Launch glossary

The words you run into while launching a product, each explained in a few plain sentences.

AI visibilityAI visibility is how often, and how accurately, a product is mentioned when people ask AI assistants about its category.
BacklinkA backlink is a link on another website that points to yours. Search engines read backlinks as a sign that other sites find your pages worth sending people to.
Beta launchA beta launch opens an unfinished product to outside users, on the understanding that it has rough edges and that their feedback will shape it.
Build in publicBuilding in public means sharing the making of a product as it happens: what you shipped, what broke, how many users and how much revenue you have.
Canonical URLA canonical URL is the address you tell search engines to treat as the main version of a page when the same content can be reached at several addresses. It is set with a link rel="canonical" tag.
ChurnChurn is the share of customers, or of revenue, that a subscription business loses in a period because people cancel or downgrade.
Directory submissionDirectory submission is the work of listing a product on startup and software directories: filling in its name, tagline, description, category and link on each one.
Dofollow linkA dofollow link is an ordinary link with no rel="nofollow", rel="sponsored" or rel="ugc" attribute. Search engines follow it and count it as a recommendation of the page it points to.
Domain Rating (DR)Domain Rating is a score from 0 to 100, made by the SEO tool Ahrefs, that estimates how strong a website's backlink profile is. Domain Authority is a similar score from Moz. Neither is used by Google.
Early adopterAn early adopter is someone who tries new products before most people do, accepting missing features and bugs in exchange for solving a problem sooner.
Generative engine optimization (GEO)Generative engine optimization is the practice of making a product or page likely to be cited or recommended in answers written by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews.
HunterA hunter is the person who posts a product to a launch platform. It can be the maker or someone else who found the product and thought it deserved a page.
Ideal customer profile (ICP)An ideal customer profile describes the kind of person or company that gets the most from your product and is most likely to pay for it.
IndexingIndexing is a search engine storing a page in its database after crawling it. Only indexed pages can appear in search results.
IndexNowIndexNow is a protocol that lets a website tell search engines the moment a page is added, changed or removed, so they crawl it right away. Bing and Yandex support it; Google does not.
Indie hackerAn indie hacker is someone who builds and sells software products on their own or in a very small team, funded by their own money or revenue instead of investors.
Launch badgeA launch badge is a small image a launch platform gives makers to put on their own site, usually reading "Featured on" or "Launched on" and linking back to the product's page on that platform.
Launch dayLaunch day is the day a product is announced publicly on a launch platform, a community or your own channels. On leaderboard platforms it is also the window in which votes count.
Launch platformA launch platform is a website where makers announce new products to an audience that comes looking for them. Each product gets a page, a place in a feed or leaderboard, and usually a link back to its own site.
llms.txtllms.txt is a plain Markdown file at the root of a website that summarises what the site is and links to its most useful pages, written for AI assistants to read.
Long-tail keywordA long-tail keyword is a longer, more specific search phrase, such as "invoicing app for freelance designers", that few people search but that says exactly what they want.
Micro-SaaSA micro-SaaS is a small subscription software product that solves one narrow problem for a specific group, typically run by one person or a tiny team.
Monthly recurring revenue (MRR)Monthly recurring revenue is the income a subscription business can expect every month from its active subscriptions. Annual plans are counted as one twelfth of their price per month.
Nofollow linkA nofollow link carries rel="nofollow", which tells search engines the linking site does not vouch for the page it points to. It passes little or no ranking credit.
Product HuntProduct Hunt is the largest launch platform: a daily leaderboard where new products are posted and ranked by upvotes, resetting every day at midnight Pacific time.
Programmatic SEOProgrammatic SEO is building many search-targeted pages from one template and a dataset, such as a page for every city, every integration or every "X vs Y" pair, instead of writing each by hand.
Referral trafficReferral traffic is the visitors who reach your site by clicking a link on another website, as opposed to arriving from a search engine, an ad, or by typing your address.
Search intentSearch intent is what a person wants when they type a query: to learn something, to find a particular site, to compare options, or to buy.
Show HNShow HN is the part of Hacker News where people share something they have made that others can try. A post titled "Show HN: …" appears in its own list and can reach the front page.
SitemapA sitemap is a file, usually at /sitemap.xml, that lists the pages of a website so search engines can find them without having to follow links to each one.
Soft launchA soft launch is releasing a product quietly to a small group before announcing it widely, to find problems while few people are watching.
Startup directoryA startup directory is a website that lists products by category so people can browse or search for a tool. Unlike a launch platform, it has no launch day: a listing is meant to be found months later.
TaglineA tagline is the single line that says what a product is and who it is for. It sits under the name on a landing page, a launch platform and a directory listing.
UpvoteAn upvote is a single click from a signed-in visitor saying they like a product. On leaderboard-style launch platforms, the products with the most upvotes in a day or week rank highest.
WaitlistA waitlist is a signup form that collects email addresses from people who want a product before it is available, so they can be invited when it opens.