Why your ChatGPT plugin isn’t showing up in search, and how to fix it

Is your plugin live in the directory yet?

Search the directory for your plugin’s exact name. If nothing comes up, the directory isn’t showing your plugin yet, or it was removed.

New plugins take a while to go public. Most of the plugins we see appear two to five weeks after they were created, so a plugin that’s a few days old and missing from search is normal.

If the name search finds your plugin, it’s live, and the problem is the words in your listing.

How ChatGPT directory search picks plugins

Two fields do most of the work: the plugin’s name and its tagline, the short line under the name.

• Nearly 9 in 10 plugins in the top 10 of a search have the search term in their name or tagline.
• A plugin that mentions a term in its description and nowhere else shows up for that term in fewer than 1 in 100 cases.
• In about 7 in 10 searches, the #1 plugin has the term in its name.

Descriptions carry little weight. Dozens of live plugins describe themselves as working with spreadsheets, none puts “spreadsheet” in a name or tagline, and a search for “spreadsheet” returns no plugins at all. “Newsletter” and “scraping” behave the same way.

Result lists are short, too. A typical search returns fewer than ten plugins, so a matching name or tagline puts you on the first screen, and a missing word keeps you off the list.

Write a name and tagline that match real searches

Lead with the word a user types for the job your plugin does. Keep it plain: users search “invoice”, “crm” or “meeting notes”, and they don’t search for your slogan.

• Name: if you’re still choosing one, add the category word after your brand. Names take the top spots.
• Tagline: put one or two search words in its first half. Taglines carry most matches in positions 4 to 10.
• Skip category names. Searches such as “developer tools” or “business & operations” return nothing. Target the job your plugin does.

Pick searches you can win

Some terms belong to big names. OpenAI’s own plugins make up about 1% of the directory and hold about one in eight top-3 spots. If OpenAI or a large brand owns your main term, go for a narrower one where #1 is open: “expense reports” over “finance”, “meal planner” over “food”.

Check who leads in your area on the topic leaderboards before you rewrite your tagline.

Don’t count on category pages

New plugins land near the bottom of their category page, around 80% of the way down the list. About one in eight plugins never appears on a category page at all. For a new plugin, search is the main way in.

Make the listing convert once people find it

Search brings people to your listing page, and the page decides whether they install. Plugins in top-3 spots show screenshots more often than the rest of the directory (40% against 29%), so add them. Write example prompts that show the job your plugin does, and use the description to answer what a user wants to know before installing: what it connects to, what it can change, what it costs.

Why a plugin drops in search

Rankings in the directory hold steady from day to day. When yours moves, look for one of these causes:

• A new plugin arrived with the term in its name.
• A competitor rewrote its name or tagline.
• You changed your own name or tagline.
• The directory removed your plugin.

The change feed shows new plugins and listing edits, so you can match a drop to its cause.

Checklist

1. Search your exact name to confirm the plugin is live.
2. Write down 3 to 5 words your users type for the job.
3. Put the main word in your tagline, and in your name if you can still change it.
4. Replace slogans with plain words.
5. Pick a narrower term if a big brand owns the broad one.
6. Add screenshots and example prompts.
7. Check your positions after every listing change.

Next: how to track your plugin’s rankings and competitors.