Launch: people, analytics, SEO
Lesson 25 of 26 in the course “Vibe coding”. Free, with animations and a quiz.
Pre-launch checklist
Example: your site for finding teammates is ready, and you want to drop the link in Discord. First, the five checks on the card. Phone: open the site on a phone, since most people will. Forms: submit each one and check the data arrived. 404: the page people see when an address doesn't exist on your site. Title: the name in the browser tab, next to the site icon (favicon). Policy: a short note about data.
Privacy policy and cookies
A privacy policy is a page that says in plain words what data you collect, why, and how to ask for it to be deleted. Rule: collect only what you really need. Nickname and favorite game, yes; passport and home address, no. Cookies are small files a site saves in the visitor's browser. In many countries some cookies need the person's consent, so look up the rules where your users live.
Analytics: where people drop off
Analytics means counting visits and actions on your site. At the bottom of the figure is a funnel: visits → sign-up → come back. Example: lots of people visited, few signed up, a handful returned. So the problem isn't that you invited too few people, it's the site itself: the path to sign-up is too hard. Privacy-friendly analytics exists: it doesn't follow people around the internet and counts visits without extra data.
SEO: so people can find you
SEO is everything that helps search engines understand your site and show it to people. Basics: a clear title and description (the short text under the link in search results), fast pages and real text about what the site does. A sitemap is a file listing your pages for search engines; ask the AI to make one. But search picks up slowly. Your first people will come from a link where your audience hangs out: Discord, a class chat, TikTok.
Feedback: the loop keeps going
Launch isn't the finish line. Add a simple feedback form or chat and watch what people actually do, not what you expected. Once a week pick the single biggest problem and fix it. It's the same loop from the first lesson: you describe it to AI → it writes code → you check. Example: three people wrote that they can't find the teammate search button. There's your task for the week.
Check yourself
- What does a 404 page show?
Correct answer: That this address doesn't exist on the site. 404 means the page doesn't exist, for example a typo in a link. A good 404 page tells people where to go next. - Lots of visits, few sign-ups. Where do you look first?
Correct answer: On the site itself: the path to sign-up. People already came, so getting them there works. They leave at the sign-up step, and that's what needs fixing. - What user data should you collect?
Correct answer: Only what the site really needs. The less data you hold, the less is at risk if something leaks. Data rules apply to small sites too.