# GreenLns Project Memory

## Product/Funnel Decisions

- There is no Free tier anymore.
- The app should be treated as Pro/paywalled by default.
- Demo/fake scan should not be positioned as a free product tier.
- Planned Aha moment: allow limited real Plant-ID starter scans if implemented, but not as an ongoing Free plan.
- Health Check remains paid/Pro gated.
- Paid use case of interest: Standort-Check / Light Meter as a Pro feature.

## Browser Extensions Status
- **Chrome Extension (v1.0.1)**: Published & Live on the Chrome Web Store (`GreenLens – Plant Identifier & Care Tips`, publicly available as of August 2, 2026).
- **Firefox Add-on (v1.0.1)**: Published & Live on Mozilla Add-ons (`https://addons.mozilla.org/addon/greenlens-plant-identifier/`, approved August 6, 2026).



## AI-SEO Positioning and Query Signals (July 2026)

- Treat GreenLens primarily as a **plant diagnosis and next-step care app**, not only as a plant identifier: identify a plant from a photo, assess visible symptoms, recommend safe care actions, and support ongoing care/reminders.
- The core user question to serve across landing pages, answer blocks, and product copy is: **"What is wrong with my houseplant, and what should I do next?"**
- The strongest English intent clusters observed in AI-search research are commercial/comparative: `best plant diagnosis app`, `best AI plant diagnosis app`, `plant disease identifier app`, `best app to diagnose sick plants`, and `plant care app with disease diagnosis`.
- The strongest symptom language to target is: yellow leaves, brown spots, pests, drooping/wilting stems, and sick houseplants. Build useful symptom pages around these queries, each linking naturally to the diagnosis workflow.
- Key German intent opportunities: `Pflanzenkrankheiten App`, `kranke Pflanze erkennen`, `Pflanzendiagnose App`, `Zimmerpflanzen Schädlinge erkennen`, alongside existing plant-ID and care-app pages.
- The distinct GreenLens narrative is: **Symptom -> practical next step -> follow-up health check**. Support it with plant identification, individual care plans, and reminders.
- Likely comparison entities are PictureThis, Planta, Plantum, Plant Parent, PlantIn, and Agrio. Comparison content must be balanced, use transparent criteria, and avoid unsupported claims about competitors.
- Trust is a priority: GreenLens may be framed as newer with less independent evidence. Improve credibility with a visible methodology, honest diagnostic limitations and confidence handling, real App Store/Play Store signals, example diagnoses, and follow-up results.
- AI-citable content should use a direct answer beneath the H1, concise definition/method blocks, transparent feature or comparison tables, "Choose GreenLens if / not the right fit if" guidance, natural-language FAQs, visible update dates, and relevant internal links.
- This research is **directional query/crawl evidence only**. It does not establish keyword search volume, rankings, or diagnostic accuracy; validate priorities using Search Console, rank tracking, and user feedback before making performance claims.

## AI-SEO Citation Mechanism: Self-Citation vs Third-Party Citation (2026-07-22)

Analysis of a user-provided ChatGPT-search query log (multiple "best plant diagnosis app" variants) revealed the mechanism behind when GreenLens Pro gets cited vs omitted:

- **Generic head queries** ("best plant diagnosis app 2026", "best AI plant diagnosis app", "best plant disease identifier app", "best app to diagnose sick plants") make the model search for **third-party validation** of the established competitive set: App Store/Play Store listings, "official [App] features/pricing" for PictureThis, Planta, Plantum, PlantIn, Agrio. GreenLens has no independent footprint there yet, so on most of these variants no app is named with a source at all, or GreenLens appears only as a secondary "alternative" flagged with a "less independent testing" caveat.
- **Long-tail queries that closely echo GreenLens's own landing-page titles/slugs** ("plant care app with disease diagnosis" ~ `pflanzen-pflege-app` / `plant-identifier-app`) trigger the model to search for **"GreenLens Pro" by name directly** and crawl greenlenspro.com pages itself (self-citation), skipping third-party sources entirely.
- **Conclusion:** current AI visibility is 100% self-sourced (own domain only). This works for exact-match long-tail phrasing but does not scale to competitive head terms, where the model reaches for brands with independent corroboration instead. This validates and sharpens the existing "Off-Site AI-SEO Presence" plan in `audits/seo-ai-seo-roadmap.md` — the priority gap is not more on-site pages, it's building the third-party layer (App Store/Play Store reviews, independent roundups, Reddit/Quora mentions, YouTube) that the model pulls from on generic queries.
- **Next step when picking this up again:** run a fresh AI-visibility check (Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity) against the priority query list in `audits/seo-ai-seo-roadmap.md` → "AI Visibility Monitoring Plan", specifically noting for each query whether the citation is self-sourced (greenlenspro.com) or third-party, to track progress on closing the third-party gap.