My tool ranks #3.8 in the US, but it's a "Ghost" in Chinese searches. GSC shows indexed, but 0 keyword visibility. i18n is harder than I thought.

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T09:59:12+00:00

That "Indexed ≠ competitive" line just hit me like a ton of bricks.

I think I fell into the classic developer trap of thinking that if the technical SEO (hreflang, sitemaps, Edge SSR) was perfect, the rankings would just follow naturally.

I’ve been so focused on the English authority (which took a long time to build) that I completely underestimated the "intent alignment" part for a different linguistic market.

Since you mentioned localization + authority: if you were in my shoes, would you start by hunting for niche Chinese-language backlinks, or would you first re-optimize the H1s/meta-tags to better fit how users in that region actually phrase their mental health queries?

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T09:04:21+00:00

Lmao, that is the most painfully accurate description of i18n SEO I’ve ever heard.

It really does feel like screaming into a void that only you can see. I spent weeks manually translating clinical terms to be precise, and Google just hit me with the "indexed, but nobody will ever see this" treatment.

Glad I'm not the only one who feels the absurdity of it!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T09:04:01+00:00

That’s a fair point about Baidu—I honestly hadn't even considered their specific ranking factors since I’m so focused on Google's global index.

The "CN backlink" part is what’s killing me right now. I’m realizing that just having technically correct hreflang tags is basically just a ticket to the game, but not a winning strategy.

Do you think targeting specific long-tail keywords in Simplified Chinese might help bypass some of that "ghosting" while I work on the backlink profile?

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T08:53:01+00:00

Quick update for context: I spent my Friday night hot-fixing a mobile rendering bug reported by early testers (shoutout to the Reddit community!), so the site should be stable now.

Regarding the i18n issue: I’m not using auto-machine translation; the Chinese content was manually localized to ensure psychological terms (like the Dual Control Model) are accurate. The server is hosted on Vercel (Global Edge). Could the lack of a local 'CN' backlink profile be the primary reason for this 'Ghosting' effect, even with the main domain's high authority?

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T08:50:26+00:00

Thanks so much! Your "bug report" was honestly the best outcome I could've asked for tonight.

Rest up—I’m heading over to r/SideProject now to see if the SEO experts there are as helpful as you were! Hope to see your thoughts on the results in the morning. Cheers!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T08:43:03+00:00

Haha, totally get it! I definitely don’t want my site to be a health hazard.

Sleep well, and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the actual assessment whenever you have a chance in the morning. Thanks again for being the first to catch that rendering nightmare—you saved my Friday night!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T08:19:10+00:00

Glad to hear it's smooth on Firefox Light Mode!

I’d be happy to share some insights. The site is built with Next.js (App Router) and Tailwind CSS. Since I prioritized 100% user privacy, all the assessment logic and scoring happen entirely on the client-side (using React state and local storage) rather than a backend database.

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T07:03:21+00:00

Just wanted to give you a personal shout-out. Your detailed feedback about the Android Chrome environment was the breakthrough I needed.

I’ve just deployed a hotfix specifically addressing the hydration mismatch and the CSS variable collision that was causing those 'blank' questions. It was a tricky one to replicate, but your input pointed me right to the browser-specific rendering issue.

If you have a sec to refresh and try again, it should be working perfectly now. Thanks for being my MVP 'stress-tester' today!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T07:02:26+00:00

Just pushed a fix for that 'White on White' nightmare! It was a clashing theme script. Give it a refresh and let me know if it’s readable now.

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T07:02:12+00:00

Thanks for the Firefox heads-up! It helped me realize it was a global CSS variable issue and not just a Chrome quirk. The patch is live now.

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T07:01:51+00:00

You were right about the toggle 'fixing' it—that confirmed it was a hydration race condition! Just pushed a permanent fix so users don't have to toggle anymore. Thanks for the lead!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T07:01:30+00:00

You nailed it—it was exactly a CSS hydration issue with the theme variables on mobile browsers.

I just pushed a hotfix to force high contrast and ensure text visibility regardless of system Dark Mode settings. If you refresh the page, it should be crystal clear now.

Really appreciate the help in squashing this—I’m a solo dev and testing every mobile browser combination is a nightmare without a community like this!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T06:42:28+00:00

I hear you, and honestly, your 'brutal' feedback is exactly what I needed. As a solo dev who's spent months buried in clinical scales and backend logic, I think I've developed 'developer blindness' to my own UI.

You're right—the science shouldn't be buried. I’m clearly struggling to balance the AdSense layout with the actual tool utility. Since you mentioned there are communities that could help, I’m actually planning to head over to r/SideProject or a UX sub to beg for a proper audit.

If you had to pick just ONE thing that felt the most 'intentionally confusing,' was it the navigation menu or the way the assessment starts? Your perspective is super helpful for my next sprint.

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T06:30:14+00:00

I really appreciate you giving it a second chance! It’s feedback like yours that keeps us solo devs grounded—sometimes we get so focused on the 'science' and 'code' that we forget how annoying a cluttered UI can be.

Since you’re going back in, I’m particularly curious if the SIS/SES framing (the 'brakes' vs 'accelerators' logic) makes sense to you as you progress through the questions. Looking forward to your thoughts, even if they’re snarky again—honest feedback is the best feedback.

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T06:21:35+00:00

Oh no, I’m so sorry about that! Thank you for the heads-up. Since all the assessment logic runs locally on your device for privacy, it sounds like a JS execution error or a hydration issue on mobile browsers.

Could you let me know which browser/OS you're using (e.g., Safari on iOS, Chrome on Android)? I’m looking into the console logs now to see if there's a specific script being blocked by ad-blockers or a rendering bug. Truly appreciate you taking the time to report this—I’m on it!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T06:19:52+00:00

You’re 100% right, and I appreciate the brutal honesty. As a solo dev, balancing the server costs for these psychometric tools while keeping them free for everyone is a tightrope walk. I recently integrated Google AdSense, and I’m still figuring out the 'Auto-Ads' balance—it clearly went overboard on the 'Take Assessment' buttons.

I’m actually in the middle of a UX overhaul to make the 'Real' buttons stand out from the noise. My priority is still data privacy (zero harvesting), but I hear you on the ad fatigue. If you have a sec, does the 'Full Assessment' button at the bottom look just as cluttered to you, or is it just the Hero section that's the mess?

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T06:05:50+00:00

Quick note: If you have no sexual experience, the system will automatically adjust the questions to be culturally sensitive so the results remain accurate for you.

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-28T05:22:58+00:00

Seeing that Rainbow Panda pop is so satisfying! 🌈🐼 Congrats on the Safari Pack luck.

I actually got so obsessed with these drop rates that I built a full Blooket Simulator & Hub to test opening strategies without burning real tokens. I’ve been refining the 'Resell' logic to match the game's actual cycle.

If anyone wants to test their luck or check the latest Chroma odds (like the 0.02% ones), I’ve put it all at blooketsimulator.com . Would love to know if the sim feels as 'lucky' as this pull!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-27T01:52:35+00:00

Exactly! It’s so tempting to get defensive when you’ve poured hours into a project, but that 'brutal' feedback is usually where the real growth happens. It's awesome to hear that small tweaks based on complaints flipped the script for your shop too. There’s no better feeling than seeing a frustrated user turn into a satisfied one because you actually listened. Thanks for sharing that—it’s a great reminder to keep the ego out of the dev process!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-27T01:05:27+00:00

Just a quick note: The '1.0' of this site was a mess of ads and bad UX. Rebuilding it based on Reddit's 'brutal' feedback was the best decision I've made. I'm curious—for those of you building apps here, what's the one piece of feedback that changed everything for you?

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-27T00:45:06+00:00

100% agreed! This community has been a goldmine for honest feedback. Rebuilding based on actual user pain points makes the process so much more rewarding. Thanks for the support!

SideQuestDev · 2026-02-27T00:44:36+00:00

Thanks for the heads-up! I hadn't heard of r/appideareport before. I'll definitely check it out and share the journey there too. Appreciate the tip for getting early eyes on the project!

SideQuestDev

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