Why most profile links do nothing
A profile page created solely to hold a link is a page with no content, no visitors and no internal links pointing at it. Search engines have had two decades to learn what that looks like. The link is not penalised so much as ignored, which is a worse outcome, because the time was still spent.
The profiles that count are the ones on platforms where a profile is a real thing: a portfolio, a code repository, a publication list, a review presence. On those platforms the page has a reason to exist and often gets seen.
The brand search argument
The strongest reason to build profiles is not the link at all. Search your own company name. The first page will contain your site and then whatever else exists: profiles, review sites, an old press mention, possibly a competitor bidding on your name.
Every profile you fill in properly is a result you control on that page. For a small company this is often the single most valuable thing profile creation does, and it has nothing to do with authority flow.
How to do it so it counts
- Complete the profile. Photo, description, links, one piece of real content. Half-filled profiles look abandoned and rank accordingly.
- Use the same description. Write your 50, 150 and 300 word descriptions once and reuse them. Consistency is what makes the profiles corroborate each other.
- Pick platforms you belong on. A developer tool belongs on GitHub. A design studio belongs on Behance. Presence on a platform where you have no reason to be reads as exactly that.
- Post once. A single upload, answer or project turns a profile into an account. Most platforms only index profiles that show activity.
Nofollow is not the deciding factor
Many of the best profile platforms mark outbound links nofollow. That is not a reason to skip them. A nofollow profile on a platform with millions of visitors contributes to how your brand is described across the web, and it can rank for your name. A dofollow profile on a site nobody visits does neither.
What we have catalogued in this category
Of the 527 places in the catalogue, 101 are of this type.67% of those pass a following link, and 85% are ones a beginner can complete without prior accounts or a verified business.
| Market | Platforms |
|---|---|
| 🌍 International | 98 |
| 🇩🇰 DK | 2 |
| 🇸🇪 SE | 1 |
Counts describe our catalogue rather than the web as a whole. We publish the numbers, not the list: the list is the product.
One of these is on the free tier
No payment and no card. These are the ones you can open and work through today, and they are a fair sample of how the rest are written up.
| Platform | Market | Link | Difficulty | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SlideShare | 🌍 Intl | nofollow | Easy | 30-45 min |
What sits behind this
This category is one of 22. The whole catalogue holds 527 places across 5 markets, and every one of them is written up step by step in both English and Danish.
The work behind the list
- 133 of them have been opened and checked against the page that is actually there now, not just imported from a list.
- 156 of them have a link straight to the form, so you are not hunting for it on their front page.
- Authority figures from Ahrefs are refreshed on the first of every month. Last run 1 September 2026.
What we warn you about
A list you scraped yourself will not tell you what does not work. This one does, and that is usually where the hours go.
- 26 of them only count your submission once you have put a link back to them on your own site. That is in the guide before you start.
- 7 of them turned out not to be directories at all. They are flagged rather than deleted, because they can still be an opportunity.
- 10 of them have stopped responding. They carry a warning rather than wasting your time.
- 72 of them pass nofollow. We say so, including when the directory itself claims otherwise.
20 of the 527 can be opened and worked through without paying anything. They are not a selection of the weak ones.
Examples of this kind of platform
Names most practitioners would recognise, to make the category concrete: GitHub, Behance, SlideShare, Dribbble, About.me, Stack Overflow.
Common questions
How many profile links should I build?
Enough to cover the platforms relevant to your field and the ones that rank for your brand name. That is usually between ten and twenty-five, not hundreds.
Do nofollow profile links help SEO?
Not through authority flow. They help by occupying search results for your name and by making your business description consistent across the sites a search engine reads.
Can I automate profile creation?
You can, and the output is recognisably automated: identical descriptions, no activity, no images. The platforms that matter delete those accounts.