Built in public.

What changed, and why.

A clear record of the features, payment milestones, and product improvements shipped since MakeThemRank launched.

LaunchedAugust 24, 2026Payments verifiedAugust 25, 2026
  1. Feature

    Live traffic across the map

    The homepage now shows where recent visitors are arriving from without exposing precise locations.

    • Added a wide rounded-square world map between the introduction and submission form.
    • Shows broad locations for real, bot-filtered visitors active within the last five minutes.
    • Rounds coordinates on the server and removes visitor identities before map data reaches the browser.
    • Added responsive spacing, touch-safe markers, reduced-motion behavior, and dedicated light and dark colors.
  2. Improvement

    Reliable website details and categories

    Website submissions can now continue when a site blocks automatic metadata, while owners keep control of the public details.

    • Kept direct website metadata and high-resolution icon discovery as the first step for every submission.
    • Added a fallback that uses Unavatar for the logo, the domain for the initial product name, and no invented description.
    • Added editable product name and description fields before payment whenever website details cannot be fetched.
    • Added AI categorization and up to three short tags after a product name and description are available. Existing categories are preferred, with a clear new category created only when none fits.
    • Added account controls for fallback product names, descriptions, custom logos, and owner-selected or newly created categories.
  3. Improvement

    SEO and AI discovery improvements

    Active listings now provide clearer crawlable context for search engines and AI answer systems, strengthening the foundation for SEO and GEO.

    • Every active listing has a canonical public profile with one stable URL for sharing, indexing, and citation.
    • Crawlable category and tag pages create internal links that help search engines and AI systems discover related listings.
    • Structured JSON, OpenAPI, sitemap, and LLM resources make public listing details easier for machines to understand.
    • Consistent referral attribution shows whether visits came from the leaderboard, a listing profile, a reclaim card, or a sponsor placement.
    • Published this changelog and reorganized the desktop and mobile footer so important pages are easier to reach.
    • These improvements may support better search visibility, entity association, AI citations, and referral traffic, but they do not guarantee higher search rankings.
  4. Payments

    Dodo Payments verification completed

    Our payment-provider account was reviewed and verified for live operation.

    • Prepared live payment configuration separately from development credentials.
    • Kept payment activation behind signed webhooks and idempotent processing.
    • Retained the live-board recheck before checkout so a stale quote cannot silently claim a position.
  5. Feature

    Live presence and the comeback window

    The board now shows active visitors and gives a displaced protected leader a visible five-minute chance to reclaim #1.

    • Added the real-time online count in the top badge.
    • Added the former top bidder card with a live timer and reclaim price.
    • Kept the reclaim offer tied to the owner account and the five-minute deadline.
  6. Feature

    Sponsorships and a live click feed

    Sponsors gained a dedicated marketplace while public listing activity became easier to follow.

    • Added a rotating premium sponsor placement and public sponsor marketplace.
    • Added the live click feed with a focused page for recent public activity.
    • Marked paid outbound links clearly for visitors, crawlers, and analytics.
  7. Improvement

    Public profiles and better product identity

    Every active listing received a canonical profile with clearer machine-readable context and sharper website icons.

    • Added public profile pages with rank, current bid, description, tags, and public bid history.
    • Added JSON, OpenAPI, sitemap, and LLM discovery resources.
    • Improved website icon discovery to prefer larger, cleaner source images.
  8. Launch

    MakeThemRank launched

    The first public version of the paid leaderboard went live with transparent ranking rules.

    • Launched the public leaderboard for apps, products, websites, and creator profiles.
    • Added permanent bids, minimum outbid rules, #1 Shields, and the comeback flow.
    • Added email-code account access, public rules, terms, statistics, and listing management.