Launching a product: where to be listed, in what order, and what it earns
A launch is a week of visitors and a set of pages that keep pointing at you afterwards. These guides cover the places worth an hour, one each: what the form asks, what the audience is, what remains when the day is over, and the SEO to have in place before you press the button.
By Théophile Louvart, founder of Porteur · Updated 14 September 2026 · Markdown
What a launch is for, and what it leaves behind
A launch buys three things: a day of people who try the product and say what they think, a listing page on a site with an audience that keeps ranking for your product's name, and a mention on the lists that search engines and AI assistants read when someone asks for options in your category. The first is brief. The second and third are what the guides here are about, because they are what a product's search presence is built from in its first year.
The places differ in what they want. Hacker News wants something people can try, not a landing page, and punishes asking for votes. Product Hunt wants a day, a tagline, images and a first comment. BetaList wants an early product with a signup page. Indie Hackers wants the story with the numbers. G2 and Capterra want a vendor profile and real reviews, and their category pages are what assistants cite for 'best X'. AlternativeTo wants to know whose alternative you are. Reddit wants months of being useful first. The AI directories want a one-liner and a category. Each guide says exactly what the form asks so the hour is spent on the right thing.
What a listing is not worth is the link. Most of them are nofollow, and Google's spam policies treat directories with no editorial value as low-quality links anyway. The value is the audience and the mention.
The site before the launch
The week before, the site should be ready for the searches the launch creates: the product's name, the name plus pricing, the name plus alternatives, the name plus reviews. That means a title and a description on every page, one canonical, a sitemap that Google and Bing have, a fast home page on a phone, structured data on the product and the FAQ, an llms.txt for the agents, and analytics that separate the launch from the rest. The pre-launch checklist holds the list; the conversion rate guide says what to measure once the visitors arrive.
The launch post itself has one shape that works everywhere: what it is in a sentence, who it is for, the problem in the founder's own words, what it does today, what it does not, the price, the ask. The guide shows it on a fictional product and lists the sentences to cut.
The order to read the guides, and the calendar
- First: SEO before launch, then how to write a launch post. They are the preparation.
- Then the day: Product Hunt, Hacker News, the small launch sites (Uneed, MicroLaunch, Dev Hunt and the others), one a week rather than all at once.
- Then the listings that keep ranking: startup directories, G2 and Capterra, AlternativeTo, the AI tool directories.
- Then the communities that take months: Indie Hackers, Reddit, BetaList for an early product.
- Then the reading: what a good SEO report contains, and the website conversion rate from the visit to the signup.
The calendar the guides suggest is one launch a week for six weeks, not six in a day: each site's audience is different, each day's feedback improves the next post, and a product that changed between launches has something new to say.
What to measure after each launch
Visitors by referrer for the day and the week after, signups by landing page, the branded searches in Search Console in the following month (the name typed into Google is the launch's longest echo), and the new referring domains in the Links report. A launch that brought a thousand visitors and no signups says something about the landing page, not about the launch; the conversion guides on this site take it from there.
Where the free check fits
The free check is the pre-launch read: the searches the product already appears on, the rivals on them, the sites that link to those rivals, and the home page's speed on a phone. The report keeps a listing sheet, the fields every directory asks for filled from the site itself, and a chapter on where to be listed, ranked by the audience behind each place; it names the directories and communities worth the hour and the ones to skip.
The guides, in the order to read them
31 guides on the theme, each on one question, each ending in your own figures.
- SEO before launch: the checklist for the week beforeGuide
Ship with search in place. This week-before checklist covers titles, canonicals, sitemaps, speed, structured data, llms.txt, key pages, and analytics.
- How to write a launch post people read to the endGuide
Use one structure that works on Hacker News, Product Hunt, Indie Hackers and your newsletter. With a worked example and the lines to cut.
- Launching on Product Hunt: a checklist that fits a weekGuide
What a Product Hunt launch is worth, how to prepare in a week, what to do on the day, and what to fix after to turn visitors into users.
- How to launch on Hacker News with a Show HN that survives the commentsGuide
Plan a Show HN that earns clicks, survives feedback and leaves a durable thread. Title, first comment, site readiness, timing, answers and follow‑up.
- The small launch sites: Uneed, MicroLaunch, Dev Hunt and the othersGuide
A plain plan to use MicroLaunch, Uneed, Dev Hunt and peers to reach the right crowd, pace launches weekly, and measure what worked after each.
- Startup directories worth an hour of your timeGuide
Where to submit your startup, what each place gives you, how to fill twenty forms in an hour, and which sites to skip.
- How to get listed on G2 and Capterra, and get the first reviewsGuide
Set up G2 and Capterra, pick categories, get real reviews within the rules, use badges, and know what paid placement buys and does not.
- How to get listed on AlternativeTo and be named as an alternativeGuide
How AlternativeTo works, how to submit your app, and how to be named as an alternative to your rivals so you climb the lists users and assistants read.
- AI tool directories: where to list an AI product and what it doesGuide
Where to list an AI product, how category pages get read by buyers and assistants, what to submit, and when paid placements are worth it.
- How to launch on Indie Hackers, and why the numbers post worksGuide
Launch on Indie Hackers with a story and figures, not a pitch. Set up your product page, write the numbers post, get feedback, and keep momentum.
- Reddit for founders: how to talk about your product without being removedGuide
How to promote a startup on Reddit without removals: where launches are allowed, what to write, how to disclose, and how to build trust first.
- How to get listed on BetaListGuide
Who BetaList is for, how to submit, how to write your one‑liner, what to expect, and the pages to have ready before your listing goes live.
- What a good SEO report contains, with an exampleGuide
See what a good SEO report contains, how it drives decisions, and a worked example on a product page you can copy for your next report.
- Website conversion rate: from the visit to the signupGuide
The plain formula, what to count as a conversion, why rates vary by page and search, the on-page fixes that move it, and how to measure it well.
- App Store Optimization for a product: search inside the storesGuide
How App Store and Google Play search works, what fields are indexed, how to do keyword research, and what to fix on your website to win installs.
- Brand search: the traffic you earn everywhere elseGuide
Why branded queries convert best, where the demand comes from, how to read yours in Search Console, and the pages that must win your own name.
- DIY SEO for a founder: what you can do alone, and what you cannotGuide
What DIY SEO covers in one hour a week, what needs help, and how to buy it without a retainer. A plain plan you can run yourself.
- Does a startup need SEO? A straight answer by stageGuide
When SEO is the wrong channel, when it is too early, and the twenty minutes of setup that is always worth it whatever stage you are at.
- Hiring an SEO freelancer: the brief, the questions, the deliverablesGuide
What to ask for when you hire an SEO freelancer, how to write the brief, what the outputs look like, and how to judge results after 90 days.
- How much SEO costs: the honest answer for a small productGuide
There is no average SEO price. Budget by the work and by the value of a search click, then choose retainer, project, hourly or a one‑off report.
- In-house SEO vs an agency vs nothing: the choice at each stageGuide
Decide between in-house, an agency, a freelancer or DIY. What to do pre-traffic, first traffic and growing, with costs in time and cash.
- SEO before you launch: what to get right while the site is still smallGuide
The four decisions that are expensive to change later, the pages that must exist on day one, and the long list you can safely ignore until you have users.
- An SEO budget for a small product: where the money goesGuide
Set an SEO budget that fits your plan. Size tools, writing, links and help, what to cut first, and how to judge spend on weekly KPIs.
- Do you need an SEO consultant? What one does, and the questions to askGuide
Decide if you need an SEO consultant, an agency, a one-off report or DIY. What each sells, the questions to ask, and the red flags to avoid.
- SEO for indie hackers: one person, one hour a week, real pagesGuide
A simple SEO plan for indie hackers: one hour a week, ship one page per pain, early comparison pages, first links from launch sites, and what to skip.
- SEO for a mobile app: the stores, and the website that still ranksGuide
Do ASO in the stores and build a site that still ranks: the brand, the category, the jobs and support pages, with app links and smart banners.
- An SEO roadmap for a new product: the first year by quarterGuide
Quarter by quarter plan for a small product: what to ship, what to measure, and what to expect from search without wasting months.
- SEO vs PPC for a small product: what each buys youGuide
What SEO and PPC each buy you, how long they take, which queries suit each, how to use paid data for organic pages, and a simple decision table.
- SEO vs SEM: the difference, and when a product needs bothGuide
SEO earns organic clicks over time. SEM buys clicks from an auction. Use paid to learn what converts, then build pages to keep those searches.
- The first thirty days after launching a siteGuide
Week by week: verification and the blocks, the listings, the first pages, the first links. What to measure, and the numbers that mean nothing yet.
- When to hire for SEO, and for whatGuide
The signals that you have outgrown doing it yourself, what to buy first, the questions that reveal method, and a trial that answers within a month.
The free tools
Each checks one thing on one page or one site, without an account, and says what it found in words.
- On-page SEO checkerFree tool
Paste a URL and get the page read as a crawler reads it: title, description, canonical, indexability, headings, alt text, links, share tags, what to fix first.
- Social preview checkerFree tool
Paste a URL and see the card a share produces on X, LinkedIn and Slack: the Open Graph tags read, the image fetched and measured, and what to fix first.
- Core Web Vitals checkerFree tool
Paste a URL for one Lighthouse run on a simulated phone: LCP, CLS, TBT and FCP against Google's thresholds, the biggest savings, the failing audits.
- llms.txt generatorFree tool
Write an llms.txt from your site or from a few fields, in sections, and check the one a site already has against the proposal, link by link.
- Sitemap checkerFree tool
Read a sitemap the way a crawler does: what it lists, how it is dated, whether robots.txt names it, and whether thirty of its addresses answer 200.
The words
What each term means for a small site, and what to do about it.
- Branded searchGlossary
Branded search means queries with your name in them. See why it signals marketing demand, how to split it in Search Console, and what to do next.
- Referring domainGlossary
A referring domain is a unique site that links to yours. Here is why the count matters more than backlink totals, how to check it, and what to do.
- Nofollow linkGlossary
What a nofollow link is, what changed in 2019, how to check rel values, when to use nofollow, sponsored or ugc, and the traps to avoid.
- Brand mentionGlossary
What brand mentions are, why they matter for a small site, how to find and measure them, and how to turn unlinked mentions into links.
- ListicleGlossary
A listicle is an article built as a list. See why best-of pages matter for products, what a good one includes, how to measure it, and what to avoid.
- Conversion rateGlossary
Conversion rate is conversions divided by eligible visits or visitors in a period. Learn how to define, measure and use it on a small site.
Questions
Hacker News if the product can be tried without a card and you can take candid comments; Product Hunt if you have images, a tagline and a day to answer. Not both on the same day: each audience is different and the second post is better for the first.
Not as links: most are nofollow and Google treats directories without editorial value as low-quality links. They are worth the audience, the listing page that ranks for your name, and the presence on the lists assistants read.
Ask real customers, through the sites' own campaigns, within their rules on incentives. A profile with three honest reviews outranks an empty one on the category page, and the category page is what a buyer and an assistant read.
In the subreddits that allow it, in the threads meant for it, after months of answering questions there and with a disclosure that you are the founder. Bare promotion is removed and the account banned; a founder who is useful first is welcome.
Check my site, free
Paste your URL and the check reads what your site already ranks on, who holds the rest, and how it loads on a phone, the week before you launch.
- Free check, no card
- Read-only, your own accounts
- Readable by your agent