How Planetcert went from DR 10 to DR 35 with just directory submissions

Most directory submissions boost SEO claims come with zero data attached. So here's an actual before/after from one of the sites I worked on.

Starting point: planetcert.com, DR 10, minimal backlink profile.

What we did: Manual submissions to 100+ high-authority directories over several weeks. No automation, no PBNs, just clean one-by-one listings with unique descriptions per platform.

Result: DR 10 → DR 35, 1,500+ backlinks, 428 referring domains.

A few things that stood out going through this:

Growth wasn't linear. Most of the DR jump happened after the first 30-40 submissions cleared Google's indexing, not gradually across all 100
Referring domain quality mattered more than raw backlink count. A handful of DR 80+ listings moved the needle more than 50 low-DR ones combined
The AI-visibility side effect was unexpected. After the directory push, the site started getting cited in ChatGPT/Perplexity answers for its category, which wasn't the original goal

Full breakdown with the week-by-week data: https://listmy.site/blog/planetcert-case-study

For readers info, I help founders rank better on Google and LLMs by manually listing the products to high authority platforms, 7-10 listings a day so that it looks natural to google and not a spam blast. Worth checking out results and reviews on https://listmy.site/