Which Startup Directories Actually Sent Me Users
I compared what my signups said with what my analytics measured. The two lists of startup directories that actually sent users don't agree.
I wanted to know which directories actually sent me users, so I checked two sources. What my signups told me, and what my DataFast analytics measured. The two answer different questions.
My signup answers come from people who actually converted, they made an actual account! DataFast measures site visits, whether they signed up or left right away.
Most directories don't drive traffic
Before I get into the data, it's worth knowing that most directories don't drive traffic. Most of them are ghost towns. A few are big enough to send real visitors, but usually only when you manage to rank high on them.
However, that doesn't make them a waste of time. Even a ghost directory can hand you a valuable backlink, whether the site is very active or not. The traffic is nice when it shows up, the backlink is the part that compounds and works for your SEO. If you want the detail, here's how directories turn into free backlinks.
What my analytics measured
So DataFast records the real referrer for every visit, the site someone actually clicked through from. Over the last year one directory ran away with it:
TrustMRR took the lead (by a mile) and sent 82 visitors to my website and the only directory-sourced sale I can trace according to DataFast. A long tail of others sent a handful of clicks each. The data seems clear enough on its own, until I compared it to what my signups actually typed.
What my signups said
When a new user signs up on LaunchPanda, the first question they answer is "how did you find us?" It's a required field, so in that sense the sample is clean. There's always the chance someone doesn't bother to fill it in honestly, but most people do. When someone picks "a directory", we ask which one in a follow up box.
At the time of writing, across 391 signups since I started asking the question, directories were a small slice, about 4%. Inside that slice, three names came up:
Nobody named TrustMRR. BuildHop led here, the directory that sent just 3 measured clicks based on DataFast's insights. Product Hunt, named more than anyone, but doesn't appear in my referrer data at all.
Conclusion
So all in all, I got the most traffic from just a few directories. TrustMRR pulled the most real weight in terms of visits, but funnily enough it barely showed up in actual signups. BuildHop was the flip side, it sent almost no traffic, yet it got named by the most signups.
Directories that actually sent traffic
One caveat. DataFast only sees the last click, not where someone first found me. A visit it labels Google might have started on BuildHop, someone spots the product there, then searches for it by name later. That blind spot explains a lot of the gap between the visit data and the signup data.
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