Building FriendRank in public: from MVP to AI-first discoverability
Hey Indie Hackers 👋
I've been quietly building FriendRank, a free browser-based game where groups vote anonymously on funny prompts and discover surprising roles like Main Character, Chaos Agent or Secret Villain.
Instead of rushing into marketing, I've decided to focus on building a solid foundation first.
Over the past couple of weeks I've been working on:
• Improving the homepage messaging
• Implementing GA4, Vercel Analytics and Microsoft Clarity
• Strengthening technical SEO
• Making the product easier for both Google and AI assistants to understand
• Creating evergreen content hubs for long-term discoverability
• Building what I hope becomes a real "search moat" instead of chasing short-term traffic
The goal isn't to go viral overnight.
It's to build something that compounds over time.
I'd love to share progress here as I continue building FriendRank, and I'm always interested in learning how other founders approach growth and discoverability.
If anyone else is building consumer web products, I'd love to follow your journey too.
I like the distinction between building for discoverability and building for virality.
A lot of founders treat SEO and AI visibility as traffic channels, but they can also become part of the product's defensibility. If people consistently discover FriendRank at the moment they're looking for group games, that compounds in a way launch-day spikes never do.
Appreciate it @aryan_sinh, that's exactly how I see it. I'm treating SEO and AI visibility less as marketing channels and more as product infrastructure. The goal is to become the answer whenever someone is looking for this type of game, not just on launch week.
Interesting.
Your reply made me think less about discoverability itself and more about what the product quietly commits itself to once distribution becomes part of the product rather than something layered on afterward.
I don't think I can explain that line of reasoning properly in a thread without oversimplifying it.
If you're interested, what's the best email to reach you on?
Hey Aryan, I'd prefer to keep communication here and happy to continue the discussion in this thread if you have more thoughts. Thanks.
Happy to.
The short version is that once distribution becomes part of the product itself, it starts influencing product decisions in ways that aren't obvious at first.
That's the direction my thinking was heading. I won't try to compress the full reasoning into a thread, but I found that consequence more interesting than the SEO side itself.
Tnx. That's exactly where I ended up as well. Once distribution becomes a product constraint instead of a marketing activity, it starts shaping what you build, how you structure content and even which features deserve to exist. I think we're only starting to see that shift. Cheers