A 30-Second Checklist Before Product Hunt

Product Hunt traffic is unforgiving in a specific way: it arrives all at once, it bounces fast, and most visitors will only see your hero. You do not need a perfect site. You need a site that does not visibly embarrass you in the first ten seconds.

1. Your primary CTA goes to a real route

Hunt voters hit the hero first. A 404 on “Get started” burns trust instantly, and they will not scroll down to forgive you. Click it from an incognito window before you submit.

2. Open Graph tags are filled in

Your launch post preview on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Hunt itself pulls from og:title, og:description, and og:image. If those are missing, your preview shows the generic framework default. Paste your URL into the Open Graph debugger before you launch.

<meta property="og:title" content="LaunchReadyCheck: instant launch audit" />
<meta property="og:description" content="Get a launch report for your AI-built app in 30 seconds." />
<meta property="og:image" content="https://yoursite.com/og.png" />

3. Privacy policy exists if you collect anything

If your site has an email field, a waitlist, or analytics, a privacy page is the bare minimum. Even a one-page policy generated from a free template beats a 404. Hunt moderators have flagged products for less.

4. Favicon and title are not the framework default

“Create Next App” in the browser tab is the single clearest tell that a launch was rushed. Replace the favicon and the <title> tag. Thirty seconds of work, outsized signal.

5. Nothing leaks in the page source

View source and search for sk_, secret, and the names of your providers. Anything that starts with sk_live_ or eyJ in a public bundle is a leaked credential, not a feature.