I Grew My Domain Rating by 16 Points in 2 Weeks - Here’s How

Growing a new website is hard - especially when authority and backlinks are the biggest bottleneck.

A few weeks ago, Solo Launches was stuck at DR 12. No matter how much content I published, growth was slow because search engines didn’t yet trust the domain.

So I decided to test something simple but underrated:

directory submissions done properly.

In less than 2 weeks, my Domain Rating jumped from 12 → 28, and in this post, I’ll break down exactly how I did it using Listmy.site.

📊 The Result (Quick Summary)

Starting DR: 12
Final DR: 28
Time taken: < 14 days
Method: High-quality directory submissions
Tool used: Listmy.site
Effort required: minimal

No link exchanges.
No PBNs.
No spam.

Just clean, relevant backlinks.

🚧 The Problem With Growing DR Early On

If you’re a solo founder or indie hacker, you’ve probably faced this:

Guest posting takes too long
Cold outreach barely gets replies
Big blogs ignore new domains
Manual submissions are boring and time-consuming

Yet backlinks are still one of the strongest SEO ranking signals.

That’s where directory submissions come in — if done correctly.

✅ Why Directory Submissions Still Work in 2025

Directories get a bad reputation because people spam low-quality ones.

But high-quality, curated directories still:

Have real traffic
Get indexed fast
Pass authority
Link out naturally to startups and tools

The key is quality + relevance, not volume.

🔧 What Is Listmy.site?

Listmy.site is a directory submission service that helps founders get listed on high-DR, relevant directories without spending days doing it manually.

Instead of submitting to random sites, it focuses on:

Startup-friendly directories
SaaS & tool listing platforms
SEO-safe submissions
Clean anchor usage
Real websites (not link farms)

🚀 What I Did (Exact Process)

Here’s the exact workflow I followed:

Submitted my website to Listmy.site
Shared my project details once
They handled the submissions
My site got listed across multiple directories
Backlinks started getting indexed
DR started moving fast

No repeated forms.
No guessing which directory works.
No wasted time.

📈 How DR Jumped from 12 → 28 So Fast

A few important reasons why this worked:

1. Authority stacking

Multiple directories with decent DR linking back created a strong backlink base quickly.

2. Fast indexing

Most directories used are already crawled frequently by Google.

3. Clean link profile

No spam anchors, no over-optimization.

4. Relevance

Listings were in startup / SaaS / tool-related platforms — not random sites.

🧠 Why This Works Especially Well for New Websites

If your site is under DR 30:

Every quality backlink has outsized impact
Directory links move the needle faster
Google starts trusting your domain earlier
Outreach becomes easier later

This strategy is perfect if you:

Just launched a product
Are building in public
Want early SEO momentum
Don’t have time for manual outreach

⚠️ Important Note

Directory submissions are not a replacement for content or long-term link building.

But they are a great foundation layer.

Think of it as:

“Setting the SEO base before scaling.”

✅ Final Thoughts

Going from DR 12 to 28 in under 2 weeks wasn’t magic — it was execution.

Using a focused directory submission service like Listmy.site saved time and gave my site the authority boost it needed early on.

If you’re struggling to grow DR or want faster SEO traction, this approach is absolutely worth testing.

If you want to see similar results, you can check out: https://listmy.site

Simple. Fast. Founder-friendly.

If you’re building in public, documenting experiments like this also helps attract users, backlinks, and trust — all at once.