What affects Chrome Store download the most?
We have been building chrome store extension, and was wondering what affects Chrome Store extension download the most?
We do feel that reviews, install, retentions and keywords are biggest influencers but not sure if these are correlation or causation. So, wanted to get your feedback.
Some questions:
- Has reviews have a big influence on ranking?
- Does net retention (install - uninstall), that has an effect on ranking? Or is it install?
- How does keyword affect download numbers?
- Does badges and length of dev account affect ranking numbers.
What has been your experience?
Our experience:
- Retention (install-uninstall) has a big influence . Install numbers by itself now.
- Keywords has influence if you target.
- Reviews, not that much influence in our experience.
What has been your experience?
Trending on Indie Hackers
Hi @zombiebyte19,
From my observation, the biggest ranking factor is the weekly active users (i.e., your Retention (install-uninstall)). Across all categories and collections, the number of weekly active users tend to be one of the biggest ranking factor. e.g., https://chrome-stats.com/col/chrome-dev-tools-extensions, https://chrome-stats.com/col/top_picks_search-tools
Another important ranking factor is whether the extension is featured. e.g., https://chrome-stats.com/col/top_picks_news, the first set of extensions have the featured badge, then the non-featured extensions show up. This allows extensions with lower weekly active users to rank higher. Learn more: https://blog.google/products/chrome/find-great-extensions-new-chrome-web-store-badges/. All featured extensions: https://chrome-stats.com/featured (Update: it appears that some of the non-featured extensions have now become featured as well).
Another factor is relevance. Optimizing the summary and description can help improve ranking a little.
From my personal experience, being featured on one of the top collections on Chrome Web Store will have the most significant impact on getting higher impressions, which will in turn help with getting higher installations. Unfortunately this is a blackbox. Developers don't have much control over.
Reviews does not seem to affect ranking. However, it might attract users to install your extensions (or discourage them from doing so), which can then affect your active user count.
Disclosure: I am the author behind https://chrome-stats.com/ and https://modheader.com/
@hao1300
What about the reputation of the developer account? Do you think that plays a factor?
Also, has something changed in the last many months with the chrome store. I remember that previously as soon as I launch a new extension with dev account I get around 5 downloads a day, not a days when I launch a new extension with new dev account it is usually 0 downloads.
I have a verified dev badge on one of the account, so was wondering if it will help if I move the new extension there?
@hao1300
Will do. Trying to run some experiements to test this out. Lets see.
My experience with recent extensions has been different from the earlier ones. So, trying to see what makes the difference.
Sorry @zombiebyte19, I don't really know the answer to your question myself. If you find out, please let me know!
Really great information! I just started my journey building chrome extensions (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/single-dispatch-command-p/ebphfkpocnckimopiifpfpnnieolonkk) and have been wondering this myself. Is there any actionable advice on how to get featured? It sounds like they are editorial picks and there isn't much we can do besides making sure the chrome store listing is complete and accumulating a decent user base/reviews.
Sadly the editorial pick is really arbitrary. To get the "Featured" badge, you may need to nominate your extension on https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/contact/one_stop_support?hl=en. There are extensions with just 1 active user and 0 reviews that get the "Featured" badge, e.g.,: https://chrome-stats.com/d/jhoajhciokddgmhgdfbomjgighcogkio, https://chrome-stats.com/d/edffdlmkccmgemfjaibkimhceidneaol. So if you apply now, chances are you can get a "Featured" badge too.
As to how the editor picks the extension to be in one of the collection - it is more or less a game of luck. Having a large user base with good description may increase your chances, but there is no guaranteed way to get featured in a collection.
Thanks for the link! I didn't know about that form. Also thanks for those examples. I checked out chrome-stats.com. It looks very useful. :)
Hi @hao1300
Wow, this a goldmine of information. Really appreciate you taking the time for this :)