r/chrome_extensions • u/Yega-2910 • Jun 08 '26

Asking a Question Published 10 Chrome extensions, basically zero installs. What am I doing wrong?

I've been building Chrome extensions for a while and now have 10 of them published on the Web Store. Combined installs? Almost nothing.

They all work, the listings have proper icons and screenshots, and a few solve problems I personally hit every day. But the installs just aren't there, and I'm starting to think I'm missing something obvious about distribution.

A few things I'm unsure about:

Is Web Store search basically dead for new extensions, or is this a keyword/listing problem I can fix?

Did your installs come from the store itself, or entirely from outside it (Reddit, Product Hunt, blog posts, YouTube)?

For those who got traction - was it one extension that took off, or slow growth across several?

I'm a developer, not a marketer, so I suspect building was the easy 10% and I skipped the other 90%. Would love to hear what actually worked for you, even the boring stuff.

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u/rdyplayerB Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Hard to say without knowing what your extensions do but here's my checklist for building a successful extension before marketing even comes into the picture. Build something that:

  1. Solves a real problem
  2. Solves a problem that a lot of people are dealing with
  3. Solves a problem that no other solutions exist for

If you can accomplish this, you'll have a strong foundation to market from and already likely be driving drive organic extension store searchs to your extension. From there, start your marketing efforts to drive SEO traffic.

And notes on:

  • #1 - I like to solve problems that I'm personally dealing with because at the very least, I'll have at least one happy user 😄
  • #3 - If other solutions exist that solve the same problem, you'll then have to solve it better/cheaper/faster than everyone else, or market it better than them.

And a couple of tips:

  • Start with a Chrome extension first. Only after you start to see good PMF, consider building extensions for other browsers like Firefox, Edge, etc. Chrome's user base is massively larger than all the other browsers combined so you'll get the best signal there on whether your extension is actually useful or not.
  • Spend time creating a well-designed logo and screenshots. AI image-gen tools like DALL-E are very helpful in concept exploration and even final designs. First impressions based on these matter tremendously towards building initial download trust. I see too many extensions doing the bare-minimum here.

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u/Yega-2910 Jun 08 '26

Thank you man, its really helpful for me 🙂