Badge-for-backlink deals explained

The details differ by directory, but the parts are the same:

• The default link. Your listing links to your site with rel="nofollow", or sometimes through a redirect.
• The condition. Embed the directory’s badge, which is an image that links back to the directory or to your listing. Other directories set a number of upvotes as the condition, or a payment.
• The check. Someone or something at the directory looks at your page for its link. Ask whether that happens once or keeps happening, because it decides what removing the badge later will do.
• The upgrade. The nofollow is removed from the link on your listing.

Terms like these change often, so read the directory’s own submission or FAQ page on the day you apply and keep a copy. This guide doesn’t quote any directory’s current terms for that reason. IndieTide used to tie its followed link to a badge and dropped that after Ahrefs’ DR4 preview; its link no longer depends on one.

What the directory gets is the link. Each badge is a link from a maker’s site back to the directory, and links from many separate sites are what scores like Domain Rating are built from. A paid “dofollow upgrade” is a different thing and is covered in the guide to directories after DR4.

Google’s spam policies define link spam as creating links mainly to manipulate rankings. Four of the examples on that page describe parts of a badge deal (spam policies):

• “Excessive link exchanges (‘Link to me and I’ll link to you’)”.
• Requiring a link as part of a terms of service or similar arrangement, without letting the other site choose to qualify that link.
• Keyword-rich, hidden or low-quality links embedded in widgets that are distributed across sites.
• Links distributed widely in the footers or templates of various sites.

The word that matters in the first one is “excessive”. Google doesn’t say that two sites linking to each other is spam, and showing where you launched is a normal thing for a product page to do. The policy is aimed at links that exist only because of the trade. One badge from a place where people found you is easy to defend. A row of fifteen in a sitewide footer, each required by a directory’s terms, is the pattern the policy describes. Google says sites that violate its policies may rank lower or not appear in results.

You are always allowed to qualify a link on your own site. Google’s guidance is to use rel="nofollow" when you’d rather not be associated with the linked site (source). A directory may answer by keeping your link nofollow too, which is its right. At that point the deal is off and nothing is lost.

SaaSCity ran 2,405 directories through Ahrefs’ free API on 5 November 2026 and compared their DR3 and DR4 scores (the study). SaaSCity is a directory that sells paid listings and a submission service, and its author says in the post that this gives it every reason to want directories to look valuable. The badge flag also comes from SaaSCity’s own list, and the post gives no further criteria for it. With that said, the badge numbers are the starkest in the dataset:

• Among sites with a DR3 of 30 or more, the 85 directories flagged as badge-exchange went from a median of 61 to 31. The other 1,170 went from 51 to 44.
• In the DR3 50 to 79 band, 56 badge directories lost a median of 33.5 points. The 462 others lost a median of 2.
• A badge alone didn’t decide the outcome. The post names three flagged directories that kept most of their score: Twelve Tools (84 to 76), Dang AI (83 to 74) and Toolpilot (79 to 71).

The author’s reading is that DR3 counted a badge link whether or not the site behind it had any search traffic, and DR4 appears to count such links for much less. That is inference: the post notes that Ahrefs hasn’t said anything about directories. And DR is an Ahrefs score, not something Google uses, as the DR4 guide explains. What the study does show is that the number these deals were sold on can fall by half in one update.

Ask these before you embed anything:

1. Would you show this badge without the deal? If the directory sent you users or its name means something to your customers, the badge is social proof and the link is a bonus. If you’d hide it at the bottom of the page, that tells you what it’s worth.
2. Is the listing worth having at all? Run the checks in which launch directories are still worth it: real visitors, indexed listing pages, a page of your own.
3. Does the upgrade happen? Find a listing that shows the badge on its site and run it through the backlink checker. If badge-holders still get nofollow, the offer is empty.
4. Where must the badge go? Homepage only, any page, or every page? A sitewide requirement is the worst version.
5. What is the badge’s link? It should be a plain image link to the directory or your listing. Decline anything with keyword anchor text, hidden links or a script you have to load.
6. What happens when you remove it? Does the link go back to nofollow, or does the listing disappear?
7. How many do you already have? Set a limit. Two or three badges you’re glad to show is a reasonable ceiling for a small product.

Directories usually hand you a snippet. Rewrite it before you use it. A plain link around an image is all a badge needs:

<a href="https://directory.example/products/your-product"
   target="_blank" rel="noopener">
  <img src="/badges/directory-example.svg"
       alt="Listed on Directory Example"
       width="180" height="40"
       loading="lazy" decoding="async">
</a>

• Set width and height. With both attributes the browser reserves the space before the image arrives, which prevents a layout shift (web.dev). This matters most for lazy-loaded images (MDN).
• Lazy-load it if it sits below the fold. loading="lazy" defers the request until the image is near the viewport. Leave it off for a badge at the top of the page.
• Host the image yourself if the terms allow it. Your page then doesn’t wait on the directory’s server, and the image can’t change without you knowing.
• Don’t load a script for a badge. A script can add whatever it likes to your page, and embedded widgets often don’t reserve their own space, which causes the shifts web.dev describes.
• Write honest alt text. The directory’s name is enough. Don’t accept a snippet that fills the alt text or a hidden link with keywords; that is the widget link Google’s policies describe.
• Mind the rel. noopener only affects how the browser opens the new tab and has no bearing on the deal. Adding nofollow is your choice to make, but a directory that asks for a followed link may then leave yours as it was.
• Put it on one page. A “Featured on” row on the homepage or an about page does the job. Keep badges out of the footer template that renders on every URL.

Badges pile up. A year after launch, a product page can carry a strip of logos from sites its customers have never heard of. Clearing them takes a few minutes:

1. List every badge on your site and the directory behind each one. Search your templates, not only the homepage.
2. Note the current rel of your link on each listing, so you can tell what changes.
3. Decide which ones still earn their place: the directory sends visitors, or the badge means something to buyers. Keep those.
4. Remove the rest, including any script tags and stylesheets that came with them.
5. A few weeks later, check each listing again with the backlink checker and note which links changed.

A link that goes back to nofollow still sends the same visitors it did before, and nofollow links are worth having. If a listing is removed entirely because the badge is gone, you’ve learned what that directory was offering.