The launch checklist most indie hackers skip (until it costs them)

You've been building for weeks. The product works. You're ready to tell the world. You write a tweet, hit publish, share the link — and then realize your OG image is broken, your payment flow errors on mobile, and Google can't find your site because you forgot a sitemap.

This happens constantly. Not because builders are careless, but because shipping a product and launching a product are two different skills. Building is about making something work. Launching is about making sure everything *around* the product works — the discovery, the first impression, the conversion, the follow-up.

Here's the checklist I wish every indie hacker would run through before announcing anything.

Before you touch code: the hard questions

Most failed launches fail before launch day. They fail when the builder skipped the uncomfortable questions:

**Who exactly is this for?** Not "developers" or "people who need productivity tools." One specific person with one specific problem. If you can't describe your customer in one sentence, you're not ready to launch — you're ready to do more research.

**How will they find it?** This is the question builders hate. Building is comfortable. Distribution is not. But a great product with zero distribution is a tree falling in an empty forest. Write down your top 3 channels before announcing anything.

**Why would they pay?** Free alternatives exist for almost everything. Your product needs to be meaningfully better at the specific thing your specific customer needs. "Better" can mean faster, simpler, more focused, or better designed — but it needs to be obvious.

The product readiness check

These seem obvious. They get skipped constantly.

Your core feature should work end-to-end. Not "mostly works." A brand-new user should be able to complete the primary task without asking you for help.

Error states need to be handled. What happens when something breaks? If the answer is a blank screen or a cryptic error message, fix it before launch. First impressions are permanent.

If you're charging money, buy your own product. Test the entire payment flow — on desktop and on mobile. Test what happens after payment: confirmation email, download link, access grant. Every step.

Loading states should exist for anything that takes more than 200ms. No frozen screens. A spinner or skeleton loader tells users the app is working. A frozen screen tells them it's broken.

Analytics must be installed before launch, not after. You need to know who's visiting and what they're doing from the first hour. Minimum: page views and conversion events. If you launch without analytics, you're flying blind during the most important window of your product's life.

The SEO foundation (30 minutes, outsized impact)

Organic search is the only marketing channel that compounds. Every other channel — ads, social, cold outreach — stops working when you stop doing it. SEO keeps working while you sleep. Spend 30 minutes on these basics:

**Title tags on every page.** Unique, descriptive, under 60 characters. This is your search result headline. Google truncates anything longer.

**Meta descriptions on every page.** Under 155 characters. Think of this as your search result ad copy. "Welcome to our website" tells nobody anything. "Free meta tag generator with live previews for Google, X, and LinkedIn" tells them exactly what they'll get.

**Open Graph tags.** og:title, og:description, og:image, og:url. These control how your link appears when shared on X, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, and iMessage. A shared link without an image gets dramatically fewer clicks. (If you need to generate these quickly, we built a free [Meta Tag Generator](/tools/meta) that previews how your page will look across platforms.)

**Sitemap and Google Search Console.** Create a sitemap.xml (most frameworks auto-generate this), then submit it at search.google.com/search-console. This tells Google your site exists. Without it, you're waiting for Google to discover you accidentally.

The landing page essentials

Your landing page has one job: convince a visitor to take action. Everything on the page either serves that goal or works against it.

**Clear value proposition above the fold.** Visitors decide in 5 seconds whether to stay or leave. If they have to scroll to understand what you offer, most of them won't.

**One primary CTA.** Not "buy now AND sign up for the newsletter AND follow on X AND join Discord." Pick the one action that matters most and make it visually dominant.

**Social proof.** Even one testimonial beats zero. If you don't have testimonials yet, use numbers (users, downloads, hours saved), your own story of building it, or early feedback from beta users.

**Pricing that's clear.** No hidden costs. No confusing tier comparisons for v1. One product, one price, one button. Reduce decision fatigue.

Content and distribution prep

Write your launch announcement *before* launch day. You'll be too nervous and distracted to write well on the day itself. Draft it now while you're excited about the product.

Identify your 3 distribution channels. Where does your audience already hang out? Go there. X, Reddit, Indie Hackers, Hacker News, Product Hunt, niche Slacks and Discords — pick 3, don't try to be everywhere.

Prepare screenshots or a demo. Show, don't tell. A 15-second GIF of your product in action is worth more than three paragraphs describing it.

Launch day itself

**Morning:** Post your primary announcement. Share on X. Email your list if you have one.

**Mid-morning:** Monitor for broken links, payment issues, bugs. Fix anything critical immediately.

**Midday:** Share on secondary platforms. Reddit (check subreddit rules first), Indie Hackers, relevant communities.

**Afternoon:** Engage with every comment, reply, and question. This is where relationships form. Don't just post and disappear.

**Evening:** Write a quick recap. What worked? What broke? Update your metrics.

The first 7 days matter more than launch day

Launch day gets all the attention, but the week after determines whether you have a business or a one-day story.

Check these daily: traffic sources (where are visitors coming from?), conversion rate (if under 2%, investigate your messaging), revenue, and user feedback.

Every piece of feedback falls into four categories: bugs (fix immediately), confusion (if multiple people are confused, it's a UX problem — fix the product), feature requests (log them, don't build yet), and praise (thank them, ask for a testimonial).

The meta-lesson

The difference between a successful launch and a failed one usually isn't the product. It's the preparation. The builders who ship successfully aren't more talented — they're more systematic. They've done the boring work of testing payment flows, writing meta tags, drafting announcements, and identifying distribution channels before the spotlight turns on.

If this list feels overwhelming, that's normal. You don't need to do everything perfectly. You need to do the starred items (analytics, payment testing, SEO basics, clear CTA) and as many of the others as time allows.

Want the complete version? [The Indie Launch Kit](https://aeonbuilds.gumroad.com/l/launch-kit) has the full 42-item checklist organized by category, plus a landing page copy framework, platform-specific launch guides for X, Product Hunt, Hacker News, Reddit, and Indie Hackers, and a 7-day post-launch action plan. $14 — less than you'll spend on coffee this week.