You finally shipped the app. It works. The landing page looks good. You've written the README, fixed the mobile layout and made sure the signup flow doesn't crash.
Now imagine someone arriving from a search result, a recommendation or a shared link. They don't know the product name, your tech stack or the story behind the build.
Can they work out what your app actually helps them do?
That's a different test from whether the app works. And it's one you can run on almost any side project in ten minutes.
1. The two-minute stranger test
Open your homepage and pretend you have never seen it.
Without scrolling, try to answer:
- Who is this for?
- What task can they finish with it?
- What should they do next?
Consider these two descriptions for a fictional product:
An intelligent productivity platform that transforms financial workflows.
And:
Draft polite payment reminders for overdue freelance invoices. Review each message before you send it.
The second description is narrower. That's a strength. It identifies a user, a job and a boundary. It also gives the reader enough information to decide whether to keep exploring.
Fix: Rewrite your headline as a concrete outcome. Keep the broad category in supporting text if it is genuinely useful, but don't make visitors decode it first.
2. The two-minute search-language test
Developers often describe software in terms of how it was built: "AI-powered", "serverless", "open source", "RAG-based" or "workflow automation".
Those details can matter. But a potential user may describe the problem instead:
- "remind clients about unpaid invoices"
- "turn a meeting recording into action items"
- "find a free tool to combine PDF files"
Write down two phrases someone might type before they know your product exists. Then check whether your page answers those phrases in ordinary language.
This isn't a reason to stuff keywords into a page. Google's SEO Starter Guide recommends helpful, descriptive content and wording people actually use. It doesn't promise that adding a phrase will produce rankings.
Fix: Use the visitor's task in your main explanation and support it with details about how the product handles that task.
3. The two-minute HTML test
Open your page source or inspect the initial HTML. Look for a specific title, useful description and a clear heading.
A hypothetical invoice-reminder app might use:
<title>Payment Reminder Drafts for Freelancers | Example App</title> <meta name="description" content="Prepare and review polite reminder emails for overdue freelance invoices. Copy the draft into your own email client." /> <h1>Write a payment reminder without starting from scratch</h1> <p>For freelancers who need to follow up on overdue invoices.</p> The point isn't that these exact words are special. It's that they describe the same real capability consistently.
If you use React or Next.js, check what appears in the actual page output rather than assuming that the right component or metadata object guarantees the result.
Google's developer SEO guide specifically recommends descriptive titles, useful meta descriptions and meaningful text in semantic HTML.
Fix: Make the title, description, heading and visible explanation agree. Only describe features the product actually has.
4. The two-minute trust test
A visitor can understand your promise and still have good reasons not to try your app.
Check whether they can find answers to the questions that matter for your particular product:
- Can I see an actual example or screenshot of the output?
- Is the product free, paid or limited by a trial?
- Does it require an account or payment card?
- Where does my data go, and what does the product do with it?
- Which platforms or file formats does it support?
You don't need five new marketing sections. A screenshot, an honest limitation and a visible pricing or privacy link may answer more than another paragraph of adjectives.
Fix: Show evidence for the main claim and make important limits easy to find. If you don't have customer testimonials or independent reviews, don't invent them.
5. The two-minute next-step test
Suppose the person is interested. What happens now?
If the only call to action is "Get started", they may still not know what happens after clicking it.
A more informative action could be "Try a sample reminder", "See an example report" or "View a demo"—but only if that action genuinely exists.
Follow the link yourself. Does it lead to the promised experience? Is signup necessary? Is there an unexpected paywall? Does the page work on mobile?
Fix: Make the next step reflect the visitor's task, not just your conversion goal.
What this test does not solve
A clearer landing page will not, by itself, create demand. It won't guarantee search indexing, higher rankings or new customers. Distribution, product quality and market fit still matter.
But clearer information does help someone decide whether your app is worth a closer look. That's a useful improvement even before you have meaningful traffic.
The next test is better done with another human: show them the page without explaining it and ask, "What do you think this does, and who would use it?" If their answer differs from your intention, the gap is worth investigating.
Why I'm interested in this problem
I'm working on AGMAN, a discovery and digital distribution network for useful products, professionals, creators, services, companies and communities. One of the questions behind the product is how to help people find something relevant to their actual need, rather than just browse more names and categories.
That is also why I think describing a project precisely is part of building it, not a task to leave until after launch.
A question for other developers: If you remove the product name from your homepage, can someone still tell what your app does? Feel free to share the one-sentence description without a link. It could be useful to compare how different people interpret it.
Transparency: This draft was prepared with AI assistance. The example product is fictional. Please review the article against your own experience before publishing.
