Product Hunt launch checklist: the landing page

A launch-day visitor came from a listing, not a search. They have the listing's one-line description in mind, and they compare it with your first heading in a few seconds. If the words differ, they assume the link is wrong or the product has changed. The page has to show its first screen before a video, a chat widget or a cookie banner takes the space, because a phone on a crowded train will not wait. A page built and checked on a fast laptop, with the cache warm and by someone who already knows the product, can pass every check and still fail a stranger on a phone.

• The first heading uses the same noun and promise as the listing's one-line description.
• The main button sits above the fold on a phone, before any video starts loading.
• A cookie notice or chat widget leaves the button reachable, with its close control in view.
• The button label says what the click does, in words close to the listing's.
• The launch link, with its campaign tag, loads the same page as the plain address.

Open the listing in one tab and your page in another, and read them side by side. Your main heading should carry the same noun and the same promise, in the same order. A heading that reads Work, simplified for teams, next to a listing about invoices for freelancers, makes the visitor doubt the link. Change the heading, not the listing, because people have already read the listing in the feed. Then check the first button. If the listing promises a free start, the button should say so in those words, rather than Request access.

Landing page testing

A hero video can be the heaviest thing on the page, and on a phone it can push the main button below the fold until the video has loaded. On a slow connection the first screen is a blank panel, and a visitor who sees a blank panel may leave before the headline draws. Check the first screen with the video blocked, either by loading a copy of the page without it or by blocking media in your browser. Then check the order on a phone: headline, button, and only then the video. A video placed below the first button leaves the first screen free, and the visitor who wants it can still scroll down.

Launch-day traffic includes people who have never seen your site, so the first cookie notice they meet covers part of the page. If the notice sits over the main button and has no close control in view, the visitor cannot reach the button, and the page shows no error. A sign-up modal can fail the same way on a phone if it cannot scroll, leaving the form under the browser's bottom bar. Test from a fresh browser that has no stored choices. Note whether the notice can be dismissed, whether the button is reachable under it, and whether the form stays usable when the keyboard opens.

A test cannot tell you where your listing ranks, how many people will see it, or whether anyone will vote for it. Those depend on the platform and on people you cannot simulate. What the test shows is what happens after the click: whether the visitor reads the same promise, reaches the first button and gets to sign-up. Run it against the exact link you put in the listing, including any campaign tag, so it follows the path your visitors take.

After launch, people edit the page, and a new headline can drift from the listing. Compare the two again after each edit, and run a visitor from the launch link through the page after each change. A test account, given with paid credits, can reach a demo behind a login, so a visitor can try the product itself and not only read about it. Check every preview copy before its link goes to the team.