Media Placeholders
by Weston Ruter · Uncategorized
Also makes 29 other plugins · 337K+ installs across the portfolio →
Redirect requests to non-existent uploaded images to a placeholder service like placehold.it or placekitten.com. For use during development.
Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.
Health
D 45/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews
Active installs
60+
≈66 estimated
Momentum
-25%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: “404”, “development” and “images” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.
45 health vs 58 average across 25,755 Uncategorized plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →1.5%
of downloads still active
At least 60 of 4K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,772 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.
High removal-risk signals
63/100Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.
- Long abandoned. No update in 11+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 3.6.1, well behind 6.8.
Details
Directory ranking optimization
How it's scored →How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.
Under-optimized
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 4267 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 3.6.1; the current branch is 6.8
5.0★ over 2 reviews, smoothed to 4.13★ and held back under 25 reviews
5 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 4267 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Search visibility
How it's tracked →Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.
32
Momentum
Losing ground
-0.3
Velocity
places per keyword, 24d
0%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 24d
0.0
Acceleration
recent half vs earlier
wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.
| Keyword | wp.org | On merit | wp.org move, 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 404 your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| development your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| images your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| placeholders your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| uploads your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
4 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 0 listed. 4 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 5 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- “404”, “development” and “images” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.
Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,489 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 154 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
Ranked about #19,000 to #20,000, alongside the other plugins at 60+ installs. Plugins with the same install count swap places between wp.org requests, so this is where most of them sit. Checked monthly, last on 1 Nov 2026.
Update activity
Downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites.
Not enough installs to measure. This needs at least 100 active sites; below that, a handful of downloads reads as tens of thousands.
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “60+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 5 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 61% of the way through.
Install history since 8 Sep 2015
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ holgerhubbs11.1y ago
Thank you!
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Robert Neu11.7y ago
This is a real time saver if you’re working on a development version of a site with a large media library. Pulling down a copy of the site’s media is both time consuming and pointless 99% of the time. This handy plugin saves you the time of pulling down images or the hassle of making your own workaround via htaccess or WordPress filters. Very nice!
Read on wp.org ↗
AI assistants
How it's measured →Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.
Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.
Readme readiness
4 of 8 pass · checked 28 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ✓ Says what it does "Redirect requests to non-existent uploaded images to a placeholder service like placehold.it or placekitten..."
- ! Has a FAQ No FAQ section.
- ! FAQ asks real questions No FAQ to judge.
- ! Names who it is for One audience phrase ("if you have"); say who the plugin is for and what they use it for.
- ✓ Names what it works with Mentions Multisite.
- ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ✓ Enough to quote 3,581 characters of description.
- ✓ Tags match the text 4 of 5 tags appear in the text; "placeholders" does not.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-06-10 70+ → 60+ down after 1 days in tier
- 2026-06-09 60+ → 70+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-06-08 70+ → 60+ down after 10 days in tier
- 2026-05-29 60+ → 70+ up after 15 days in tier
- 2026-05-14 70+ → 60+ down after 233 days in tier
- 2025-09-23 80+ → 70+ down after 170 days in tier
- 2025-04-06 90+ → 80+ down after 136 days in tier
- 2024-11-21 100+ → 90+ down after 740 days in tier
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).
-
Disable Media Sizes 10K+ installs · 4.6★ · 2 shared tags A - W WP Image Size Limit 3K+ installs · 4.4★ · 2 shared tags D
-
WP Sanitize File Name Plus 1K+ installs · 4.3★ · 2 shared tags D -
Redirection 2M+ installs · 4.4★ · 1 shared tag A -
Autoptimize 800K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A -
WebP Express 300K+ installs · 4.4★ · 1 shared tag A
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for Media Placeholders into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/media-placeholders" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="Media Placeholders — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> Media Placeholders: 60+ active installs, 5.0★ (2 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/media-placeholders
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