SEO External Links
by Andrew Gunn · SEO
Super lightweight solution to changing all external links and internal PDF attachments to open in a new tab.
45 health vs 68 average across 349 SEO plugins
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 10+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.3.34, well behind 6.8.
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
Biggest win: Update recency
To rank higher: Last updated 3909 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Daily downloads
Since 2022-10-06 · 1,380 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peaks are release surges
15
now · peak 51
Directory rank vs rivals
wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you
Downloads per 1k installs · 30d
Engagement proxy · release spikes are signal, a long slide is an aging base
Estimated active installs
wp.org reports only “10+”. The real number sits in this band.
Modeled within the band wp.org reports; tightens as we track daily.
Install history · since 2022-10-05 · 1,379 observations
Details
Growth timeline
Install-band crossings we have observed, and how long each band took to outgrow
No band crossings observed yet.
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach — closest match first
-
External Links Overview 800+ installs · 4.1★ · 2 shared tags B -
Yoast SEO – Advanced SEO with real-time guidance and built-in AI 10M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
LiteSpeed Cache 7M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
Rank Math SEO – AI SEO Tools to Dominate SEO Rankings 4M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag A -
All in One SEO – AI SEO Plugin to Boost SEO Rankings & Traffic (Schema, Local SEO, Sitemap & SEO Insights) 3M+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A -
XML Sitemap Generator for Google 1M+ installs · 4.8★ · 1 shared tag B
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for SEO External Links into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/seo-external-links" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="SEO External Links — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> SEO External Links: 10+ active installs, 5.0★ (1 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-07-17. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/seo-external-links