="ugc"also ugc link attribute, rel ugc
- The link attribute value for links inside user-generated content, such as comments and forum posts, introduced by Google in September 2019. Google suggests sites may drop it for trusted members with a long record of high-quality posts. sponsored and ugc explained
- robots.txtalso robots exclusion protocol
- A plain-text file at the root of a site that tells crawlers which URLs they may request. It controls crawling, not indexing: Google says a blocked URL can still appear in results if other pages link to it, so use noindex to keep a page out. How llms.txt differs
S
- Show HNalso Show Hacker News
- A Hacker News post whose title begins with "Show HN", for something you made that people can try. HN's rules say not to post sign-up pages, landing pages or quickly generated one-offs, and not to ask friends to upvote. Hacker News for founders
- Software review sitealso B2B software review site, software review platform
- A site where users rate and review business software and buyers compare products by category, such as G2, Capterra or TrustRadius. A vendor's listing there is a profile built around those reviews. Software review sites for vendors
- SpamBrainalso Google's spam detection system
- Google's AI-based system for spotting spam. In December 2022 Google said it can detect both sites buying links and sites used to pass outgoing links, and that it neutralizes the unnatural links they give, so any credit from them is lost. Google's link spam policy
U
- UTM parametersalso UTM tags, utm_source
- Tags added to the end of a URL, such as ?utm_source=directory, that tell analytics tools where a visit came from. Tag the URL you submit to a directory: many listings add rel="noreferrer", and the visit would otherwise show up as direct traffic. A few sites, AlternativeTo among them, ask for a clean URL instead. What to record per directory
X
- XML sitemapalso sitemap, sitemap.xml
- A file that lists the URLs a site wants search engines to find, often with the date each one last changed. Google treats it as a hint for discovery; a URL in the sitemap is not guaranteed to be crawled or indexed.
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