SEO Defend
by SEO Defend · SEO
Ongoing protection and monitoring of your Wordpress website and domain against negative SEO, black hat SEO techniques and bad SEOs.
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 43/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews
Active installs
20+
≈29 estimated
Momentum
-5%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: “google”, “google ranking” and “search engine optimization” 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.
43 health vs 65 average across 2,230 SEO plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →0.4%
of downloads still active
At least 20 of 5.3K lifetime downloads are still running, below its category: the median SEO plugin keeps 1.2%, across 1,196 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other SEO 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 6+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 5.5.24, well behind 7.1.
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 2282 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 5.5.24; the current branch is 7.1
3.3★ over 3 reviews, smoothed to 4.05★ and held back under 25 reviews
5 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 2282 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.
30
Momentum
Losing ground
-0.7
Velocity
places per keyword, 24d
0%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 24d
-0.7
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| google your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| google ranking your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| search engine optimization your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| seo your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| yahoo ranking your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
3 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 0 listed. 3 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
- “google”, “google ranking” and “search engine optimization” 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 168 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank
Ranked about #25,400 to #28,300, alongside the other plugins at 20+ 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.
Rating trend
Star average over time · dips mark rough releases
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.
Release cadence
No release in a yearHow often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.
0
releases in the last 12 months
7.7y ago
latest release · v1.4 · 15 Feb 2019
11
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
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 “20+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 21 days ago and a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, so the real count is still just under 30.
Install history since 24 Dec 2016
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ Venom Rush8.0y ago
I tested this plugin on 3 different wordpress installations. Site 1 was a brand new site with no backlinks and the domain was never registered prior to me registering it. The dashboard widget showed 16/20 for backlinks and 15/25 for algorithm. Site 2 has a clean backlink profile and by that I mean the links were generated naturally and are on reputable websites. The dashboard widget showed 18/20 for backlinks and 16/25 for algorithm. All content is original and my attempts to find duplicates scraped by other websites found nothing, yet the plugin reported 18/25 for content. Site 3 was a site used for testing blackhat SEO techniques and had a google penalty 2 years ago. The plugin shows 7/25 for algorithm. Conclusion: The plugin is used to generate business. Don’t be fooled.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ bfza10.0y ago
Very useful information on the state of our SEO. Could you please provide a bit more information on the WordPress dashboard?
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ mrcldp10.0y ago
Great tool for protecting your site’s SEO rankings and it is easy to use.
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
1 of 8 pass · checked 29 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ! Says what it does Short description names no action; say what the plugin does for the site.
- ! Has a FAQ Only 1 question in the FAQ; 3 or more gives an assistant something to match.
- ! FAQ asks real questions 0 of 1 FAQ entries are headings, not questions ("undefined").
- ! Names who it is for Never says who the plugin is for or what they use it for.
- ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
- ! Headings and lists 0 headings and 1 list; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ✓ Enough to quote 2,467 characters of description.
- ! Tags match the text Only 2 of 5 tags appear in the text ("google ranking", "search engine optimization", "yahoo ranking" missing).
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-10-12 30+ → 20+ down after 151 days in tier
- 2026-05-14 20+ → 30+ up after 6 days in tier
- 2026-05-08 30+ → 20+ down after 2 days in tier
- 2026-05-06 20+ → 30+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-05-05 30+ → 20+ down after 21 days in tier
- 2026-04-14 20+ → 30+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-04-13 30+ → 20+ down after 16 days in tier
- 2026-03-28 20+ → 30+ up after 1 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).
-
BoldGrid Easy SEO – Simple and Effective SEO 40K+ installs · 3.7★ · 2 shared tags B -
WP All Import – Import SEO Settings for Yoast SEO 20K+ installs · 3.4★ · 2 shared tags B -
SEO Friendly Images 10K+ installs · 3.2★ · 2 shared tags D -
SEO Ultimate 10K+ installs · 3.8★ · 2 shared tags D -
Internal Links Manager 10K+ installs · 4.5★ · 2 shared tags A -
WP All Import – Import SEO Settings for Rank Math SEO 6K+ installs · 4.0★ · 2 shared tags B
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for SEO Defend into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/seo-defend" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="SEO Defend — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> SEO Defend: 20+ active installs, 3.3★ (3 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-02. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/seo-defend
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