How to write a listing that gets approved
What directory editors reject, what the field labels actually mean, and the nine pieces of copy worth preparing before you open a form.
A rejected submission is almost never about the product. It is a category that does not fit, a description written for a landing page, or a claim the editor cannot verify in the thirty seconds they will spend on you.
| Field | What it really wants |
|---|---|
| Name | The product, not the company, and not the company plus a tagline. Pollendo, never Pollendo — get listed everywhere. |
| Tagline | Under ~60 characters, no marketing verb. What it is, for whom. |
| Short description | ~150 characters. The first sentence of the long one, able to stand alone. This is what appears in the category grid. |
| Long description | ~500 characters. Plain sentences. Editors cut adjectives, not facts, so lead with what it does and who uses it. |
| Category | Their taxonomy, not yours. Pick the closest real match; a wrong category is the single most common rejection. |
| Pricing | Say the true model. Free, freemium, trial and paid are different, and a directory that catches the difference after publishing will pull the listing. |
| Logo | Square, transparent PNG, at least 512px. A screenshot in the logo slot is an instant reject. |
| Screenshot | The product doing its job, not your marketing hero. |
| Links | Only the ones you actually have. An empty social field is fine; the homepage pasted into the Discord field is not. |
The claim that gets a listing pulledDescribing a trial as a free plan. If there is no permanently free tier, the word is trial. This is the easiest thing in a listing to check and the one editors check first.
Before you submit anything
Write all nine into one document and keep it beside the browser. Every form after the first becomes copy-and-paste, and every listing then says the same thing — which is what makes a set of directory listings read as a real company rather than a campaign.