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Link policy

Most directories are vague about this on purpose. Here is exactly what a link from us means, what it costs, and what takes it away.

Last updated 20 August 2026

The risk we are taking, stated plainly

Google’s link spam policy names both of the things on this page. Selling links that pass ranking signals is listed as a link scheme. So is excessive link exchange, the “link to me and I’ll link to you” pattern, which is exactly what the free tier’s badge requirement is.

We are doing it anyway, deliberately, and we would rather you read that here than work it out yourself. If it costs us, it costs us; the alternative was a directory nobody could afford to run. Every competitor in this category does the same thing and most of them do not write it down.

What we will not do is pretend the safeguards below make the risk disappear. They do not. They make it a decision rather than an accident.

What stops this from being a link farm

A person decides, then the system pays out. No code path sets a rel value from a payment event. There is one function that decides every link on the site, and a Stripe webhook cannot reach it. Paying buys a place in the queue and a faster review; approval is a human.

It is revocable, and revocations happen. A link is not a purchase that survives the thing it was attached to. Remove the widget, let the listing go stale, or change the product into something else and the link reverts to nofollow. The listing itself stays live. We downgrade, we do not delete.

Advertising carries a real link too. A sponsor slot and a category spotlight are dofollow, the same as a paid listing. What does not change is the label: every paid unit says Sponsored where you can see it, at every price, on every surface. Disclosure is owed to you. The link is what the advertiser bought.

None of it touches ranking. Money buys placement, speed and a link. It does not buy ranked order, and that is enforced by a build failure rather than a promise, see how ranking works.

Every listing state, and its exact rel value

Listing staterelWhy
Unclaimed listingnofollowSeeded from the vendor's own site. Nobody has asked us for anything, so nothing is vouched for.
Free listing, widget not foundnofollowClaimed and email-confirmed, but the reciprocal link is not up yet.
Free listing, widget verified(dofollow)The exchange is live in both directions. Re-checked weekly.
Paid tier, approved(dofollow)An editor accepted the listing. Payment alone never reaches this row.
Paid tier, awaiting reviewnofollowPaid but not yet approved. This is the row that makes the distinction real.
Sponsored card, spotlight(dofollow)Advertising. Labelled as sponsored wherever it appears, and the link is real.
Affiliate link(dofollow)Labelled as affiliate wherever it appears.
RevokednofollowWidget removed, listing gone stale, or the product no longer matches what we published.

(dofollow) is written in brackets because it is not a real attribute. It is the absence of one. A link with no rel is a followed link.

How to check your own listing

Open your listing, view source, and find the outbound link. If it has no rel attribute, it is dofollow. If it says nofollow, the table above tells you which row you are in.

We would rather you check than take our word for it, which is why the table exists in this shape.

Getting a link, or a listing, removed

Email us and we will remove it. We do not require a reason, we do not try to talk you out of it, and we do not charge for it. If you are the owner of a brand whose logo appears on this site and you would rather it did not, the same applies.

Related

How ranking works

The published formula, and the firewall that keeps money out of it.

Verification

Claim, confirm, embed. What each step proves and what it does not.

Pricing

Every price on one page, including which tiers include a link.